Priesthood of Melchizedek

Hebrews 7:11-19

It's certainly true that the author is going to leave the elementary teachings! This is some tough stuff to figure out. Basically the author is comparing the Levitical system to the new system that has been brought in under Christ. So the key words in this section are: priesthood, law, change, hope. The author is continuing his exposition of Psalm 110:4 (You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek). The author has explored who Melchizedek was and why his priesthood was greater than the Levitical priesthood (see the previous post). Now the author is setting out to prove that Jesus was a priest in the order of Melchizedek and therefore fulfills Psalm 110:4. This is to prove the greater point of the supremacy of Christ over any Jewish system, covenant or ritual. The author uses the following points to prove his point: 1) The eternal nature of the Melchizedek order indicates that the Levitical order was not enough to achieve perfection. Therefore the Melchizedek order is better than the Levitical order. 2) With a change in priesthood comes a change in the law. It is only possible for Jesus to be a high priest if there is a change in the law since under the Old Covenant, only descendants of Levi could be priests and only descendants of Aaron could be high priests. Since the Melchizedek order is greater than the Levitical order, then the covenant that the new order brings in must be greater than the covenant that existed under the Levitical order. 3) Jesus did not belong to the tribe of Levi or the line of Aaron. Therefore he could not be a high priest in the Levitical order under the old covenant. Jesus becomes a high priest by virtue of his indestructible life (his resurrection) and therefore fulfills the "forever" part of Psalm 110:4. 4) Through the resurrection of Christ, the Melchizedek order has been brought in and with it a new covenant which offers us a new hope - a better hope.
Not only is Jesus both Priest and King, just like Melchizedek, he has made us to be a kingdom of priests. This means that we, as disciples of Christ, are to be facilitating the worship of our families, of our fellow disciples and of those who do not yet know Christ. The question for me is: am I facilitating access to God through Christ or am I building structures, barriers, rituals, etc. that are keeping people from Christ? This does not mean that structures and rituals are bad. It just means that they must be a means to helping people connect to Christ. We have a structure and an order to our youth nights. However, the structure is not the point - the point is that students have the opportunity to connect with Christ and we use the structure to make that possible. So, what structures am I creating? Are they helping others (and myself) to connect to Christ or erecting barriers that are preventing access?