thecrump

I've never liked math. In high school I struggled to stay above water as square roots and imperfect fractions swirled around my head like sharks ready to attack.  Even today I look at my daughter, Emily's, home school work and I cringe.

Of course, math is not a bad thing (I gotta keep repeating this to myself) and can be very useful to prove a point. Take for instance the "equation" that is put forth in the book of Hebrews. The author desires to help the Jewish people understand the authority of Jesus. He is supreme over everyone from angels to Abraham. To help this hesitant audience grasp this reality, he explains each elements transitive relation (impressed with that math term aren't you?)

Transitive relation looks something like this:
If A>B and B>C than A>C

This fairly simple construct is used to organize our thoughts around Jesus Christ and His supremacy. We read this in Hebrews 7:4-10

       Consider then how great this Melchizedek was. Even Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, recognized this by giving him a tenth of what he had taken in battle. ⁵ Now the law of Moses required that the priests, who are descendants of Levi, must collect a tithe from the rest of the people of Israel,^[a] who are also descendants of Abraham. ⁶ But Melchizedek, who was not a descendant of Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham. And Melchizedek placed a blessing upon Abraham, the one who had already received the promises of God. ⁷ And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed. ⁸ The priests who collect tithes are men who die, so Melchizedek is greater than they are, because we are told that he lives on. ⁹ In addition, we might even say that these Levites—the ones who collect the tithe—paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to him. ¹⁰ For although Levi wasn’t born yet, the seed from which he came was in Abraham’s body when Melchizedek collected the tithe from him.

In that passage we see this transitive property play out like this:
If Melchizedek received tithes & gave blessings to Abraham and Abraham represented the priests of God (Levi's) then Melchizedek is even greater than the Levi's.

In other words:
Melchizadek (Jesus) > Abraham and Abraham > Levis than Melchizadek (Jesus) > Levis

So, why go through all this trouble? Why does the author of Hebrews get all "mathy" on us? He does so because to the Jewish person there was no higher person than Abraham. He was the founding father of the faith and His line (especially Levi) were of the highest order and authority. Hebrews takes that thought and turns it on it's head by showing the greater authority and power that is found in Christ.

Why would it have been so hard for the people to see the power of Christ over Abraham? I believe that part of it was because Abraham was a great man of many blessings. He had power over servants, family and a nation. Jesus came to earth as a servant, with nothing. He had no permanent residence, very little money and in the end He was killed by Romans. This was not anything like the Jewish patriarch. Of course, what they did not realize was that His life, death and resurrection showed Jesus to be greater than all people. He was the perfect priest of God as well as the perfect sacrificial lamb of God. 

To simplify the equation:
Jesus > Everyone

And the most profound part of that equation is that He did not Lord it over us, but rather gave it all up so that we could experience His unending love and grace.  Thank you Jesus.