A sermon for today if it hadn't been St Luke's Day . . .

Jesus is “a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek” - so we read in today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. Who was Melchizedek then, and why was he so special? Melchizedek is a shadowy and mysterious figure from the Old Testament, who we first find in the Book of Genesis, chapter 14. There he meets with Abraham - who at this stage is still called Abram; he gives him food and wine and a special blessing. My own view of Melchizedek is somewhat coloured by the fact that he was a central figure in the east window of the chapel at Lincoln Theological College, where I trained for ordination - and seemed in that window to be wearing red and white striped football socks. As featured in our window, he became a sort of college icon or mascot, but we found it a little hard to take him seriously as a Bible character.

And that’s a shame, I thought; I decided to do some research. What was so special about Melchizedek, that Jesus should be a priest after his order?  Well, he is in fact the first person in the Old Testament to be given the title of priest. And he was also a king, the King of Salem, or Jerusalem - king then of the place where after many more journeys and adventures, the people of Israel would eventually settle. Melchizedek’s kingship and priesthood somehow confirms Salem as holy and blessed by God, even before the Israelites have been formed into a nation, something that will happen in the next book of the Bible, the Book of Exodus.

So the priesthood of Melchizedek precedes the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple, and that was very important to the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews. The temple priests had to purify themselves before they could offer sacrifice, by prayers and ritual washing and other rites of preparation. But Jesus is not like them. He is already and always worthy; last Sunday’s reading from Hebrews tells us that he was “tested as we are, yet without sin.”

And he is both king and priest, in a way that no temple priest could ever be.  In chapter eight of Hebrews we read, “This is the kind of high priest we have: he has taken his seat at the right hand of the Throne of Majesty in heaven.”

Two other things to say briefly about Melchizedek: first, that he gives Abram food and wine, something some Christian writers interpret as an Old Testament precursor to the Eucharist; and second, that he both blesses Abram and receives a tribute from him, one tenth of all he’d taken from the King of Elam and his allies. Briefly, a force led by King Kedorlaomer of Elam had defeated the King of Sodom and his allies, and had carried off all their flocks and herds, along with Abram’s nephew Lot. When he heard the news, Abram mustered his men and pursued the victorious kings, winning back everything they’d taken.

By receiving a blessing and offering a tithe, Abram places himself under the lordship of Melchizedek; and this happens before the Law is given, the Law of Moses. The temple priests stood firmly under the Law, which directed and dictated their every action. But the priesthood of Melchizedek can be seen as being before and above the Law. His name itself, translated as “King of Righteousness” led Jewish thinkers, even before the time of Christ, to link Melchizedek with the expected Messiah.

“So what?” you may be saying at this point. Certainly the mysteriousness of Melchizedek has led some rather odd people to make some fairly crazy claims about him. But the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews simply wants to say that Jesus our high priest is very different from the priests of the temple. This ‘priesthood of the order of Melchizedek’ is liked to the humility, perseverance and submission of the one who offers not some creature or gift brought from elsewhere, but his own self: he is perfect priest and perfect sacrifice.

So true kingship, and true priestliness, is revealed in service, and in the man Jesus who is set free to live not outside the rules but above them. This man offers his own self that we might live, and as he does this he redefines both kingliness and priestliness.

But his disciples were slow to realise this of him. In our Gospel reading they’re still thinking about earthly thrones and temples, with James and John in particular asking, as a special favour, if they could have the best seats. I’m sure they felt they’d every chance of the top jobs, once Jesus came into the glory they expected of him. James and John, with Peter, were a sort of inner circle among the disciples, and Jesus shared things with them he didn’t share with the others. But they’ve a lot to learn still about his sort of kingdom, and his sort of king; and maybe everything still to learn about Jesus the priest. Jesus is different from other kings, different from other priests.

And Jesus is himself the message he preaches. And so he says to James and John and the others, “Look at me, and learn from me what it means to be a king: the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” He challenges them to be ready to give, ready to serve, and so to discover what true greatness means.

Like them, we’re disciples of the man who walks a different path, the man who turns the wisdom of the world upside down. The king who is servant and slave; the priest who offers himself as sacrifice. He presents a challenge to James and John: “Can you drink the cup that I drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” And he presents us with the same challenge.

The Church is a very human organisation; we’ve books to balance and rules to govern us, we’ve hierarchies and pay scales and all sorts of other stuff that means we can look much the same as any other organisation. But our Lord is of the order of Melchizedek - he doesn’t copy the way of kings or governors like Herod or Pontius Pilate, or the way of high priests like Annas and Caiaphas. He is his own man, and God’s, and his is the way of total abandonment of self. He is love incarnate - love made flesh among us - and love is never bound by the rules. He’s called and chosen each of us - to be his, and like him to be great in service. “Let the greatest among you become like one who serves.”

So while churches have to have order and organisation, and rules and canons, and some kind of system of leadership - while therefore churches must in some ways to mirror the world, and seem to operate in the same way, in fact the way we do and decide things must be always challenged by the Lord we follow and serve. We must never let the rules take over; we must never let systems become more important than people; we must never let our buildings, beautiful and special though they be, be the reason why we’re here when what we need them to be is servants of our worship and witness and mission.

Jesus is “a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.” For me the most important thing about what the writer of Hebrews tells us is that our Lord never conforms to the status quo; and nor should we, not if we truly believe that this king of righteousness, this one true high priest, is our Saviour and our Lord, and the example and director of our lives.