Thoughts on Hebrews 7: The stench of the holy

Continuing our walk through Hebrews, we see a repeated discussion comparing Jesus as high priest to the Levitical high priests.  Chapter 7 emphasizes how Jesus as high priest was higher than the Aaronic priesthood.  The author's claim is that this is because Jesus was high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

In case someone is unfamiliar with the reference from Genesis, Melchizadek was a priest and king from what became known as Jerusalem.  When Abraham encountered him, he tithed 10% of all he had to Melchizadek.  The author of Hebrews points out that this makes Melchizadek greater than Aaron because Aaron's ancestor tithed to Melchizadek.

Truthfully, if one of my students made an argument like this, I would probably tell him that he was really reaching--except for one thing.  Out of nowhere in one of the Psalms, the psalmist makes this odd statement, "I have made you a priest forever in the order of Melchizadek".  Although I am not an expert on Jewish scholarship (or anything else I write about on this blog, for that matter), my understanding is that Jewish scholarship didn't really know what to do with this odd Melchizadek reference in the Psalms.  That is what the author of Hebrews is trying to do here...explain that which wasn't understood.

The more important point here, though, is that after Christ's priestly sacrifice, there is no need for continued sacrifice for sin.  I think this is something modern Christians take too much for granted.  Because we are so removed from the sacrificial system, we have become desensitized to what this means.

I got a small glimpse of this when I was in college and read C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold..  In this work there is a detailed description of the reaction of the main character walking into a temple where animal sacrifice is still practiced.  If I recall, the line Lewis used was, "the stench of the holy".  There were dried blood stains all around.  It smelled of incense and animal slaughter.  It was a stark reminder of the penalty for displeasing God (or the gods in the case of the novel).

As modern (and especially relatively wealthy) Christians, we are far removed from the stench of the holy.  We don't truly appreciate the weight of our sin and the weight of the sacrifice.  Perhaps that is one of the benefits of Christ's "once for all" sacrifice, that we no longer have to contemplate such things.  But I can't help wondering if we would take our sin more seriously if we did.