Apostles Anglican Church
Fr. John Roop

Hebrews 5-8: The Superiority of the Melchizedekan Priesthood and the New Covenant

The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Let us pray.

Holy and gracious Father: In obedience to your will, our Lord Jesus stretched out his arms upon the Cross and offered himself once for all, that by his suffering and death we might be saved. By his resurrection he broke the bonds of death, trampling Hell and Satan under his feet. As our great high priest, he ascended to your right hand in glory, that we might come with confidence before the throne of grace. Accept, we pray, the mediation he offers for us that you might be our God and we might be your holy people; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Introduction

What is the greatest challenge facing the Church today? If not the greatest, what are some of the most pressing challenges?

Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of Word on Fire Ministries, is likely the most widely known and influential of the modern Roman Catholic evangelists. He has a large online presence; through it and his Word on Fire Institute he seeks to educate a new generation of lay apologists and evangelists. He considers this one of the most pressing needs in today’s Church because of what he calls the “dumbing down” of the faith in the post-Vatican II generation.

In an interview following World Youth Day 2023, Barron said:

“Young people don’t want an uncertain trumpet. They don’t want a vacillating message. They want something clear. … We’ve dumbed down the faith for way too long. My generation got a dumbed-down Catholicism and it’s been a pastoral disaster,” (https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-voices/bishop-barrons-fear-dumbed-down-catholicism-isnt-very-smart).

He sees a causal relationship between that “dumbing down” and the rise of the “nones,” those who identify with no religion. He thinks that when those young people asked probing questions of the faith, they received simplistic, and sometimes no, answers from the Church and they became disenchanted and ultimately disaffiliated.

I’m not qualified to speak to that issue in the Roman Catholic Church, but in a broader cultural sense, I think Bishop Barron is spot on. The critics of our faith in this last few generations have asked serious questions of the Church, and the Church has been caught flat-footed. How many of the Church’s children — of our children — have been led astray and ultimately away from the faith by the New Atheism of Dawkins and Hitchens or the pervasive materialism of the West or the metanarrative of individual autonomy simply because the Church was caught up in cultural relativism and had forgotten its own story or failed to tell it compellingly and in a intellectually credible manner? It isn’t that our Tradition doesn’t have the answers — we have two thousand years of humanity’s greatest intellectuals in our ranks — but rather that the Church has failed to plumb the depths of its own teaching. We haven’t always grown up into doctrinal maturity.

Where Bishop Barron may miss the mark a bit is in his conviction that this is a modern problem. It is not. It is precisely part of the problem that the author of Hebrews grapples with in the first decades of the Church:

Hebrews 5:7–6:3 (ESV): 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.

Two millennia earlier, the author had the same complaint as Bishop Barron: I want to move on to the deep matters of the faith, the deeps matters of Christology, but I can’t because you haven’t yet grasped the basics of the catechism. And that, just as Barron observes, can lead to a falling away from the faith.

Hebrews 6:4–8 (ESV): 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

This is a difficult passage, but its main point, taken in context of the purpose of the epistle is clear enough. If you, having been baptized into Christ (enlightened), having tasted the heavenly gift (perhaps figuratively the gift of grace, perhaps tangibly the Eucharist), and having received the gift of the Holy Spirit then abandon the faith and return to Judaism, know this: there is no repentance there in Judaism, in its sacrificial system, for you — no sacrifice for your sins, no efficacious priesthood for your sanctification, nothing.

But, the author maintains hope about those to whom he writes:

Hebrews 6:9–12 (ESV): 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

In his hope then, the author explores some necessary and encouraging Christology; he presents an argument for the superiority of the priesthood of Christ over the Levitical priesthood and the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant.

The Priesthood of Christ

If the author intends to make the case that Christ’s priesthood is superior to the Jewish priesthood, he has a major initial obstacle to overcome. Can you spot the problem? The Jewish priesthood is hereditary and restricted to the tribe of Levi, and the high priesthood to the house of Aaron. But what of Jesus? He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and has no right to the Levitical priesthood. How might the author have addressed this objection — not how did he, but how might he have?

He might simply have said that God is God and is free to make whomever he wishes a priest. Why would that not be a satisfactory argument? It would place Jesus outside the story of Israel, almost as a usurper and disrupter of the story, rather than being the fulfillment of it. That answer won’t do.

No, the author chooses a more subtle and fundamental approach, and one we also see St. Paul use in Galatians to show the superiority of faith over the works of the Law. Let’s see how St. Paul marshals his argument.

Galatians 3:15–19a (ESV): 15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.

So the Galatians’ question is this: Are we justified by faith or by the works of the Law? Paul’s response is to return to the story of Israel, which means to return to the story of the first Patriarch, Abraham. God made a covenant with Abraham through which and by which Abraham was justified by faith. It wasn’t until four centuries later that the Law was given. Even so, the Law did not nullify the covenant. It was instead a temporary constraint on the people due to their sin until the one offspring of Abraham — Jesus Christ —would come to perfectly fulfill the covenant of faithfulness and inherit the promise for all those in him. Here is the essence of the argument: there is something earlier and more fundamental than the Law which finds its fulfillment in Jesus.

Now, that is the same reasoning that the author of Hebrews applies to the priesthood. There was a priesthood earlier — four centuries earlier — and more fundamental than the Levitical priesthood, one related to Abraham, one that pointed toward and finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The Levitical priesthood was a temporary constraint on the people due to their sin at Sinai (see Ex 32:25-29). But, it did not abrogate the earlier priesthood; it simply provided for the people until the true high priest of the earlier and more fundamental priesthood arrived. The true high priesthood is not Levitical, but Melchizedekan. Here is how the author of Hebrews tells the story.

Hebrews 7:1–10 (ESV): 7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. 4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! 5 And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. 6 But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. 9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

First, let’s establish that Melchizedek was at least a signpost pointing toward Jesus, and possibly a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. Melchizedek is without father and mother and had neither beginning nor end of days; he is eternal, and his priesthood is eternal, just like the Son of God. His name identifies him as king of righteousness and king of peace, two qualities that find their ultimate expression and fulfillment in Jesus.

Second, the author shows that Melchizedek was superior to Abraham. What are the two indicators or this? That Melchizedek blessed Abraham and that Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek. This notion of tithes is particularly important in making the case of the superiority of the Melchizedekan priesthood over the Levitical priesthood. It is an argument that might seem foreign to our ears but which would have entirely reasonable to those reading Hebrews, to those in a patriarchal, hierarchical culture. The core notion is this: the patriarch acts on behalf of the family; whatever is true for the father is true for the children. So, if Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, then through him his children paid tithes to Melchizedek. Since Abraham was the father of all Israel, then all his offspring — even the Levitical priests — paid a tithe to Melchizedek. And that shows the superiority of the Melchizedekan priesthood over the Levitical priesthood. Since Melchizedek pointed toward Jesus, Jesus is the fulfillment of the superior priesthood. The author concludes:

Hebrews 7:15–19 (ESV): 15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is witnessed of him,

“You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

So, there we have the conclusion of the argument; Jesus is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and his priesthood is superior to the Levitical priesthood. Now, we see how that argument fits with the author’s purpose, the purpose of emphasizing the superiority of Christianity over Judaism with the goal of keeping Jewish-Chrisitian converts in the fold. But, why do we care — we Gentile-Christians?

Well, we might start our answer to that question by returning to Galatians. The major premise of the epistle is that Gentiles do not come to Christ through the works of the Law, but rather through the promise of the Covenant: not through Moses, but through Abraham. So, it is not quite accurate to say that Gentiles come to Christ as Gentiles but rather as the adopted (in-grafted) children of Abraham.

Galatians 3:7–9 (ESV): 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Our faith brings us into the covenant, and that covenant has a priesthood which mediates our access to God. The argument is not that the priesthood has been abolished, but that it has been fulfilled in Christ. The argument is not that we don’t need a mediating priest, but that Christ, the great high priest, is our mediator. And that applies to Jews and Gentiles alike, of the first century and of the twenty-first century. We — all of us — need a priest-mediator, and that is precisely what we have in, and only in, Jesus Christ.

The author is not finished demonstrating the superiority of Christ’s priesthood.

Hebrews 7:18–28 (ESV): 18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. 20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:

“The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’ ”

22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. 23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

So, what are the advantages of Jesus’ priesthood?

First, he is the priest of a better covenant. Each week in the Words of Institution, as he consecrates the wine, the priest says, “Drink this, all of you; for this is my Blood for the New Covenant, which is shed for you, and for many, for the forgiveness of sins.” In the first covenant, God elected and then created a people through whom he would ultimately deal with the problem of sin. In the New Covenant — which is the fulfillment of the old — God finally deals with sin, destroys the power of sin and forgives our sin — through the blood of Jesus. We will return to the characteristics of this better covenant in a moment, but for now we simply note that Jesus is the priest of a better covenant.

Second, he is a priest forever — a perpetual priest — which means he makes continual, eternal intercession on our behalf.

Third, he is a blameless, perfect priest: holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Why is this important? Because as we will see next week, Jesus is not only our great high priest, but also our sinless sacrifice.

Hebrews 8 continues the contrast between the priesthoods — Levitical and Melchizedekan — by emphasizing that one is earthly and partial, while the other is heavenly and complete. To introduce this notion, let me ask a question based on our liturgy. In the Eucharistic Prayer the priest says:

Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name:

and then the Celebrant and People together sing:

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest (BCP 2019, p. 115).

Why do we sing that? Why do we sing at all, and why do we sing those words? Because we have been given a glimpse of heavenly worship and we copy that here on earth (see Is 6:3): as in heaven, so on earth.

Each Sunday when we gather, we always include readings from Scripture, our fellowship with one another and with God, the Eucharist, and our common prayers. Why do we do these things? Because that was the pattern the Apostles established for the Church (see Acts 2:42).

Why do we have an altar, a credence table, priests in vestments, incense (at least on “Special” occasions), and all the bells and smells associated with Anglicanism? Because that’s what we see when we read Scripture.

My point in all of this is that we aren’t — or at least we shouldn’t be — making up worship as we go, according to our preferences or the latest trends advocated by church growth experts. We are following a Biblical pattern that God has established; God tells us how he wants to be worshipped.

Where do we get this idea, that there is a heavenly pattern of worship that we are to observe? Let’s return to the Exodus account, to Israel at Sinai.

Exodus 24:15–18 (ESV): 15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

So what was Moses doing for the forty days and nights? I want to suggest that he was learning how to worship in the heavenly sanctuary and how to replicate that on earth. Let’s continue the text.

Exodus 25:1–9 (ESV): 25 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. 3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, 5 tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, 6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 7 onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. 8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

Exactly as I show you…you shall make it. Much of the rest of Exodus consists of instructions for the tabernacle, its furniture, the priests’ vestments — all the necessary accoutrements of worship. Moses was to copy heavenly worship on earth.

Now, with that in place, let’s return to Hebrews. How is Christ’s priesthood superior to the Levitical priesthood?

Hebrews 8:1–7 (ESV): 8 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

What is the major distinction between the priesthoods here? The Levitical priests served a copy — and thus a shadow — of the heavenly things set up by men, but Jesus, our great high priest, serves in the heavenly tabernacle, in the true tent that the Lord set up. Jesus, our high priest, sits at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, which is to say that he is in the position of authority and that he exercises that authority not least in his high priestly role. To go back to the Levitical priesthood, then, would be to prefer the copy to the original, the shadow to the reality.

And, as the high priest of heavenly realities, Jesus is thereby the priest of a new and better covenant:

Hebrews 8:10–13 (ESV): 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

It is Jesus’s priesthood that makes it possible for us to know God, to have his law written in our hearts (by the indwelling Holy Spirit), and for us to be the people of God. That is what would be lost in the return to an inferior priesthood and an old covenant: not that the Levitical priesthood and the Old Covenant were bad, but that they were partial and temporary. The perfect and eternal is found only in Jesus.

Lastly, what has this to do with us? It was always God’s intent to have a holy people, a kingdom of priests. The Old Covenant, the Law, and the Levitical priesthood pointed the way toward that, but could not accomplish it. But Jesus changed all that according to St. Peter:

1 Peter 2:1–5 (ESV): 2 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV): 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We now share in the royal priesthood of Christ. It is our priestly duty and joy to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ and to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. The priesthood of Jesus is superior in no small part because it embraces us and invites us to share his life and mission.