the order of Melchizedek

The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind:
"You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." (Psalm 100:4)

When I was younger, some preacher would always talk about the order of Melchizedek. I had no idea what it meant, and it just sounded more like religio-babble.

When I found out what it meant, it was great. It was something that mattered to me. It meant that I was free.

Melchizedek. He was a man who was a priest king independent of any other country who Abraham offered to way back in Genesis 14. Abraham had gone to fight a bunch of people who had taken his nephew Lot prisoner. On the way back, Melchizedek came out and Abraham offered a tithe of his spoils, the stuff he had take, to him in homage.

Melchizedek was a priest king who lived at the city that would become Jerusalem one day.

This was before the Old Testament law came into being. By doing this, Abraham recognized Melchizedek’s place as a priest king. And by doing it, the nation of Israel did it because Abraham was their ancestor.

When Jesus came, he came into a situation in which there was an established priesthood. There was a group of men whose job it was to bring the people before the Lord. Without these men, the people really couldn’t do the stuff they needed to do to sacrifice to the Lord.

It was a closed-ended situation. To be one of these men, you had to have been born to women from a special family. No other way.

And if you couldn’t find one of these men to make your sacrifice, it was too bad.

When Jesus came, God said, I am changing the situation. I am going back to the way it was before I gave Israel my law. From now on, everyone will come to me, not just a special group  of men. Everyone will be able to make sacrifices and offerings to me, whether men or women, no matter what family they are in. As long as they are members of the family of God they are welcome.

That is the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was not Jewish or from a tribe of priests. God says to us that we do not have to be special priests to come to him. We can just come. Jesus was a high priest from the order of Melchizedek and as such was independent of the priestly system in the Old Testament. Since he was and we are his followers, so are we.

Being of the order of Melchizedek means that we can just come to God ourselves without having to have a preacher or priest or rabbi or someone like that to carry our prayers or offerings. It is a special relationship.

We are independent and can come to God through Jesus by ourselves.

Nobody can tell me how to worship. As a follower of Jesus, a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, I worship how I feel best. As long as my relationship with God is good, I am fine.

There is a certain liberation there. I am free from the confines of religion and other people’s ideas and mandate. I am free.