What does a high priest do? (Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33)
A worshiper can go a long time without any idea of who Melchizedek is and what it means to be a priest according to his order.
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In my Lutheran tradition we have a lot of churches named for a role or metaphor that scripture attributes to Christ: Good Shepherd, Christ the King, Messiah, Savior. We don’t have many named for “Christ the High Priest,” even though the Letter to the Hebrews serves it up for us. I can only guess at why we, but it’s an image we struggle to find a place for. And while I can’t say very confidently, I would guess that this bashfulness is present in other Protestant traditions as well. Hebrews makes relatively few appearances in the lectionary cycle, and the Torah texts describing the priesthood and its rituals are even less visible. A faithful worshiper can go a long time without forming any idea of who Melchizedek is and what it means to be a priest according to his order.
