As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 05:06-08, NKJV).
Perhaps one of the most mysterious mortals mentioned in Scripture is the man, Melchizedek.
He is introduced once in Genesis as the King of Salem, a Priest of the Most High God. He is extolled once more in the Messianic Psalm 110, and the 9 remaining occurrences are all in Hebrews.
We are told that Abraham met him after winning a war in Genesis 14, was blessed by him, and gave him tithes. It is fascinating that in a largely pagan world, there existed in the city that would become Jerusalem, a ruler who knew and followed God, whose very name and title together meant King of Righteousness, King of Peace, and who was of such authority and godliness that he was accounted not only as King, but as Priest.
Melchizedek was, therefore, astoundingly suited as an ancient picture of Christ, a point that is made in exquisite detail in chapter 7 of Hebrews, while in the verses above he is cited as an example of Christ's Priestly role being both different than the Levitical priesthood, and based upon a far more ancient precedent. Beyond these sparse facts, we know very little of Melchizedek's life, and it is clear from this, that the main purpose of his inclusion in the Bible, and perhaps of his entire existence, is to provide striking foreshadowings of Christ.
The writer of Hebrews rightly uses Melchizedek as one of the foundations of his argument that the superiority of every aspect of the Savior was predicted from the very beginning of human history in countless typologies and historic incidents. Christ as Lord, Christ as Savior, Christ as Messiah, Christ as Priest, Christ as King, were all part of God's redemptive plan before the foundation of the world. He was no new and novel idea. He was the fulfillment of the eternal counsels of the Godhead established before there was ever time or space or matter. In this way, the first part of the focus verses above, serve as the capstone of the presentation of Jesus as our Great High Priest, more venerable and significant than any priest under the Mosaic system.
From that height, the writer plunges us into the inconceivable depths of the Son's vehement cries and tears. As a Man, a partaker of flesh and blood, Jesus suffered in unimaginable ways, and not just physically. In fact, in one sense the physical torture of His scourging and crucifixion were perhaps the "easiest" to bear, particularly in comparison to the emotional and spiritual anguish we are told He suffered prior to the Cross.
To descend from being Ruler of All to earthly poverty and powerlessness, to experience the unjust, insane, and evil hatred of the very beings He created and sustained, to be falsely accused by man, and then to become sin itself in the eyes of the Father - there are no words to portray the depth of His anguish and pain.
But we know this: His suffering caused Him to sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, and to offer up up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death. (Or more accurately translated as to save Him out of death.) We know that while He set His face like flint to complete His journey of death to Jerusalem, it was also His fervent desire to have the cup of God's judgment and wrath pass from Him.
If the Son of God Himself could barely tolerate the holy judgment of the consuming fire that is our God, imagine the reality of it being poured out forever upon mere mortals who reject the only way of salvation.
These verses in chapter 5 also raise some very pertinent questions.
Has life given you cause to express pain and suffering with vehement cries and tears? Have you been in that place where the darkness was so complete that the very idea of comfort and relief filled you with longing so intense your heart felt like it would explode?
Have you ever screamed out to God to spare you from an intolerable fate?
Has the prospect of continuing even one more moment in inconsolable anguish (let alone another day or week or month or year), left your spirit so trampled and weak that all hope fled?
If so, know that your magnificent Lord and Savior has been there, too. He knows your pain, and more. He came for the express purpose of suffering that which you could not bear so that He could set you free.
His cries and tears ripped apart all Heaven and earth, and in so doing, broke the chains of condemnation forever.
His cries and tears are an ageless tribute to His love for you, and your worth to God.
Do not waste His suffering on your behalf.
Do not, in your arrogance and pride, reject the tears of the Son, and count them as common.
Do not trample the Son of God underfoot.
You can't take the consequences.
And there will be no escape from your suffering if you do.
If you are His, however painful your earthly life is, or becomes, it will be the closest you will ever get to true Hell.
If you are not His, if you die in your sins, whatever paltry earthly joys you may have experienced in this life will be the closest you will ever get to Heaven.
Forever.
