The One, Final High Priest Hebrews 5:1-10 Lent 5 March 22, 2015 Pastor Chip Winter

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1 The One, Final High Priest Hebrews 5:1-10 Lent 5 March 22, 2015 Pastor Chip Winter Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon is the epistle appointed for the day and already read for us from the fifth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews. My dear family in Christ, You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. So writes the one corresponding with the Hebrews about Jesus. He s quoting Psalm 110 and the application is apt. So then, who is Melchizedek? He is a mysterious figure, crossing the stage in Genesis 14, exiting, and then being referenced in both the psalms and the New Testament. Yet for all that enigmatic personality, he is a wondrously significant figure. And since His Story is Our Story, the story of Melchizedek cannot simply be brushed over it is part of our story, too. Melchizedek appears, unbidden, at one of the more wearied points of Abram s journey through life. Abram had been called by God to go to a new land. This Abram has done. God also promised Abram an heir. Said heir has yet to materialize. This Abram we know quite well, most often as Abraham. The promise was that his offspring would be as uncountable as the dust of the earth. Along with this, and in line with this, God has promised that Abram would be blessed and his name would be of great renown. 1

2 At this point in the book of Genesis, however, Abram does no have much to show for it. His situations in life have been one challenge after another. He endured a famine, during which he sought refuge in Egypt, which is what the Israelite will generally do ever after. But he was worried about the beauty of his wife, Sarai, so he tried to pass her off as his sister before the pharaoh. When pharaoh learned of this truth after having tried to take Sarai as his own and the Lord afflicted pharaoh s house with plagues Abram and his lot are deported. Speaking of Lot, Abram has also had to mediate a dispute with his nephew, Lot. More recently, Abram and some of his men have gone off to war with Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar. This wasn t Abram s fight, but he was saving his nephew, Lot, who had been taken prisoner. Abram has endured quite a bit. All of this has happened and he has yet to receive the heir promised to him. At the very least, he could use a sympathetic ear. But God has something far greater in mind for Abram. As the dust of battle begins to settle, Melchizedek, the king of Salem what will one day be Jerusalem - Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High, suddenly appears. He comes to Abram with wine and bread, to nourish his body, to lift his spirits. Melchizedek blesses Abram. Melchizedek vindicates Abram and defends Abram s cause. In all of this Abram is strengthened to continue his patient wait for the Lord to fulfill His promises. Here endeth the history of Melchizedek. This is all the biblical history records of Melchizedek. At this point, can you see why the psalmist and the writer to the Hebrews bring him up millennia later? Can you see why he has been placed in our lectionary, why he is significant for us, today? 2

3 Christ Jesus is for us as Melchizedek was to Abram, and ever so much more. Like Melchizedek with Abram, Christ enters our life right when we needed Him most. The difference is that Jesus never disappears. In baptism we, like Abram, are called by God. We are called to follow where He will lead us our calling, our vocation. For Abram, it was to leave his home and family and move to a foreign place. We will serve Him, as a congregation, in myriad capacities and any number of different places. But, and this is becoming more clear all the time, it is not a calling to a life of ease or worldly glory. Jesus makes very clear in this day s Gospel lesson that our call is to be servants not masters, to be slave not lords. Like Abram, our worldly situation is, with some regularity, not pretty. We, thankfully, do not do battle with kings. But we do battle with the devil, the world and our flesh and their attacks are persistent, pernicious and, at time, barely perceptible. At some times more than others we can empathize with the Hebrew Christians to whom this text was written. As it was with Abram, their faith and their loyalty to God exposed them to trial and suffering. Were they to fall back or were they to press on? Brothers and sisters in the faith around the world face that dilemma more often than we, but the question is still relevant for us as we face the devil, the world and the flesh. Do we fall back? Or do we press on? When we are in need of a sympathetic ear, we often turn to those who can deal with us gently. We turn to those who know better than anyone else what we are going through. Yet as good as that can feel for us this care through our brothers and sisters in Christ we know that they are as easily beset by weakness as we are. We need more. We need not only someone who can sympathize with us. We need someone who can vindicate us. We need a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. 3

4 This is where Christ is to us as Melchizedek was to Abram, and more. Christ intercedes for us. Dr. Martin Luther, in his lectures on Hebrews (Luther s Works, vol. 29), points to the prayer of Jesus shortly after He has been crucified, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34). This is a priestly prayer of vindication. Not only does Jesus intercede for us. He also is obedient for us. I am churlish He is gently assertive. I am impatient He is patient. I am vengeful He is long-suffering. I am thoughtless He is attentive. Jesus intercedes for us. Jesus is obedient for us. Jesus suffers for us: throughout my life I have been struck with the phrase that Jesus had offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him Who was able to save Him from death thinking, But He didn t save Him from death. He died! But the thing is, God the Father did save Jesus from death. Jesus was in death. Jesus was dead. And God saved Him from it. Jesus saw it coming on Maundy Thursday He was going to die, hence the bloody sweat and fervent prayer in the garden. But God saved Him from it even though Jesus was in the thick of it. Jesus died for you and me. He died to take away the sins of the world. And the Father saved Him from it. The Father raised Him from death to life again and forever! That s what He s done to forgive you and promise you life forever with Him as His dearly loved child! And finally this Jesus who has interceded for us, been obedient for us and suffered for us is the Jesus Who was perfected for us through His suffering. This is not so much a moral standard (though He is, to be sure, morally perfect) as it is a vocational designation. Jesus was made complete, He is the perfect Savior for us through all that He had to endure. 4

5 Through all of this, Jesus empathizes with you and me. His is a tolerant and sympathetic posture. He is neither the indifferent stoic the priest known in the temple in the day of our Lord nor the mawkish sentimentalist akin to Aaron, overly attentive to the whims of the people, indulging their sinful wishes in forming the golden calf in Moses absence. Also, like Melchizedek, Jesus feeds us. In, with and under the bread and the wine He gives us His very body and blood to forgive our sin, to strengthen our faith and to energize us to press on. Like Melchizedek Jesus blesses us with His word. By this word of life He vindicates us from our enemies the devil, the world and the flesh, - and blesses us. Blessed be Abram and you, too, by God most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand! Amen. 5