(Hebrews 7)
Once a seminary professor was complaining to his class about the way evangelicals pray. “Why do you always say ‘just,’”? he asked. “Why do you have to say, ‘we just want to thank you, Lord,” and “we just want to ask you, Lord.” A student answered somewhat testily. “Just is a word we used to express awe,” he said. “We don’t feel that we are on equal terms with God. I suppose that when you are a seminary professor, you can walk right up to God and act like a pal.”
It’s true. Sometimes when we pray, we forget to whom we are talking. God is so much greater than we that we might as well be fruit flies communicating with a whale. What is remarkable – no, more than that, stupendous – is how much God wants to hear us. He sent His Son to open communication lines with us. It is as if for something of the utmost international importance, George W. Bush would not send Condoleezza Rice but his own father, the senior George Bush, whom he trusts intimately and completely.
This is the point which The Letter to the Hebrews makes today and over and over again. Jesus Christ is not the ordinary priest but unique perhaps akin to Melchizedek who makes a fleeting appearance in the Book of Genesis. He is the one most worth praying to because he has complete access to God since he came from and has returned to Him. Furthermore, he knows our condition intimately since he walked our ways. We also must never stop entrusting our lives to him.
