Jesus Christ, Messiah "Priest"

Anointed" also includes, according to Old Testament tradition, the "priestly" character.

Selection as a priest is for the purpose of worship, for the offering of sacrifices of adoration and atonement, and that worship in its turn is linked to teaching about God and his law.

According to this tradition, the priesthood is placed "alongside" the royal dignity. However, Jesus does not come from the priestly line, from the tribe of Levi, but from that of Judah.

It would seem that the priestly character of the Messiah does not become him. His contemporaries discover in him, above all, the teacher, the prophet, some even their "king," the heir of David.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews touches the theme of Melchisedech's priesthood in order to say that in Jesus Christ is fulfilled the messianic pre-announcement linked to that figure.

We read in fact of Christ who "being made perfect, became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 5,9-10).

Then, after recalling what was said about Melchisedech in the Book of Genesis (Gen 14,18), the Letter to the Hebrews continues " . . . his name when translated means king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest for ever" (Heb 7,2-3).

Using the analogies of the ritual of worship, of the ark and of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, Hebrews presents Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of all the figures and promises of the Old Testament, ordained "to serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary" (Heb 8,5).

Christ, a merciful and faithful high priest (Heb 2,17; cf. 3,2-5), bears in himself a "priesthood that continues for ever" (Heb 7,24), having offered "himself without blemish to God" (Heb 9,14).

Coming into the world, Jesus Christ says to God his Father, "Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me, in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God"' (Heb 10,5-7).

"For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest" (Heb 7,26). "Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people" (Heb 2,17).

We have, then, "a high priest . . . who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning," a high priest who is able "to sympathize with our weaknesses" (cf. Heb 4,15).

Further on we read that such a high priest "has no need, like the other high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, he did this once for all when he offered up himself" (Heb 7,27).

Again, "when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come he entered once for all into the Holy Place . . . taking his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb 9,11-12). Hence our certainty that "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, will purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Heb 9,14).

This explains the attribution to Christ's priesthood of an everlasting saving power whereby ". . . he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb 7,25)

Jesus Christ has fulfilled with his whole life, and especially with the sacrifice of the cross, all that was written in the messianic tradition of divine Revelation.

The messianic task is symbolized by the figure of Melchisedech. There we read that by God's will "another priest arises in the likeness of Melchisedech, not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life" (Heb 7,15). It is therefore an eternal priesthood (cf. Heb 7,3-24).