The author moves more fully into the main theme of his letter today as he explains why we need Christ to perform the role of high priest for us, and as he explains why Christ is perfectly qualified to fulfill this role. Those of us who are Gentiles most typically think of Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, but the writer is speaking to Jewish believers and is using terminology that they are familiar with. Christ, of course, is the high priest of both Jews and Gentiles, but all the writers of the New Testament epistles specifically word their letters in ways their audiences can best understand. The formerly pagan Gentiles were somewhat unfamiliar with how the Jewish religious system worked. Using a lot of terminology like this with Gentiles might have caused the words of the letters to go right over their heads. But the Jewish readers will immediately understand what the author of Hebrews is saying when he explains to them that Christ is the great high priest. This is going to help them to understand how Christ is the mediator between them and God, and how Christ has made an offering of atonement for them that lasts for eternity.
"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." (Hebrews 5:1) The high priest who was selected by the people had to be a descendant of Aaron, from the tribe of Levi. But what about the fact that Jesus is of the tribe of Judah? Does this disqualify Him to be our great high priest? No, because as we will shortly see in today's passage and again later on in the book of Hebrews, God is free to appoint whomever He wants to the priesthood. When the people of Israel selected a high priest, they were to select him from among the tribe of Levi. But we will look at an Old Testament example of God appointing a high priest who was not only not of the tribe of Levi, but who was also not of the nation of Israel. God's choice outweighs man's choice every time, and He is free to select whomever He wants to stand before Him as high priest.
The high priest selected from the tribe of Levi was a mere human being, and because he was human he was able to sympathize with those for whom he was making intercession. Indeed, he was a sinner himself and had to make an offering for himself before he could stand before God and make an offering for the people. "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." (Hebrews 5:2-3) Christ too was a man, and this gives Him a great deal of compassion for us. He knows the pressure we are under. He knows how hard the devil works to tempt us into making bad decisions. But because Christ never sinned, He is superior to a Levite priest in every way. He doesn't have to make sacrifices for Himself, and therefore the sacrifice He made for us is good for all eternity, whereas the Levite priest had to make the sacrifice of atonement every year for himself and for the nation of Israel.
God Himself chose the first great high priest of Israel when He selected Aaron, the brother of Moses, to fill that role. God has the right to choose whom He pleases, so if it pleases Him to select a man from another tribe to serve as priest, His choice supersedes all others. "And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was. 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.' And He says in another place, 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'" (Hebrews 5:4-6) Melchizedek is a mysterious figure we find in Genesis 14. He was not of the nation of Israel; the nation of Israel didn't exist yet. He was not a descendant of Aaron or of the tribe of Levi; neither Aaron nor Levi had even been born. He wasn't a priest who served God under the law; the law had not yet been given. Yet he served the one true God, and God had appointed him as high priest. We will delve deeper into the identity of this mysterious man as we go through the book of Hebrews, but for now all we need to know is that God is free to appoint whomever He wants as high priest, and He chose to appoint His Son as the great high priest whose sacrifice conveys eternal salvation upon us.
Jesus, because He was perfect, did not have to make sacrifices for His own sins. But priests made many other offerings besides sacrifices, so Jesus lifted up His own offerings to God. "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." (Hebrews 5:7) Jesus prayed for the "cup"---the torturous death on the cross---to pass from Him. If there was no other way to save mankind, He was going to have to drink this bitter cup in our place. God heard His prayer, but He didn't say "yes" to it. Instead He sent an angel to minister to Jesus to strengthen Him for the ordeal ahead. (Luke 22:43) This is what gave Jesus the strength to make it through. Jesus knows what it's like to dread something so much that the thought of going through it is unbearable. He knows what it's like to need supernatural help to face what's ahead. He knows what it feels like to have God say "no" to a request. Those who try to downplay Jesus' dread of the cross are, as I've said before in this and other studies, taking away from the honor and glory due Him. He had the power to refuse to come into this world as a man in the first place. He had the power to bypass the cross and take the throne by force. But because skipping the cross meant condemning us to death, He went to death for us. As the saying goes, "It wasn't nails that held Him to the cross. It was love."
"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 5:8-10) Wasn't Christ already perfect? Of course He was, but the things He endured as a man supplied the qualifications for becoming our great high priest. He could not obtain these qualifications seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He could only be trained for the job while down in the trenches with us, fighting alongside us and experiencing all the things we experience as human beings in a fallen world. The high priests of Israel were men who knew what it was like to be human, and now Christ knows what it's like to be human. But unlike those priests, His sacrifice is good for all eternity. This means He is uniquely qualified to be our advocate with the Father.
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