The Holy Prophet Daniel, the Three Holy Youths Ananiah (Ananias), Azariah (Azarias) and Mishael (Misael) (6th century BC)
Hebrews 7:1-6; Luke 21:28-33
Nativity Fast.
Read Hebrews 7:1-6
Who is this Melchizedek? He appears in the book of Genesis, has the encounter with Abraham mentioned in this reading, and then disappears. The Prophet and King David mentions him in Psalm 109(110):4, “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek’.”
Some Jewish traditions maintain, based off a different translation of the aforementioned psalm, that Melchizedek’s priesthood passed on to Abraham and his seed forever. This is due to a belief that Melchizedek acted wrongly by blessing Abraham before God. This is an interesting thing to read about, but it cannot be true since Christ’s priesthood is eternal and he is a priest in the order of Melchizedek—not in the order of Levi of the seed of Abraham.
Perhaps Melchizedek’s obscurity is part of why he is so important in understanding who Christ is. He is, after all, a type of Christ in the Old Testament. He has no known genealogy—we know nothing of his ancestors or genealogy. It’s as if he had no beginning or end, as is the case with Christ.
He was king of Salem, which means ‘peace’—our Lord is the Prince of Peace. This place was also the site of the future city of Jerusalem. In a certain sense, Melchizedek was king of Jerusalem before Jerusalem came to be, a primordial king of the mother of all cities. Our Lord is King of the Universe and is from before the universe came to be!
Melchizedek was also a priest and offered sacrifice to God. His sacrifice was bread and wine. If that isn’t a reference to Christ, I don’t know what is!
Finally, Abraham, our father in faith, offered Melchizedek a tithe of 1/10th of his goods. This is the same Abraham whose seed would become the chosen people of God. The sons of his great-grandson Levi would become the priestly class to whom this tithe was offered. But he, Abraham, the father so great a nation, paid this special homage to Melchizedek. It is not surprising that some think that Melchizedek was Christ Himself appearing to Abraham!
Melchizedek is a fairly obscure figure who appears and disappears in rather short order and is easy to gloss over. However, he figures prominently in our Christmas Liturgy and in this section of the Letter to the Hebrews, so he must be of some importance. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to ponder him a little bit more.