“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.”

My cousin was ordained a priest when I was a little girl.  One thing I remember clearly from the ordination was the quote from today’s psalm, “You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.”  At five, I thought, “Melchizedek?  Who’s that?  I thought a priest was supposed to be working for God!”

In these early days of the liturgical year, the beautiful sequence of readings from the Letter to the Hebrews has taken us through an extended analogy comparing the relationship of the priesthood of Jesus with the priesthood of Melchizedek.  As a “type” of priest in Hebrews, Melchizedek gets a lot of attention.  Jesus’ priesthood is like his, in that it is unexpected (i.e., Jesus is not of a priestly tribe) and it is also superior to the priesthood of those who had offered sacrifice in the Temple.  Jesus’ one eternal sacrifice is superior in that it has the power to take away sins forever, compared to the Temple priests’ sacrifices, whose sin-offerings had to be repeated day after day.  The author of Hebrews maintains that Jesus’ loving sacrifice of Himself brings us God’s forgiveness forever.  “For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated…Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.”

Because we are God’s children, whenever God looks at us, God sees the Beloved.  God looks at us in all our dark sinfulness, and God sees the splendor of the Beloved, Jesus, who gave Himself completely for us.  “You are my Beloved,” God says to us, and we are forgiven.  “Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more,” God says.  We are completely forgiven, forever.

Many of my New Testament students have struggled with this concept when studying Hebrews.  It is easier for them to believe that God’s justice demands condemnation of undeserving sinners, than that God forgives us.  The conversation among the students runs roughly like this:  “How can that be?  Do you mean that God has already forgiven our sins?  It doesn’t make sense!  I should have to repent, feel remorse, do some suffering first, win back God’s approval, shouldn’t I?”  God already forgives you.

“But then, why should I be good?”  You should be good because, as a child of God, you are good.  You should be good because you are thankful for the mystery that is life and love.  You should be good because you have been given God’s forgiveness, because God’s Law is written on your heart, because you want to be who you are – a child of God.  You should be good because you recognize that God created you in gratuitous love.  God loves you unconditionally because you exist, like parents who love their unborn baby without even seeing it.  As a parent loves a baby because it exists, not because it does or does not do something, so God loves you.

It is a mystery that “God is love,” the mystery that Jesus said had been revealed to believers.  As believers, we have heard the parable of the laborers who were given a full day’s wages, even after working only about half an hour.  We have heard the parable of the “Prodigal Son,” who was forgiven completely before having had a chance to beg his father’s forgiveness.  Still, we are sometimes resentful, like the laborers who worked a full day in the first parable, or the older son who is angry in the second parable.  We are jealous because God is so generous, so lavish, so unlike us in love.  How can God love us like that?

Mark’s parable of the sower says it so well.  Some receive the seed (the Word of God) and are not fertile for its planting.  Their ears and eyes are not open to Mystery.  They will never see, hear, or understand God’s word, never let it take root in their hearts.  To them, the message of unconditional love and forgiveness is for fools, for weaklings, for naïve little kids.  It is those whose hearts are ready, open, and receptive who yield a rich harvest.  Their lives bear the fruit of joy, gratitude, and forgiveness.  Sometimes, tax collectors and prostitutes enter the Kingdom of Heaven because they have opened themselves to God’s forgiveness.  The sinful woman in Luke’s Gospel was recognized by Jesus as “forgiven, because she has shown great love.”  Her great love was the fruit and evidence that her sins were already forgiven.  To some it may seem impossible, but it reflects the great mystery of God’s love.  And it is a great mystery, this love of God!  Today let us celebrate and be thankful for God’s love that heals, forgives, and gives us new life.