What do we know about Melchizedek? The first reference to him in the Bible is in the Book of Genesis (14:18):
Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High. He blessed Abram with these words:
“Blessed, be Abram by God Most High,
The creator of heaven and earth;
And, blessed be God Most High,
who delivered your foes into your hand.”
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
The second reference is in Psalm 110:4:
The Lord has sworn and will not waver:
“You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek.”
The other scriptural references are found in the Letter to the Hebrews. Its writer was trying to describe Jesus and his death in an intelligible and thought-provoking way for a Jewish Christian reader in terms of the Jewish high priest in his role of offering atonement sacrifice.
But, by Mosaic law Jesus could not have been a priest, since he was not even of the tribe of Levi much less an Aaronic priest.
That is why the writer invoked the figure of Melchizedek, explaining that Jesus, as did Melchizedek, had a greater priesthood, for Abraham himself, great ancestor of all the Hebrew tribes, received Melchizedek’s blessing and placed offerings in his hand.
Over the centuries, this image of Jesus the priest has had a perduring influence on the Church. The entire Christian people, and especially its leaders, were thought of as a priestly people, sharing in that eternal priesthood of Jesus which was “in the manner of Melchizedek.”
Gradually this notion of the leaders of the Church as priests and offerers of Christ’s sacrifice dominated entirely the earlier understanding of them as the overseers and the elders of the Christian communities.
As theology developed and evolved, especially sacramental theology, the “forever” of Psalm 100 was taken to mean not only that the Messiah, Jesus himself, was “a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek” but also all ordained priests.
The rite of ordination became not only the laying on of hands as a sign of appointment and authorization but also the celebration of the entrance of the person into a special leadership caste with a “forever” aspect.
Sacramental theology described this forever aspect as a permanent “character,” altering the very nature of the ordained person—an ontological change. The priest became thought of as sacred and holy.
This had a lot of challenging long-term implications, even now. Just think, for example, of some questions like these:
– can a priest permanently and irrevocably be removed from office?
– are the acts of his ministry valid even though his personal behavior is sinful?
– is a bishop or religious superior obligated to his care and supervision, no matter what he does, until his death?
Meanwhile, as the concept and nature of priesthood is increasingly being examined, the Melchizedek image still lives on.
There is a traditional Latin hymn still regularly sung to celebrate a priest’s ordination, Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech—You are priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek.
28 April 2019