First of all, I want to say a brief word about Melchizedek. You’ll recall that earlier in this letter to the Hebrews, the writer made several references to the High Priestly office of Jesus Christ being one that was in "the order of Melchizedek." In our journey through Hebrews, we have not looked in depth at this character, Melchizedek, although the writer spends a significant amount of his time in commenting on it. You can read chapter 7 of Hebrews to learn more of his perspective on that, but all of his references to the priestly role of Christ hinges upon this "order of Melchizedek." Just exactly who is Melchizedek? I’m disappointed more of you weren’t asking that question!

Melchizedek makes two brief appearances in Scripture outside of this letter to the Hebrews. First is his appearance in the story of Abram—later to be known as Abraham—from Genesis, chapter 14. Abram has been forced to go to battle against a coalition of tribal kings in the area he’s been called to by God because these kings have kidnapped Abram’s nephew, Lot. Long story short, Abram is victorious. Upon his return from the battle, Abram is met by none other than Melchizedek. The description of that meeting is very brief—only three verses in Genesis 14. "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything," (Genesis 14:18-21). That’s basically the biblical story for Melchizedek!

So, what is the significance of that? Well, note a couple of things told us in those three short verses. One, Melchizedek was king of Salem. His name, Melchizedek, means "king of righteousness" and his title of king of Salem means "king of peace." Righteousness and peace. Significant words in the history of God’s covenant with humanity. But, Melchizedek is more than a king. He is also described as "priest of God Most High." Search through the Bible and you won’t find many who carry both titles of priest and king. I know of two—Melchizedek…and Jesus. Not even Moses carried both titles. Moses was certainly the leader of Israel in a time before there were "kings." But he was not the one through whom the priesthood would come. That was Moses’ brother, Aaron. Only Melchizedek and Jesus carry both titles, king and priest. Add to that the image of communion—Melchizedek brings bread and wine to Abram—Melchizedek’s "blessing" Abram—only a higher authority can pronounce blessing on someone else—and the fact that Abram gives to Melchizedek one-tenth, a tithe, of what he has won in battle and we have a very important person here in Melchizedek. He is a classic example of an Old Testament character or story pointing to Jesus Christ. Certainly, the writer to the Hebrews sees Melchizedek in that way.

The second Scriptural reference to Melchizedek, outside of Hebrews, is Psalm 110. There, in a psalm of royalty about King David’s "lord," it says this, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek,’" (Psalm 110:4). Not David, but David’s "lord" is "a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." That verse is frequently quoted by the writer of Hebrews, again in recognition that it is an Old Testament reference pointing us to Jesus Christ.

The significance in all this for the original target audience of the letter to the Hebrews is that they would understand the priestly role was established through Aaron, the brother of Moses, and their tribe, the tribe of Levi. Historically for Israel since the time of Moses and Aaron, the priests came from the tribe of Levi. But Jesus was not from the tribe of Levi. As a descendant in the line of David, Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. How then could Jesus be a priest? And, more importantly, how could Jesus’ sacrifice be legitimate since sacrifices were the purview only of priests and priests were from the tribe of Levi? The answer is that Jesus is a priest "in the order of Melchizedek." Melchizedek predates Moses and Aaron and the establishment of the Levitical priesthood by some 600 years. Yet, he was "priest of the Most High God," authenticated by Abram’s response to Melchizedek. Abram, or Abraham, is a pretty important person in the history of these Hebrews. Thus, the writer validates the priesthood of Jesus Christ by connecting him to the priesthood of Melchizedek rather than Levi.

Well, fine, but what is its relevance for us? Just to say this, that Jesus is the bearer of a new covenant from God. Jesus is the transition point from the old covenant to the new covenant. The old covenant, or Old Testament, if you will, is filled with images that point us to Christ. Melchizedek is one. The sacrificial system and the annual Day of Atonement is another. Those annual sacrifices were performed as a reminder of the people’s sin. They were imperfect, needing to be conducted over and over again on an annual basis by priests who were themselves imperfect. That was the system in place under the old covenant. Then along comes Jesus as the bearer of the new covenant sealed in a perfect sacrifice for sins, once for all, and no longer in need of annual repetition. And that is very significant for us.

It is significant for us, first of all, because Jesus makes it possible for us to wear the title of children of the covenant. Without that, you and I are not part of the covenant community unless we can trace our heritage back to one of the original twelve tribes of Israel. They were the bearers of the covenant, through Abraham, and Moses, and David…until Jesus. Jesus opened up the covenant to become available to all people. Without that, we are outside looking into the covenant community.

Secondly, and more importantly, that meant that Jesus’ sacrifice for sins was for you and me as well. Without that, we would stand guilty as charged before the Lord, our God. Reconciliation with God would not be possible without the sacrifice for sins Jesus performs as our Great High Priest.

Now, it’s important we understand the nature of that sacrifice. Not only is it the sacrifice of a new covenant making it possible for you and I to be reconciled with God, but there are a couple of other characteristics about it worth noting.

First of all, it is a "perfect" sacrifice. The sacrifices of the old covenant were imperfect—performed by imperfect priests and in need of repeating every year. They were, in fact, more a reminder to the people of their sinful nature rather than an indicator of their reconciled status with God. They were, the writer of Hebrews tells us, a "shadow" of the new covenant and perfect sacrifice to come. Now, we might be tempted to view our time of confession every Sunday as something similar to the old covenant Day of Atonement. However, it is not. There is no sacrifice involved. That has already been done in Jesus’ sacrifice upon the cross. Rather than a reminder of our sinful state, our time of confession is a reminder of the unconditional love of God in Jesus Christ and our forgiven, reconciled state through God’s mercy and grace. The sacrifice is done and complete, a perfect sacrifice from a sinless priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Consequently, as a perfect sacrifice, it does not need to be repeated. It is "once for all."

I used to play this little mind game with my mother—well, for a short while anyway until I quickly learned I couldn’t get away with it. It had to do with "chores," specifically washing dishes. That was one of my jobs. Which, by the way, I had extra years of duty with. How many here are the youngest in their family? To the rest of you, how many think your youngest sibling was spoiled? That’s what I thought! Here’s what you need to know. My oldest brother had chores to do like mowing the lawn, shoveling the walk, helping clean up the kitchen and the like. About the time he began high school, the next sibling in line, my other brother, Mick, inherited those jobs. About the time he began high school, I inherited them. There is an older sister in there as well, but she was the only girl so she was the spoiled one. Never had to mow a blade of grass or shovel a flake of snow to my recollection. Anyway, when Mick got to high school, I inherited those jobs. But, when I got to high school, guess what? That’s right! There was no one to pass them down to! So, rather than being spoiled, I got three extra years of hard labor! Anyway, in the course of my hard labor, I tried to get "fired," particularly with the job of doing the dishes. I hated washing and drying dishes. We had an automatic dishwasher, but it had broken and my parents never saw the need to get it fixed until I moved out when I went to college. I hated hand washing and drying dishes. So, I tried to get fired from that job by doing a lousy job of it. I figured my mother would get tired of my poor performance and do it herself. It didn’t work. She simply made me do it over again, and again, and again until I got it right. Three years of high school and she never gave in. She is definitely more stubborn than me!

In some ways, the old sacrificial system was like that. It needed to be repeated over and over again…until the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ where it was done, complete, once for all, never in need of repeating ever again.

And we must be careful that we don’t negate the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Christ’s sacrifice was perfect, the ultimate once-for-all-time expression of God’s forgiveness. We negate it when we fail to forgive.

We negate Christ’s perfect sacrifice, first of all, when we fail to forgive ourselves. Silly as it sounds, when we are unable to forgive ourselves for some egregious act, we are holding ourselves to a higher standard than God does. "I am so unclean, not even God will forgive me." "God would never forgive…" and name some act we feel is beyond God’s mercy and grace. But to do that, is to nullify the "once-for-all" perfect sacrifice of Christ. To do that is to lose sight of God’s redemptive history with His people. What act is beyond the forgiving sacrifice of Christ? How about adultery? Conspiracy to commit murder, perhaps? If you think that, you are forgetting God’s redemptive history with King David. David was guilty of those sins. And, indeed, he suffered some horrible consequences as a result of those sins. God does not remove the consequences of our sin. But, he does remove the stain of that sin. God forgave David. More than that, God establishes through David the ancestral line to the Messiah, our Great High Priest, Jesus, who offers the perfect "once-for-all" sacrifice for sin. God forgave David and God forgives you. Or, what about mass murder and torture? Does that fall outside the coverage of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice? Not if you consider God’s redemptive history with the apostle Paul. Once an opponent of this new covenant, leading the charge in the persecution and, sometimes, execution of those professing faith in Jesus Christ the bearer of this new covenant, Paul becomes its greatest champion. It is a restored and forgiven Paul who leads the way into the mission field in proclaiming the gospel of this new covenant. It is a restored and forgiven Paul through whom God speaks this new covenant…Paul is the author of 2/3 of our Scriptures in the New Testament. God forgave Paul and God forgives you. We crucify Christ all over again when we put ourselves outside the bounds of God’s forgiveness. Is there any sin that falls outside the bounds of Christ’s perfect sacrifice? No!

What frequently comes to my mind when I consider the boundless love and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ is a song we used to play on the Christian radio station in Greeley. It’s a song by Tim Sheppard called Come Back Home. The chorus goes like this: "Come back home, come back home; come back home, come back home. There’s not one thing you’ve done that he didn’t already die for. Come back home, come back home. He loves you!" Don’t negate the perfect sacrifice of Christ by believing you’re beyond the bounds of God’s forgiveness. God calls to you to come back home. There’s not one thing you’ve done that He didn’t already die for. So, come back home because He loves you.

Then, we crucify Christ all over again when we’re not able to forgive others…as if their sin falls outside the bounds of Christ’s perfect sacrifice. You might immediately respond, "But Ron, you don’t know the hurt that’s been done to me." You’re probably right. I probably don’t know the hurt that’s been done to you. But, I do know this. Christ knows your hurt. Remember, Christ is able to empathize with us because He experienced such hurts also. Yet, He also models for us the boundless reach of His forgiveness. If any action done to someone could be said to be unjust and undeserved, it’s what was done to Christ. Yet, He would model the magnitude of His forgiveness when He spoke from the cross, the site of His perfect sacrifice, the words, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

Whenever we are holding back forgiveness—whether it’s from ourselves or others—we are, in effect, saying Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t good enough. It is deception of the highest order. The truth is there is no sin that falls outside the bounds of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate purpose of the baby whose birth we celebrate in two weeks. Yes, He also models for us how to live. But His ultimate purpose is to offer the perfect sacrifice, to die "once for all," for our sins. There’s not one thing you’ve done that He didn’t already die for. God calls to you through Jesus Christ to come back home to Him…because He loves you.