Christianity as a whole is full of rituals: how to act, how to look, what to say, insistence on certain ways of behaving, singing hymns, communal prayer, and rigid worship. Weddings, baptisms, funerals, confirmations, confessions and communions, designed as symbols of faith, have succeeded in binding congregations in close ties of duty and obligation. They are also great money spinners. In first century Palestine, religion had to do with ritual and appearance; It mattered a lot what you did and when you did it, what you said and how you said it. So when Jesus broke with tradition, like when he did his magic on the Sabbath, he raised his eyebrows.

Hebrews 7.11 says:

“If perfection could have been achieved through the Levitical priesthood, and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood, why was it still necessary for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? “

What exactly is the order of Melchizedek and how does the landscape of worship change? This is a huge question for all Christians that is not always fully understood.

To begin to understand this verse, a little history is necessary. Before Jesus, only the descendants of Aaron, the tribe of Levi, were eligible to become High Priest; Jesus was from the tribe of Judah and therefore was not eligible; but the authority of Jesus came from order of Melchizedek. We heard about Melchizedek, a contemporary of Abraham, long before we heard about Aaron at the beginning of the Exodus. The interesting thing about the Melchizedek priesthood is that it owes its authority directly to God, bypassing the Israelite tradition. We don’t know much about Melchizedek, but we do know from the New Testament that Jesus’ right to the priesthood came from him, not from the Levites. This explains the fury created among the high priests of his day. Overlooking the authority of the Pharisees posed Jesus as a threat to the establishment.

So the vitriol directed at Jesus was not because his teachings were not biblical or irreligious, but was based on a tradition that preyed upon Judaism (see Genesis 14: 18-20 and Psalm 110: 4). Through this simple biblical shift in focus, believers were freed from the legalism of the past, the endless list of dos and don’ts in Leviticus to which they had been subjugated since the time of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Through Jesus, they were connected to an even older order that preceded the Commandments by around 300 years and gave them a direct line to God. This was a huge step forward in religious terms that it is almost impossible for us to imagine today. The closest modern comparison would be that of a young man breaking into the Vatican in the name of God and telling the Pope that God says: “Thank you for your time but it no longer requires your services.”

After that, God’s grace was available to everyone, not just Jews, and anyone could be a priest, not just a Levite. While the Old Testament rules were an important part of enhancing Israel’s faith in a time of dire hardship and insecurity, they were never supposed to be in effect forever. Paul in Romans 3: 20-24 says: “No one will be declared righteous in the eyes of God by the works of the law.” In other words, a new moment has come: it’s not what you do, it’s what you believe that counts.

Everything is fine. However, 300 years after Jesus’ death, Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome and established a common creed agreed upon at a council of bishops held at Nicaea. This, with minor adjustments, would be preached in churches across Europe for centuries to come and would make the church once again the authority in people’s lives, the only way to salvation. The ritual returned to the idea of ​​worship. This was not necessarily a bad thing, except that it eventually opened the door for corruption. By the end of the first millennium, the sacraments had become bargaining chips and were exchanged for money. The congregations, kept in ignorance about the true meaning of their faith, had to hand over cash to ensure their salvation. The wealth of the church multiplied. Greedy priests and popes in alliance with the state proceeded to make the word of Christ a tool for political domination and intolerance. Martyrs abound in early church history, burned at the stake for heresy that often amounted to nothing more than disagreement over the meaning of a verse or two of the Bible. The Inquisition, established to test heretical beliefs, quickly earned a reputation for cruelty. The Reformation, Catholic and Protestant, helped change some of these bad habits, but overall the model of church established by Constantine and his bishops remains to this day.

Fast forward to the 21st century. The Church and priests have been exposed as untrustworthy and out of step with the new enlightenment. Numerous scandals have tainted the character of the priesthood. A brief examination of history reveals that religion was behind most of the conflicts of the past, from the massacres promulgated by the Crusades to the troubles in Northern Ireland and the struggles in the Middle East. A new “awakened” generation wants nothing to do with this kind of sectarianism. A faith that tells them that to reach perfection in their faith they must abandon their rights as individuals or take up arms against each other is not a faith that a peace-loving generation can relate to. However, if Christ, the symbol of that faith, were to walk the earth today, he would undoubtedly support their cause. He preached precisely the opposite of sectarianism. He explained that perfection is in the eyes of the Lord, not our own eyes, and that, incredibly, God manages to find perfection in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12: 9) not our supposed strongholds. The problems created during the history of the church were not due to the word of Christ, but to the way in which that word was misused and abused by greedy and powerful men.

Dissatisfaction with the church has led to a decrease in the value of Christ in our lives. As the church’s influence in society has waned, greedy and powerful men have had to find refuge in other pursuits. The new liberal capitalism of the 1980s offered the perfect vehicle. Today, instead of being ritualized in the church, we are being ritualized in a secular society that still needs to control its population. The rules for correct behavior, what to say and how we say it, what to do and how to do it, are increasing. There is a sense that our personal freedoms are being eroded and sacrificed on the altar of greed and corruption once again.

We need Christlike lessons of faith and tolerance more than ever. Greed and corruption remain and grow daily. The intolerance of those who do not “fit in” has been normalized. Success is increasingly based on self-interest, our looks and behavior, sound bites and jingles, spurred on by the media, rituals established by a devouring global marketplace. We have completed the circle. But instead of the church trying to steal our identity and take our money, it is now the global market.

Only by returning to the order of Melchizedek, the authority that comes directly from God, the faith written in our hearts, can we escape the pressures that large corporations impose on us.

Faith resets our values ​​to factory settings. Good and evil become clear when the model of Jesus is followed, returning power to the common people. Religious ritual, if done correctly, can play an essential role in the well-being of our communities by providing social justice and protection (both inside and outside the church); Despite the mistakes of the past, it should remain in our lives. Community worship, social support, prayers, hymn singing, large gatherings in the name of Jesus, are all positive religious tools that, when ulterior motives are removed, are of enormous benefit to the vulnerable; A good Christian sermon can give hope to those who have almost given up. I have often thought that rock concerts are just a breath of a spiritual longing that we have in our hearts; may drugs fill the voids left by the absent love of God; that sex has replaced our desire to be in the church of God; Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, the mantra of my youth, are only pale reflections of the joy of knowing Christ, who is the real thing and much better because it is offered free without conditions, without basement.

But just like a good rock concert, the crowd has to flock to church because they crave the excitement, not because someone tells them they have to.

All of us, regardless of faith or none, have that need within us for spiritual elevation, but we must find it in the right places and not where society directs us. Today’s society works by denigrating us and persuading us of the need to constantly improve, as the ancient church used to do. This is what product sells. However, godly perfection does not come from looking or behaving perfectly, but from having faith in love for all and an unwavering trust in God’s plan for each of us, which is perfect without us having to do anything but believe. .