(Heb.7:25-8:6;   Ps.40:7-10,17;   Mk.3:7-12)   “Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through Him, since He forever lives to make intercession for them.”   Oh how the people approach Him today, seeking healing, seeking grace: “a great crowd followed Him from Galilee, and an equally great multitude came to Him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon” – from all around they came to press upon Him, to press upon Him…  “All who had afflictions kept pushing toward Him to touch Him.  Unclean spirits would catch sight […]

(Heb.7:1-3,15-17;   Ps.110:1-4;   Mk.3:1-6)   “Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.”   We hear today more specifically about “Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God,” whose name means “king of justice” and also “king of peace,” who is therefore so like our King Jesus; it is in his line the Lord takes His place. “Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor,” King David declares of his Lord and our Lord.  Indeed before the dawn of […]

(Heb.6:10-20;   Ps.111:1-2,4-5,9-10;   Mk.2:23-28)   “I will indeed bless you, and multiply you.”   God promised to bless Abraham, to make his descendants numerous as the stars; and “He swore by Himself,” “by oath,” to carry out His promise, thus giving an unshakable, “unchangeable” “firmness to [the] promise.”  God does not go back on His word.  And so, “after patient waiting, Abraham obtained what God had promised”; He became the father of many nations, of all those of faith. Now if God is so faithful, should we who are “heirs of His promise,” who are […]

(Heb.5:1-10;   Ps.110:1-4;   Mk.2:18-22)   “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”    Without beginning or end is the holy priesthood of our Lord; high above all sacrifices reigns His own. “Taken from among men” is Jesus our high priest “and made [our] representative before God.”  Like others He is in this respect; yet the “gifts and sacrifices” He offers are infinitely greater than any that have ever been, for it is Himself He lifts up for our sins.  “He is Himself beset by weakness,” though not His own; He is Himself pierced for […]

(Heb.4:12-16;   Ps.19:8-10,15,Jn.6:63;   Mk.2:13-17)   “Nothing is concealed from Him.”   In God’s eyes all men are sinners; this is what His penetrating vision cannot help but see.  Yet it is just such sinners as we He has come to call, to call away from our sin.  The Pharisees cannot bear this sword of truth to pierce their soul, and so they take up the sword of anger against those who are being redeemed, and He who is redeeming them.  Let us not be as these hardened hearts, brothers and sisters, but expose our sin to the Lord’s sharp gaze, that He might heal us by His […]