March 25, 2022 (Lent Week 3)

 

Image: Holy, righteous Melchizedek, King of Salem. Orthodox icon. 

(https://images.oca.org/icons/lg/may/0522melchezidek0010.jpg)

 

The appointed psalm for evening prayer on Friday, March 25^th is the victorious and Messianic Psalm 110:

 

Of David. A Psalm.

¹ [Yahweh] says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’
² [Yahweh] sends out from Zion, your mighty sceptre. Rule in the midst of your foes.
³ Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains.
From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
⁴ [Yahweh] has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.’

⁵ [Yahweh] is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
⁶ He will execute judgement among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth.
⁷ He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.

 

This passage has become linked for ever in Christian exegesis to Hebrews 5, which forms a contiguous argument from Hebrews 1 onward, and includes another reading appointed for March 25^th, Hebrews 2:9,10:

 

⁹ But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

¹⁰ In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 

 

Apparently, some Judaizing teachers, in the early churches that Hebrews was written to, were arguing that the stature of Jesus was far beneath the glory of Moses whose Law was attested to by angels, those majestic messengers of Yahweh. They especially emphasized the humiliation of his death on a cross; and of course, denied the resurrection. The Writer counters this vanity by a powerful extended exposition of the Hebrew Bible, chiefly drawn from the Psalms, which themselves faithfully reflect the whole Torah. Here I cannot elaborate the whole sequence developed in Hebrews 1-4. Key themes are that Jesus is pre-emptively before the angels (as their Creator) and is now (in Ascension) endowed with far higher honours than any mere messenger of God: Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? (Heb 1.5, quoting Psalm 2.7). Indeed precisely because of the humiliation of His death by crucifixion, therefore:  Let all the angels of God worship him. (Heb 1.6, quoting Psalm 97.7 LXX). After demonstrating conclusively – from the texts – the superiority of Jesus over all angels, the Writer continues to the Priesthood in Hebrews 5.1-5:

 

5 Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; ³ and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. ⁴ And one does not presume to take this honour, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

 

Moses is of course the subject of Exodus, and the revelation to Moses included not just the Law, inscribed on the two tablets of stone by the finger of Yahweh, but the Priesthood, the Tabernacle and the whole system of offerings that filled out the national and personal worship of Israel: blood offerings, sin offerings, meal offerings, drink offerings and the scapegoat, culminating in the annual Day of Atonement. All of them vivid pictures (or types) of the final work of Christ as the perfect offering of himself. Which Lent prepares us to, once again, enact in memorial in Holy Week, in the anticipation of His victory in resurrection. The Writer continues in Hebrews 5.1-10:

 

⁵ So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’; ⁶ as he says also in another place,

‘You are a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’

⁷ In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; ⁹ and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, ¹⁰ having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

 

Not only is Jesus superior to all angels, his priesthood is preeminent over Aaron (i.e. over the Mosaic system of the Exodus), using the ancient argument of space-time priority. For the eternal priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of the Father – like that of the victorious king who was appointed by Yahweh in Psalm 110 – has a priesthood rooted in Melchizedek (Genesis 14.17,18). This ancient, mysterious person was Yahweh’s priest to Abraham as we read in Genesis 14.18: And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. As Abraham is (long) before Moses in Torah history, as Genesis precedes Exodus, so Jesus who has now inherited this priesthood of God Most High predates and trumps the whole of the Mosaic priesthood, the whole sacrificial system. And yes, as we remember this Lenten season: Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; ⁹ and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. Let us worship Him!

 

- René Boere

 

Handel’s Messiah, Part the Second, 34. Recitative: Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? (Heb 1.5) and the following Chorus: Let all the angels of God worship him. (Heb 1.6)