Genesis 14: 14-20

We all know Abram.  Abram is Abraham before God changed his name as a blessed reminder of his promises.  But Melchizedek?  I remember the look on some of your faces when I mentioned his name last week.  Melchizedek?  Who’s he?  What’s he got to do with Jesus, our Savior?  Is this just going to some Bible history story about some remote character in the Bible, someone to remember for Bible trivia games?

Well let’s see.  Abram had a nephew named Lot.  Lot lived near Sodom.  There came a time when some kings came down from the East.  They rounded up a bunch of people who lived in and around Sodom and their belongings.  Abram hears his nephew is included among the captives, and here Moses is very specific.  Abram goes after them with 318 trained men.  He uses some good tactics and with the Lord’s help you might say, he whoops those kings good.

I’m still waiting pastor!  Hold on a little longer.  Abram is now returning from his rescue mission.  He’s got the men, women and children who can go home once more and of course his nephew.  He’s recovered all the property, brutally seized.

Two kings come out to greet Abram.  They couldn’t have been any more different.  First comes the king of Sodom who had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of those kings.  We know the reputation of Sodom.  It was a cesspool of immorality.  This king would offer Abram all the possessions he recovered.  Abram would tell the king, I’ll pass. He didn’t want the king of that godless place to be able to say:  I made that man rich.

But then comes the other king- Melchizedek.  OK finally we’re getting someplace. He comes with bread and wine for these men who had fought so hard.  He is very likely the king of Jerusalem.  He also serves the one true God as a priest in this pagan land.  He speaks a blessing on Abram and worships God for giving him the victory.  Then Abram honors him and the Lord with a tithe, a tenth of what he has.

There you have it. Three verses about a man named Melchizedek who crosses Abram’s path and just as quickly departs.  He has no recorded birthplace or descent.  We know nothing of his end.  God’s Word is silent there.  There seems nothing all that remarkable about him.  Why should I pay much attention to him in my Bible study?  We get a hint about 1000 years later in Psalm 110.  But you have to fast forward still another 1000 years to about 70 AD in the letter to the Hebrews.  There is the key. That’s why we can say this morning:

Melchizedek – A Mysterious Shadow of our Savior

I.  Pay attention to what IS said about him

II.  Pay attention to what is NOT said about him

What is said about this man?  Start with his name.  Melchizedek.  In Hebrew, it means king of righteousness.  What a precious shadow of our Savior we see in this mysterious man.  I hear people sometimes describe themselves or another as a good person.  I’m sure they are good people to know.  But are any of us righteous before God?  All we like sheep have gone astray, the Bible says.  No one is good, Jesus says, but God alone.  Not you, not me not anyone.

Where does that leave us?  It leaves us without hope and without God.  But look at Melchizedek and see a shadow of your Savior.  Jesus is truly the king of righteousness who went to a cross to make you something you could not be. Righteous in God’s sight.  For there, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2Cor 5:21)

Then think of the office Melchizedek holds here.  In the Old Testament you find some men serving as kings.  You find others who serve as priests.  You don’t find anyone serving as both except this mysterious man. Once more we that this man is a shadow of our Savior.

We’re told he is the King of Salem.  The writer to the Hebrews reminds us Salem means peace.  King of peace.  Think about that.  The Old Testament prophet Isaiah called the coming Christ, the prince of peace.  When he was born into our world, the Christmas angels sang of the peace Jesus brings.  Then remember how Jesus said the night before his death.  Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you.  I do not give you as the world gives.  Yes, Jesus is that King of peace.

What does that mean?   Have any of us come here today weak and weary from life?  Are you worn out from life’s problems?  Worried that you won’t make it?   Small or large, life’s troubles can blister our peace like a pebble in our shoe.

Anybody know what I’m, talking about?  Abram had his war to fight.  He had his differences with his nephew.  He had his moments of weakness when God’s promises seemed far away.  But he also had the King of peace, the Christ, whose coming he looked forward to.

So do we.  Abram heard Melchizedek say:  Blessed be Abram by God most high.  Well, in Christ, our God Most High guarantees us blessing, not the absence of storms but him as our refuge in the midst of them.  In Jesus, God does not guarantee us a five pound limit on our problems, but an almighty hand to hold us and strengthen us.  You see, our King of peace rules today and he rules tomorrow.  This we can know.  His goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives until he takes us to our heavenly home.  The King of Peace.

And how can that be for me?  Pay attention to what IS said about this man. Melchizedek was also a priest.  As a priest, he got to speak God’s blessing on his people.  But a priest would also bring a sacrifice for the people before God.

Well like Melchizedek, Jesus is a priest.  He is a priest but a far better one.  Think about the sins we’ve dragged here today.  The ones we know and don’t know, the ones that bother us and the ones that should bother us more.  All these he has already paid for.  He’s the priest who stretched out his arms on Calvary’s cross for you and me.  He’s the priest who offered himself in our place.

So pay attention to what it says about Melchizedek.  Not because we want to start St Melchizedek day.  Not because we want children named after him.  Rather because he is a shadow of someone else, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

But we’re  not done.  Don’t just pay attention to what it says about this man.  Pay attention to what it doesn’t say about Melchizedek.

When a priest died, his service ended.  He could no longer be a blessing to the people.  But look what it says in Hebrews about Melchizedek. It speaks of what the Bible is silent about.  ³ Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.  Obviously Melchizedek had a birthday and death day.  But the Bible says nothing about it so in a way his priesthood is forever.

There again he is a shadow of Jesus.  You see when we follow Jesus to the cross and then see his body put in the grave, we don’t leave him there.  Instead on Easter Sunday, we sing I know that my redeemer lives.  But not just my Redeemer.  I know my great high priest lives.  I know we don’t think of this too much but we should.  Listen again to Hebrews:  ²³ Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; ²⁴ but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. ²⁵ Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

You’ve heard people say, he’s got a friend in high places.  What does that kind of friend do for you.  He goes to bat for you.  He speaks up for you.  Well this is one reason we sing:   What a friend we have in Jesus.  Our living Lord  is a priest forever.  He brings our prayers before the Father.  He makes them the prayers of a saint, not a sinner.

And because he lives, he is able to save completely.  How many projects have you started that lie uncompleted.  Some you may never finish.  Our great high priest sacrificed his life for us.  He paid the price to set us free from our sins.  But he’s not done:  I have gone to prepare a place for you he says…What does he then promise?  To save completely.   If I go and prepare a place, I will come back to take you to be where I am.

The last thing I want you to see here is Abram’s response.  .  He gave Melchizedek  a tenth of everything.  Are we surprised?  We shouldn’t be.  Grateful for God’s goodness, grateful for his blessing he wanted to honor the Lord.  So he took a generous portion of what the Lord had given him and used it to praise God.

Again we see a shadow.  But not pointing to the Savior. This shadow from long ago points to God’s people.  People who have seen far more than the shadows Old testament folks like Abram saw.  We know the reality, Jesus Christ, God come to be our brother.  We know his life and his death for us.  We know his precious words and promises.  So like Abram, as God’s people,  we respond to his goodness.  Amen.

Luke 22: 31-34; 54-62

What did Peter see in Jesus?  It seems he saw more than the other disciples –at least he was more vocal about it.  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he said speaking for the others.  “Lord if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.”  “Lord should we strike with the swords?” he said when they came out to arrest Jesus this same evening.  Ready to speak out, ready to act.  That’s how Peter saw himself.

But what did Peter see in Jesus?  Some Bible scholars have tried to play amateur psychologist.  They speculate that Peter was  picked on as a child.  The Big fisherman was bullied, they suggest.  Maybe he felt a need to brag and bluster his way through life.

And yes, when he first met Jesus he became painfully aware of his inadequacies.  “Go away from me Lord…I am a sinful man.”  (Luke 5:8) But soon Peter was looking to step out as a leader.  What did Peter see in Jesus? Maybe a chance to be somebody brave and bold in this kingdom of God.

Well if there is any truth to this conjecture it makes Peter’s denial all the sadder in the courtyard of the high priest.  Yet it’s all just guesswork.  What matters most is what Peter did finally see in Jesus.

On the way to Gethsemane, Jesus has something to say to the Big Fisherman.  “Simon, Simon.” Jesus calls him by his old name, not Peter which means rock.  “Simon, Simon” he says as if to remind him that he is not as strong as he would like to think.  “Simon, Simon” Jesus says like a parent trying to get through to the young person who thinks he knows it all.

Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.  The word you is plural for all the disciples.  Satan wants to get his hands on them.  He wants to sift them, to shake their faith violently like you would shake the wheat to separate it from the chaff.  You see, Satan intends to destroy our faith, but God uses it to turn the tables on Satan.  He uses that painful sifting to have us come out stronger, to see Jesus as Peter would learn to through all this.

Satan has asked to sift( all of) you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, Jesus singles Simon out because he is going to fall harder than the others.  Why?  He is so sure of himself.   ³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.

Sadly Peter can’t see this.  More than once he claims he is ready to go to prison and die with Jesus if necessary.  But Peter doesn’t answer Jesus as we have learned to say.  Yes, with the help of God. Instead Peter relies on himself.  One day he will strengthen his brothers in their faith.  But not before he has his foolish bravado shaken out of him this night before the rooster crows.

It is a far different Peter who would write years later:  Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Be self controlled and alert.  You enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Peter still had to learn.  You can never trust yourself too little.  You can never trust Jesus too much.

⁵⁴ Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. ⁵⁵ But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. ⁵⁶ A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” ⁵⁷ But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. It’s not hard to paint our face over Peter’s is it?  Let’s do it now.  You are frightened and confused.  At first, you run with the other disciples from the mob come out to arrest Jesus, ducking branches, stumbling over rocks in the darkness.  At some point you stop, hungry for air and you listen.  You hear nothing except your own heavy breathing.  No one following

You retrace your steps.  You can hear the far off voices.  You see the torches and you follow.  You follow from a distance all the way to the outer court of the High Priest.

Your fellow disciple, John, is already there.  He gains easy access because they know him there.  John vouches for you and the servant girl at the gate lets you in.  He is doing you no favor.

Jerusalem sits at an elevation of 2500 feet.  Spring nights can be rather cool and besides, you are scared.  So you slowly move towards the charcoal fire that people have gathered around.  The warmth feels good.

But it isn’t long before that servant girl takes another look at you.  This man was with him, she says.  How quickly the words come to your lips.  Woman I don’t know him. I’m not one of them.  In the distance – do you hear it?  A rooster crows.

⁵⁸ A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. Another finger is pointed your way.  Everything feels like slow motion.  It’s one thing to preach to the choir, to say loud and clear to the other disciples that Jesus means everything to you, that you would rather die than deny him.  Courage was easy then.  But now with those icy stares of those who despise everything you believe – it’s much different.

Maybe, you say to yourself, a person needs to tailor things to fit the situation.  What harm is done if I keep this to myself?  Why should I have to answer their awkward questions?  For the second time you say what you claimed you never would.  You deny him.  Man, I am not.

You avoid eye contact.  You stare at the ground and keep moving around.  Maybe they’ll leave me alone now.  Time drags on.  When you look up you see the eyes now studying your face.  ⁵⁹ About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” ⁶⁰ Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. ⁶¹ The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” ⁶² And he went outside and wept bitterly. Your tell tale accent has given you away.  You feel cornered, desperate.  Words come from your mouth that you will never forget.  Shameful curses.  You swear by all that is holy:  “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Somewhere in the distance a rooster crows a second time.  It jars loose those words of Jesus you so vehemently denied.  Before the rooster crows.  Then your eyes meet his.  You see your Friend, cuffed, beaten.  Yet a face that looks at you with pity, with love.

What do you see?  Your friend.  Your Lord,  Your Savior.  The One you pretended not to know.

He looks at you.  That’s all it takes.  What do you see in Jesus, Peter?  Pain?  Disappointment?  What do you see in Jesus, Peter?  Love!, Yes, Undeserved love.  You crumble.  You remember what he told you, what you didn’t want to hear.  I don’t need your prayers.  I know, so you thought.

You stumble out of the courtyard.  You are running now but you can’t outrun your conscience.  How could I?  I am one of them.  And when my big chance came to stand up and be counted, I swore I never knew him.  What happened here?

You know don’t you.  You remember Peter that night on the sea of Galilee.  Jesus invited you to come to him on the water.  You got out of the boat.  You walked until when.  You took your eyes off of Jesus and looked at those wind and waves.  Remember Peter how you began to drown and Jesus reached out his hand to save you.

After that, you told yourself that you would never do that again.  You would never again take your eyes off Jesus, even if everyone else did, even if the whole world denied Jesus.

But now the tears run down into your beard again because you took your eyes off Jesus.  You were so sure, so confident.  But not in Jesus, in yourself.  You had faith alright but faith in your own faith instead of faith in Christ.

O Peter, why does it take so long for us to learn this.  To see that the Gospel of Christ is not about me.  It’s not about character building and better relationships.  It’s not about success and 12 steps to felling better about myself.  The Gospel is about my Friend., that he can be counted upon even when I fall on my face.  It’s about his perfect life that covers my sinful failures.  It’s about his death that plucks the painful stinger from mine.  It’s about his resurrection that shines the light of life into the darkness of my grave.  This Gospel does not tell me how I should feel about Jesus or how I should live for him.  It tells me how he feels about me.  It tells me what he did for me.

Bless your tears, Big Fisherman.  By God’s grace those tears have come.  Tears of sorrow that seek God’s forgiveness.  Tears of sorrow that yearn for the peace Jesus gives.  That’s why you ran to his grave on Easter morning.  Not all do.  Many still look at Jesus and harden their hearts.  Bless your repentance, Big Fisherman.  Now you see Jesus clearly.   Amen.

Matthew 26: 14-25

¹⁴ Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. ¹⁶ From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

If you are a veteran of Lenten services, then you’ve met Judas.  He’s the bad guy in all of this, right?  He sells out the Son of God for silver.  There are other bad guys.  Caiphas, that hypocrite in priestly robes; Pilate- that politician trying to save his own skin.  Well they’re unbelievers anyway, right?

And the disciples.  Well they caved in.  They let the Savior down like we all have.  And we can understand why they did.  We’ve seen it in ourselves at times.  Their good intentions turn to cowardice and denial.  Been there.  Done that ourselves We too have failed Jesus in a moment of pressure and decision.

But Judas.  He’s different.  He didn’t cave under pressure.  He stole, deceived, planned, plotted and betrayed the Lord.  For silver.  It’s a sad story, isn’t it.  We wonder why.  WHAT DID HE SEE IN JESUS?  Not what he should have.  Not what he needed to.

¹⁷ On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” ¹⁸ He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’ ” ¹⁹ So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. ²⁰ When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.  The Passover meal was and is a special time for the Jewish people.  It celebrated that night centuries before when the angel of death passed over the homes of God’s people, sparing their firstborn sons.  What saved them from death?  The blood of a sacrificed lamb painted on the doorposts of their home.

But this night there was another Lamb besides the roasted lamb on the table before the disciples.  The Passover lamb whose blood had saved the firstborn from death was a shadow of this Lamb.  He sat with his disciples, the Lamb of God who was about to shed his blood and sacrifice his life for us all.

But Jesus has something else not just for these disciples but also for his disciples of all time.  A new meal in which he comes to us  in bits of bread and wine with his true body and blood.  He sits down with his disciples to celebrate the Passover and then institutes a new meal we call Holy Communion.

We Americans have a hard time understanding what it meant in Jesus’ day to sit down with someone and eat with them.  Folks back then didn’t go to Applebees or McDonalds and sit in the midst of strangers.  They ate at home in a close knit circle of family and friends.  An invitation to eat was something very special, not a casual thing.  That’s why the Pharisees were scandalized when Jesus sat down to eat with prostitutes and tax-collectors.  To this day in the Mideast, it is saying, I am your friend.  I will never hurt you.

Here Jesus sits down with those closest to him.  Surely he should be able to count on their loyalty.  It makes it all the more despicable that one of them had already decided to sell him out to his enemies. ²¹ And while they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.”

To sell someone out, you have to have a place of trust in the first place.  One of YOU, Jesus says. Whose blood does not run cold to think of someone we thought was close to Christ finally show his/her true colors.  It knocks the wind out of us especially when it’s a pastor or teacher or very involved member of God’s family.  That person joined us at the Lord’s table, listened to the same sermons, heard the same Bible readings.  But inside was a heart alien to Christ.  It was all a mask to cover a heart willing to abandon the Lord when the time comes.

²² They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely not I, Lord?”  For all their failings, this question speaks well of them.  They could have acted like people in one of those crime scenes where the detective announces that the murderer is in the room.  They look around suspiciously asking, is it you..or you?  But no, instead they each look inside themselves afraid that they could fall, that it might be me.  Jesus relieve my fear.

I would suggest that’s a healthy fear.  Think of Judas.  The Bible says nothing of the way his parents or society treated him.  It simply says he was a pilfering thief that stole some money from his friends.  Maybe that was the place where Judas cracked open the door to Satan.  Isn’t that how Satan works?  There may have been a time when Judas would have laughed at the idea that he would betray Jesus.  But Satan is content to come at us in small ways.  Maybe with little peeks at the computer screen, maybe as we excuse ourselves from worship.  What is it for you?  Little ways that he uses to push the door open to our hearts a little wider all the time.  Then the day comes when that door is wide open.  And Jesus.  Who cares about him?  He looks different than he once did, like he did to Judas.  Surely not I Lord.  Yes it is I Lord.  Forgive me.  Help me.  Save me.  And he does.

Jesus does not identify his betrayer by name.  ²³ Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. ²⁴ The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man!  It would be better for him if he had not been born.”  They all eat from the same dish.  This makes it all the worse.  He sits at the same table, saw Jesus up close and personal for three years.  Jesus knows what is in Judas heart.  It was foretold in Scripture, but Jesus is clear.  To betray the Lord in unbelief is a terrible thing.  But Jesus warning falls on deaf ears.  Satan already owns the turf of his heart.  And anyone who does not believe in hell should listen to Jesus’ words. better for him if he had not been born.”

Was there a pregnant pause, a give away moment of silence.  If there was no one seemed to notice.  Finally Judas says:  “Surely not I, Rabbi?”.  Remember how the others had asked:  Surely, not I, Lord?  Was Lord too hard for him to say?  Too hard for one about to betray him for 30 silver coins.  “Surely not I, Rabbi?

Maybe Jesus said it with a whisper but this gospel reports that Jesus said, Yes it is you. Jesus gives the piece of bread to Judas.  And Satan now calls his heart his home.  The gospel of John simply reports:  And he went out.  And it was night. Yes night in the soul of Judas Iscariot.

So what did Judas see in Jesus?  Not what he should have.  Not what he needed to.  He saw some awesome things with his eyes.  Jesus calm a violent storm with just his voice.  He saw Jesus restore crippled limbs and give baby soft skin to leprous, disfigured faces.  He saw Jesus halt a funeral by giving a widow back her son.  He saw Jesus evict demons from people whose lives they were destroying.  Judas saw all this with his eyes, but not with his heart. At least not now.

What did Judas hear?  The same sermons the others did.  He heard the parables that one about the seed of the word that was choked out by the thorns.  He heard that one about the prodigal son wrapped in the arms of his forgiving Father.  He heard Jesus say to people struggling with dark secrets:  Take heart son, your sins are forgiven.  He heard it with his ears.  But not with his heart.  Surely he must have seen Jesus differently at one time.  But something had changed.  What once comforted, strengthened and even thrilled him, is no longer enough…now even a disappointment.    His heart is on earthly things.

Two people can sit in the same church for years.  They can go to the same confirmation classes, say the same prayers and creeds.  They can listen to the same sermons, see what Jesus did in his Word, hear the things he said.  One wanders and turns away.  The other stays.  One see all his life differently because of Christ, even the dark times with a faint glow of a glory to come.  The other sees nothing.

By nature, we are no better than Judas.  By grace, we can see Jesus as we do.  That from this table he would go to suffer and die for us all, even Judas.  That from this table he would offer us a supper of forgiveness and life.

How blessed we are to have a place at his table.  How blessed we are to see him as we do.  To look across the table at him who created us all.    And from there to follow him to his cross where we see a love that would not give up on us.  Amen.