Hebrews 5:1-14
Jesus
is also the mediator between God and humanity, coming as a man to secure our
forgiveness and salvation. In this role He is referred to as a priest, not just
an ordinary priest, but as our great high priest, able to enter the presence of
the Almighty God on our behalf. Carl introduced the discussion of Jesus as
priest last week, where it begins right at the end of Hebrews 4. It is a theme
that will appear off and on actually through the end of chapter 10, expanding
on what it means for Jesus to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek and offer
a once-and-for-all sacrifice of his own blood to give us access to God.
The
statements about Jesus and His identity in this book are interspersed with some
dire warnings against rejecting him in some way. People have identified five
warning passages in particular and have attached a mnemonic, typically: “Don’t
drift, doubt, degenerate, despise, or deny.” It’s catchy, but not that useful
without a fuller explanation. So far we have heard about drifting away in
chapter 2. We need to pay careful attention, we read, for how shall we escape
if we ignore such a great salvation? Chapters 3 and 4 describe how doubt
prevented the people of God from entering his rest. A particular quote from the
Old Testament is repeated three times in these chapters: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” In chapters 5 and 6 we are warned about
the dangers of failing to go on to maturity in Christ. This is part of what we
will cover today. The related “D” word is “degenerate.”
One of
the challenges of studying Hebrews is to discern whom all these warnings are
for. Only for unbelievers? Or also for us as believers? I don’t intend to
debate the doctrine of eternal security, but to be on the safe side, I find it
useful to examine myself every time I come across a warning in Scripture. And,
pragmatically, the result is actually the same if someone rejects their
salvation or was never saved to begin with. They are lost! But we do have the
assurance of God’s promise that no one (that is no external force) can snatch us out of His hand. So today, if you
hear His voice do not harden your own heart. Be open to whatever He wants to
tell you – and obey! In that obedience you will be able to enter His rest, it
says in chapter 4. Obedience takes effort. It takes commitment. That is why we
are told in verse 11 of that chapter to “make every effort” to enter that rest.
And who wouldn’t want to find rest, true rest: the end of doubt and anxiety and
unhealthy stress? We need to soften our hearts in response to God. If we not
finding rest it’s because we are hardening our hearts in some way to the
guidance and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
With
that as an introduction, let’s pray and dig into chapter 5. Actually, I’m going
to back up and include the last three verses of chapter 4 as well, since that
is where Jesus is introduced as our great high priest.
Therefore, since we have a great high
priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who
is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been
tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin. Let us then
approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. – Hebrews 4:14-16
Every high priest is selected from among
the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to
God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal
gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself
is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own
sins, as well as for the sins of the people. And no one takes
this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron
was. – Hebrews 5:1-4
The
concept of a high priest would have been very familiar to the recipients of
this letter. The role had been corrupted and politicized by the time of Christ,
but the original institution as defined in the Torah would still have been respected
by the Jews. Priests are usually highly regarded as intermediaries between
people and the divine. Most religions have priests or at least leaders who
serve in a priestly role. Priests usually communicate sacred information and
perform certain duties to connect people with gods or spirits. In the Old
Testament, God through Moses established very specific parameters for the
priests who would serve the people of Israel. Moses was already functioning as
a priest, standing between God and the people, but it was his brother Aaron
(and Aaron’s sons) who were consecrated formally for that role, with specific
duties, to be aided by the entire tribe of Levi. They were responsible for the
tabernacle and later the temple, mediating between the Israelites and God,
performing animal sacrifices and making offerings on behalf of the people.
The
people were not able to approach God directly. The priests had a higher level
of consecration or ritual purity that allowed them to enter the Holy Place and
represent the people before God in worship. But only the high priest, one
person, was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, the most holy place, once a
year on the Day of Atonement, to sprinkle sacrificial blood on the ark of the
covenant to obtain God’s forgiveness for all the sins of the people that they
had committed over the previous year. Aaron was the first high priest to do this,
and this role was passed down his family line.
So
that is why it says here in Hebrews that the high priest was selected and
appointed to represent the people to God. Aaron could not lord this over the
people, because he was as much in need of forgiveness as they were. The
sacrifices that he offered needed to cover his sins as well as the sins of all
the people. Being subject to weakness himself, he should have sympathy for
others who were struggling. Similarly, Jesus in His humanity also experienced a
level of weakness and temptation that allowed Him to truly empathize with our
weaknesses. He did not sin, but He knows along with us how hard it can be to
resist.
Jesus
is called our great high priest because He offered His own blood for our sins.
He did not sprinkle it on the ark of the covenant, but He bled and died on the
cross as the perfect sacrifice that would not need to be repeated. He did away
with the former priestly, sacrificial system when He ascended to heaven and
became the perfect and permanent mediator between God and His people. He speaks
for us and supports us, therefore we can approach the throne of grace with
confidence, as it says here. We can receive mercy, in the forgiveness of our
sins, and find grace, in all the abundant resources of God to help us with
whatever need we might have. The Son has been given a place of honor by the
Father, foreshadowed by the calling of Aaron. Continuing on in Hebrews 5:
In
the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high
priest. But God said to Him,
“You
are my Son;
today I have become your Father.”
today I have become your Father.”
And He says in another place,
“You
are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.” – Hebrews 5:5-6
in the order of Melchizedek.” – Hebrews 5:5-6
The
first quote here is from Psalm 2, a prophecy about Yahweh’s anointed king whom he
would install on Zion, his holy mountain. Yahweh refers to this king as His
Son, and in the next verse in that Psalm says,
Ask Me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession. – Psalm 2:8
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession. – Psalm 2:8
The
Father is making His Son the ruler of the whole earth. This will reach its
ultimate fulfillment when Jesus comes again in glory to reign forever. The
author of Hebrews is making a connection here with the glory of His being made
high priest as well as king.
The
second quote, in Hebrews 5:6, is from Psalm 110, another prophecy of the Lord
establishing an eternal king in Zion. This king is also established as a priest
forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a priest of Yahweh long
before Moses and Aaron. Jesus is a better fit with the type of priest that he
was, rather than with the Aaronic priesthood, but I’ll not say more about that
now, because that is the main subject of chapter 7, in two weeks’ time. You’ll
notice that Hebrews does that with a number of concepts, not explaining them in
the order that we might expect. Rather than going on to explain what the order
of Melchizedek might mean, the next verses here in Hebrews 5 talk about what it
meant for the Son to suffer during his life on earth. This aspect of Jesus’
identity leads to the title of today’s message, “Suffering Son.”
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to
the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His
reverent submission. Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He
suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation
for all who obey Him and was designated by God to be high priest in the
order of Melchizedek. – Hebrews 5:7-10
This
is not the first mention of Jesus’ suffering. You may recall this verse from
chapter 2:
In bringing many sons and daughters to
glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything
exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what He
suffered. – Hebrews 2:10
What
does it mean that Jesus “learned obedience” from what he suffered? Or that He
was “made perfect” through what He suffered? John explained a few weeks ago
that Jesus did not need to be made perfect in the sense of making up for some
spiritual or moral deficiency. But in some way, Jesus was made complete because
of what He suffered. He learned something, He experienced something, He
obtained something, that He would have missed if He had not suffered.
Suffering
is not something that we are naturally attracted to, because it involves pain
of some kind. The need for or value of suffering is a difficult thing to
understand, because so often it doesn’t “make sense” in human terms. My sister
lost her 42-year-old son about a month ago to pancreatic cancer. The death of a
child is one of the most difficult losses a person can suffer. And what to say
to his wife, holding their youngest baby who will never know her father?
Suffering and grief are all around us. What about the thousands of Ukrainian
families right now suffering unimaginable loss? Why does God allow pain and
sickness and injury and disability and death?
We
experience pain and suffering because we live in a fallen world, broken by the
effects of sin. Romans 8 speaks of the whole creation groaning in pain. Sinful
people are cruel to each other, the earth has been degraded, sickness and death
bring much hardship and grief. Despite Jesus’ redeeming work on the cross we
have not yet escaped all the consequences of selfishness and rebellion against
God. These are passed down from one generation to another. The whole world is
under control of the Evil One, as it says in 1 John 5. We look forward to the
day when Jesus will return and make all things new, as it says in Revelation
21. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or
mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
But
for now, suffering is part of the human experience. We rightly pray to be
delivered from it; and God does spare us from so much. Sick people are healed,
lives are saved, relationships are restored, and so many of our needs are met
in abundance. But beyond asking God to remove
pain and hardship and suffering from our lives, we need to ask Him to redeem it, to use it for good, as He has
promised.
Suffering
does not come to us randomly. God has some purpose in allowing it, if only to
get our attention. As C.S. Lewis put it,
God whispers to us in our pleasures,
speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse
a deaf world. ― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Suffering
is meant to turn us to God, in humility and submission. We can learn obedience
through it, just as Jesus did. We don’t really learn obedience when we comply
with something that is easy to do. We learn obedience when we follow through on
difficult decisions. This kind of obedience costs us something. Jesus gave us
an example of obedience, to bring many sons and daughters to glory. The cross
was not an easy prospect to face. You recall his agony in the Garden of
Gethsemane, when He was overwhelmed with sorrow, as it says in Mark 14:
He fell to the ground and prayed that if
possible the hour might pass from Him. “Abba, Father,” He
said, “everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not
what I will, but what You will.” – Mark 14:35-36
This
is the point at which He learned what obedience really meant, when He came to
terms with it costing him His life, and it brought to completion (or
perfection) his preparation for the cross and His high priestly role. This
comes out clearly in the New Living Translation of our passage in Hebrews 5:
While Jesus was here on earth, He
offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the One who could
rescue Him from death. And God heard His prayers because of His deep reverence
for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered. In this way, God qualified Him as a perfect High Priest, and He
became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him. – Hebrews 5:7-9
If we
want to follow in the steps of Jesus, we will need to endure suffering and look
for God’s purposes in it. In Romans 8 and 5 respectively, Paul commits to this:
I consider that our present sufferings
are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. –
Romans 8:18
Not only so, but we also glory in our
sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance,
character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because
God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit, who has been given to us. -- Romans 5:3-5
If we
doubt God’s goodness and love, then suffering will turn us away from Him.
However, if we cling to Him in faith then He will be able to use the same
suffering to shape us into the image of Christ. In thinking about the way that
we are shaped by suffering, I am reminded of the poignant ending of Great
Expectations, a novel by Charles Dickens. This is not a Christian book as
such, but it does contain some deep insights into human nature. It is told from
the viewpoint of Pip who falls in love with the beautiful Estella, who tortures
him with coldness and rejection. At the end of the book, after each has been
through considerable suffering, they meet again at the house where they had
first met as children.
“I little thought,” said Estella, ‘that
I should take leave of you in taking leave of this spot. I am very glad to do
so.”
“Glad to part again, Estella? To me,
parting is a painful thing. To me, the remembrance of our last parting has been
ever mournful and painful.”
“But you said to me,” returned Estella,
very earnestly. “‘God bless you, God forgive you!’ And if you could say that to
me then, you will not hesitate to say that to me now – now, when suffering has
been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what
your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a
better shape. Be as considerate and good to me as you were, and tell me we are
friends.”
“We are friends,” said I, rising and
bending over her, as she rose from the bench.
“And will continue friends apart,” said
Estella.
I took her hand in mine, and we went out
of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first
left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad
expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting
from her.
Dickens
left the last line deliberately ambiguous. Some people have interpreted it to
mean that Pip and Estella finally got together. But I have thought that it
refers to Pip finally coming to terms with all that has gone before, all the
pain that he has endured. He has been able to forgive Estella such that even if
they do have to say goodbye again, it is not a painful parting. Each of them
has suffered in different ways and have come out stronger and wiser as a
result.
Suffering
can indeed be redeemed, if we look for God’s purpose in it. It may be just to
teach us patient endurance. I was reading an interview this week with Andrew Brunson,
the Presbyterian pastor who was imprisoned in Turkey for two years. You may
have seen the prayer requests for him a few years ago. For part of the time he
was held with 21 others in a cell that was made for 8 prisoners. Without
evidence he was accused of being part of a failed 2016 coup against the Erdogan
government. Thousands of people around the world were praying for his release,
and it was something of a miracle that he was finally allowed to return to the
US in 2018. The interviewer asked him, “Andrew, how was the second year in
prison different than the first, spiritually?” He replied,
So my first year was a breaking year. I
broke, thoroughly, repeatedly, and then God rebuilt me. One of the things I
believe He really wanted to do in me was show me how to devote myself to Him
and be faithful—in the absence of feeling His presence and the normal means of
encouragement.
Even if I don’t see His love or His
faithfulness, even when I don’t have His presence or His voice, and I don’t
feel any grace: Am I going to be faithful to Him? Am I going to embrace Him, in
spite of my circumstances? In spite of feeling abandoned, am I going to be
faithful? Am I going to pass this test and just press into Him?
It
seems that Andrew learned obedience through suffering, too. He didn’t mention
Philippians 3 here, but he certainly lived out these verses:
I want to know Christ—yes, to know
the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming
like Him in His death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the
dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my
goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold
of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of
it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward
what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which
God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 3:10-14
Andrew
kept pressing on toward the goal and has remained faithful. We now come to the
final section of Hebrews 5, the beginning of the warning about failing to go on
to maturity. There will be more to say about this next time, since the
consequences of stagnating in one’s faith or falling away are described at the
beginning of chapter 6. We are urged to keep moving ahead in our faith,
pressing on. Chapter 5 ends by setting the stage for this:
We have much to say about this, but it
is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In
fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach
you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not
solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not
acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the
mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good
from evil. – Hebrews 5:11-14
“We
have much to say about this.” Jesus has just been described again as a high
priest in the order of Melchizedek. There is indeed more to be said about that,
but it seems that the focus is actually on the verses just before: the way in
which Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered, becoming “the source of
eternal salvation for all who obey Him.” The implication is that we as
followers of Jesus should also learn obedience through what we suffer,
following His example.
However,
some recipients of this letter have evidently given up trying to understand
what it means to obey. The “teaching about righteousness” must include ways of
distinguishing good from evil, the basis for knowing how to obey. However, it
appears that this level of obedience was not even a concern for some who called
themselves Christians. They had stopped paying attention. Some were confused
about the basics, some just didn’t seem to care, and some were actually
hardened against the work of God in their lives. Next time we will see how
these attitudes can put people in a dangerous position.
The
warnings in Hebrews are quite sobering, but there is so much grace here, too.
Jesus is our great high priest, interceding for us before the Father. He was
subject to weakness as a human being, so He understands us through and through
and “is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant or are going astray,”
as it said at the beginning our chapter today. This is an expression of His
infinite, unfailing love and a message of hope for the entire world.
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