Sermon October 21, 2012

First Presbyterian Church – Willmar

October 21, 2012

Sermon:  The King of Righteousness

Texts:  Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45

I don’t have any brothers, and my sister is sufficiently older than me so that she usually got the best of me in any sibling competition.  But as I got older and had the opportunity to ride in cars with friends, I learned something that I had missed as a child. 

As we approached the car someone would yell “Shotgun!”  Usually that prompted a debate about whether or not someone else had already said “Shotgun!” or some other magic word that might have reserved their place in the front passenger seat. 

In today’s Gospel story James and John yelled “Shotgun!”  Well, not literally, but it is the same thing.  They each coveted a favored spot alongside Jesus when he came into his glory.  In the process they were each trying to outdo the other, and they were both trying to get in line before the other apostles. 

You can almost see Jesus shaking his head saying, "You don’t know what you’re asking.”  And then the other ten apostles overheard the conversation: “When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John.”

So Jesus tried to settle the boys down.  He said, “Look guys.  Our ministry is a ministry of service not self-promotion.  Stop all this nonsense and pay attention: ‘whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.’”

In the lesson in Hebrews we read of the contrast between Jesus and earthly priests.  Christ made no effort to appoint himself or promote himself or call himself a priest or elevate his own status above that of any of his followers.  Rather we are told that he was appointed to this station by God for our sakes. 

The Hebrews reading contains a reference that is something of a mystery.  It makes reference to someone named Melchizedek. The name means “King of Righteousness” and he was the king and priest of the city of Salem, which means “peace.” 

The story is a bit unclear, but it’s told in the 14th chapter of Genesis.  Abraham was not yet known as Abraham but still had his original name: Abram.  There were 4 kings who had raided certain territories near what is now Jerusalem.  Salem is one of the cities that was later consolidated into what we now call Jerusalem.  On one of their raids, the forces of the four kings kidnapped Lot, Abrams’ nephew.  According to the story Abram raised an army and went out to fight the four kings and bring his nephew back home. 

We don’t usually think of Abram as a warrior or a general, but his forces defeated the four kings and drove them away from the area around Jerusalem.  As a result Abram brought Lot back home to Sodom and the king of Salem came out to meet Abram in the field and blessed him: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. [Gen. 14:19-20]” 

The king of Salem, Melchizedek, is described in Genesis as “Priest of God Most High.”  He sounds like an important person in the history of our faith, but this is really the only story about him in all of scripture.  The expression “God Most High” later comes to be attached to the God of Israel, Yahweh, and Jesus is called “Son of the Most High [Luke 1:32].”  Melchizedek is only mentioned in passing once in Psalm 110, where we get the expression “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”  Then seemingly out of nowhere the expression shows up 7 times in Hebrews in reference to Jesus. 

I don’t know about you, but when I list the names and titles attributed to Jesus (you know, like Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace [Isaiah 9:6] and even Son of the Most High [Luke 1:32]), I don’t generally add and “a priest forever unto the order of Melchizedek!”

Apart from the mystery, what point is the author of Hebrews trying to make?  It seems clear that the word “forever” is important here.  Jesus was not simply our priest while he lived here among us.  He has been made a priest into all eternity. 

So what?

The point is that Jesus is our intermediary forever.  Jesus prays for us and gives to God offerings on our behalf throughout all eternity.  Because of his submission to the will of God, because of his obedience to the will of God, Jesus is our Savior for all eternity.  For our sakes he became the slave of all humanity.  For our sakes he became obedient to God to the point of death on a cross.

And he invites us – as he invited his earliest apostles – to take up our cross daily and follow him. 

Jesus doesn’t require us to become sacrifices for humanity.  That’s already taken care of!  He requires us to become sacrifices for Him, for his sake, for His glory, so that people may learn that we have a most effective high priest who continually offers up “prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears” and has gained our salvation for us. 

The salvation of all humankind has been accomplished, once and for all, by God’s  victory through the sacrifice of Jesus.  So what is required of us:  “you [i.e., “us’] must be slave of all.”

“Slave” is a word that has a wide range of meanings to us in English.  In Jesus’ time it might mean a person who literally was owned by another person.  It might mean what we call an “indentured servant.”  It might even mean a teacher.  It also simply means someone who serves someone else.  What it always means is that the slave or the servant is working for the interests of someone else; the slave is a steward.

Jesus says that we must put the interests of others ahead of our own interests.  The two most famous stories in which Jesus talks about “slaves” are – I almost hesitate to use the word – about stewardship.  In the story of the men whose master entrusted them with varying sums of money, Jesus refers to the men as “slaves.”  The other is the story of the ungrateful slave – who is forgiven his own debt but then refuses to forgive a debt owed to him.  Both of these stories are about the stewardship of resources – gifts, talents, money – given to them by someone else to be used responsibly.

As I said last week, in our lives we have been blessed with time, talents and treasures by the Lord.  Within those three categories we have all that we need to respond to the Lord.  If we would become the servants of all – as Jesus suggests – then we must be faithful stewards in the interests of others of the gifts that God has given to us. 

“Stewardship.”  It’s not a season.  It’s not a campaign.  It’s not a dirty word.  It is the perpetual, the on-going, the constant responsibility of those of us who acknowledge that all we have is a gift from God and God has called us to use our gifts as the servants – as the slaves – of all.

Stewardship defines our continuing response to the love of God and our commitment to the blessing that God has granted to us for our lives as servants – as stewards – to all. 

Jesus is our priest forever – throughout eternity – the King of Righteousness.  He  prays for us and has accomplished our forgiveness so that we are free to become trustworthy stewards.  We are free to use our time, our talents and our treasure for the glory of God as we live following the command of Christ to be slaves of all. 

It’s not our job to “save” humanity.  That’s already been accomplished.  It’s our job to glorify God in the use of our riches as we struggle to become – for God’s sake – slaves of all.

Amen.