Hebrews 4:14-5:10--Jesus the Great High Priest

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​Jesus the Great High Priest
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,
“You are my Son,
    today I have begotten you”;
6 as he says also in another place,
“You are a priest forever,
    after the order of Melchizedek.”
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

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We now move onto to Jesus as our Great High Priest.  The role of the High Priest was to make atonement for the people of God and mediate between God and man so that He could speak to the people for God and could speak to God on behalf of the people to plead for God to forgive their sins and remember His covenant with His people.  He was an advocate that was one of the people that was called out to be separate and different than the rest in his role and actions, but yet still a representative of the people of God and of the human race in general.  Jesus is just such a representative.  Since He came in the form of a man and lived a human life and died a human death, He is aware of all of our frailties and sorrows.  He can not just sympathize but empathize with us because He has been there and experienced similar griefs, pains, sorrows, and adversities.  He was tempted like us and yet, unlike us or any other high priest, He Himself did not fall into temptation and commit any sin against God or man.  This is the one person who can stand before God on our behalf and make intercession for us, so let us boldly put our faith in Him and approach God by way of the grace and mercy available in and through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

As we mentioned before, Jesus was without sin and therefore He did not need to make a sacrifice for Himself.  Because of this He was the only one that could be an acceptable sacrifice to God in place of any or all of us.  Someone innocent must take the place and the penalty of someone guilty.  If it was simply another guilty person, He would just be dying for His crimes and could not pay for the crimes of anyone else, but Jesus having committed no "crimes" (sin) against God was rightly found not guilty by Pilate but was killed to be The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This was not a role that Jesus wanted (other than He wanted to fulfill God's plan), but we see that in the Garden of Gethsemane He pleads with the Father that if there is any other way for God to provide it but ultimately He prays, "Not my will, but Yours be done."  It is during this time that we see Jesus act most as High Priest as He engages in intercessory prayer before His arrest and death-see John 17.

Now comes one of the most interesting prophecies about Jesus.  He would be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.  What in the world is that to mean?  The Hebrew readers would recognize this name from Genesis 14 and Psalm 110.  Melchizedek was both a king--the king of Salem, a place mentioned only one other place in the Bible--Psalm 76--where it says, "In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel.  His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion." (Psalm 76:1-2).  So Salem seems to be "the city of God" and we are told that Melchizedek was also a priest of the Most High God.  He served Abraham bread and wine--while we shouldn't read too much into this, isn't it very interesting that these are the symbols of the New Covenant that Jesus would use during the Last Supper in what we now call Communion or the Eucharist in many of our churches today?  Melchizedek blessed Abram and Abram gave him a tenth (a tithe) of everything that Abram had just won in battle.  He doesn't do that with any of the other kings here--in fact right after this Abram gives everything back to the other kings and refuses to take a portion for himself after he makes sure his men were paid and provided for.  So who is this royal priest who shows up out of nowhere and is given a tenth of the spoils before they are divided among the victors and shares in what we would call Communion with Abram and blesses Him and speaks on behalf of the Most High God and seems to come from the very place later referred to as the place where God dwells?  It seems like this may be none other than Jesus Himself in what we would call a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ or a Christophany.  At a minimum this is what we would call a "type" of Christ--someone that foreshadowed something important about the coming Messiah.

Back to the person of Jesus.  The writer of the Hebrews references the passionate prayer of Christ in the Garden that we mentioned earlier as Jesus prayed as God's Son for the Father to make some other way, but obeyed and submitted to God's way so that He could make a way for us--the only Way and so that He could bring many sons (and daughters) to glory.  "Being made perfect" is probably a bad English translation here as the word "perfect" in the New Testament could also be translated as "complete."  So maybe this verse could be better translated as, "And having completed everything perfectly, He became the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him..."

Quick note here that the author to the Hebrews doesn't say that He is the source of eternal life for all those who believe in who He is and what He did.  We see in other places in the Bible that even the demons believe that, but they refuse to be willingly obey God or the Son of God or the Spirit of God.  They cannot however ignore God's authority over them and are compelled to obey even though they do so unwillingly.  Everything in heaven and on earth and under the earth (in hell) will one day worship Jesus as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords whether it is done willingly or unwillingly.  The choice is ours if we choose today to put our faith in the one who is not only our propitiation (the satisfaction) for our sin debt--the one who was a better sacrifice--but the one who is the only Advocate and Great High Priest who can enter the very throne room of God and plead for you because He is both God and Man.  Not only that, but this is the One who will one day actually sit in judgement over all men.  Don't you want your advocate to be the one ruling in your favor because He has already paid your debt in full?  What a great salvation God has provided for us, and how foolish it would be of us to refuse so great a salvation and expect to find some other way and escape the punishment that we so justly deserve.

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