2025-08-27 - Jesus Christ is the Promised Messiah Part VI: Jesus the Royal Priest, Forever After the Order of Melchizedek

The appearance of Christ the Messiah after many centuries of Israel’s Covenant with God poses an existential problem for Israel’s understanding of her role as God’s chosen people.  The claim that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross now extends the Covenant to all the world diminishes the role that Israel’s Aaronite priests and Levite deacons play in ministering God’s law to the Jews.  While God will never rescind his Covenant with His chosen people, their claim to exclusive blessing and protection is no longer viable.  The earthly remnants of the Covenant such as the Aaronite lineage and the Second Temple have been superseded, because the Third Temple (Resurrected Christ Jesus) is manifest and inhabited by God.

God’s communication with His people long antedates the emergence of the Aaronite line to serve God’s law to the people of Israel. Adam’s role as God’s first interlocutor is implied, but another character appears in history whose pedigree is not described and who serves God in a dual role of King and Priest.  This is Melchizedek.

Long before Israel was formed and Aaron was born, the future patriarch Abram encountered Melchizedek, a Canaanite royal priest who blessed Abram in the name of the same God that Abram acknowledged as The God of the High Mountain (El’ elyon).  This encounter occurs in the city (Salem) that will later become Jerusalem and over which Melchizedek is the ruler.  1000 years forward into the future, King David in Psalm 110:4 describes the Messiah, who will arrive from his lineage (a further 1000 years into the future), as an eternal king and priest “after the order of Melchizedek”.

Christ’s role as both King and Priest appears to conflict with the separation of these two roles in the Mosaic law along patrilineal lines (David’s line for the King, and Aaron’s line for the Priest).  Joseph, the earthly “father” of Jesus, is in the line of David, which qualifies Him for Kingship.  Although Mary is in the line of descent from Aaron, matrilineal descent of the Priestly vocation is not observed in the Mosaic law.  The Mosaic law is, however, subject to grace, and God incarnate (Jesus) can fill both roles.  This does not place Him “above” the law; rather, because His authority is the source of the law, and His grace animates the spirit of the law, the patrilineal descent requirement that applies to ordinary mortals is irrelevant.  The priestly vocation can be conferred by God’s grace without patrilineal descent upon a King, as was the case with Melchizedek.

While the temporal Aaronite priesthood served Israel in God’s name to the best of their abilities, they were burdened by their own sinful nature and limited in their exclusive service to Israel.  God provided Himself incarnate to accomplish the theosis of the faithful that the priesthood of Israel could only imperfectly approximate for God’s chosen people, opening the door to sanctification for all who draw near to God through Christ Jesus.