Discovering God- Jesus as Son

Read Hebrews 4:14-5:10.

1. How does this passage describe Jesus?

2. Why does the author of Hebrews mention Aaron (5:5)? Who was he? (See Exo 28:1-3).

Aaron was the first high priest for the Israelites (Ezekiel 7:1-10).

3. What is the role of a high priest? (See Hebrews 5:1-2)

The role of the high priest was to make sacrifices on the behalf of the Israel nation, in response to their sin. Every year the High priest would enter into the ‘Holy of Holies’ and offer up a sacrifice to God.

At this point, I think it is important to draw out the limitations of the ‘high priests’ that came before Jesus. Not only had the position become tarnished since the divine regulation of passing down the high priest position from father to son was lost, inherent to the high priest’s function/solution was an element of imperfection. A high priest had to continually offer up sacrifices for the sins of Israel, and the very fact the high priest had to offer sacrifices for his own ‘weakness’ (v3), meant his capacity for mediation was imperfect.

Contrast that with Jesus, who is described as ‘him who had no sin’ (2 Cor 5:21), and that ‘christ suffer once for sins’ (1 Peter 3:18). We see in Jesus a high priest who is free from the imperfections which had plagued the position up until His coming.

4. How many times is the term ‗high priest‘ is used in these 13 verses?

5. Why does the author of Hebrews emphasise the fact that Christians have Jesus as our

High Priest? Tehillah – Year One

By this time, the position of High Priest had been discredited through the abandonment of the divinely ordained practice handing down the position from father to son. Also, as the David line of kings in Israel also petered out, the high priests would often assume the functions of a monarch. These individuals were characterised with great cruelty, often abusing their power in right of kings and by increasing the amount which had to be paid over to the temple. These high priests were disconnected from the common people and ignorant of their needs.

By the time of the Roman occupation, the position of High priest had been degraded to the point where it was practically sold off to the highest bidder (officially, the Romans were in charge of conferring the position). The High Priest of Jesus’ time were often seen as collaborators of the occupying force.

Jesus corrects both these deficiencies which had come to characterise the high priest position- he is a high priest which people can relate to, by way of suffering in the same way we have. And while Jesus may not be a descendant of Aaron, Paul’s reference back to Melchizedek positions Jesus in an order of high priests before the Aaronic line, one which is defined through.

The question is, what is taking the position of high priest today? (see below…)

6. The high priest was very important in Jewish culture. The Old Testament books of

law show that the high priest performed tasks that could not be completed by anyone

else. If the writer of Hebrews had been writing in our culture, what people might he

have used to illustrate his point?

If we substitute ‘individual’ for high priest, and ‘our’ for Jewish, we establish a notion that I think many people today build their perspectives on. Our society is built around edifying the ‘I’- If ‘I’ work hard enough I’ll get what I deserve, the overwhelming importance placed on self-esteem. Many people today believe that the solution to the sum total of their problems exists within them, if they only have the power to grasp it. However, when it is clear on so many occasions that the problems we face are impossible to answer by our own strength, or that we are the very perpetrators of the problems which plague us, how are we to continue believing in this me-centred doctrine?

7. An unchanging quality of God (Father, Son and Spirit) is that He is perfect. Yet,

Hebrews 5:9 seems to imply that Jesus was less than perfect until His resurrection.

Considering the immediate context of this passage, what might this verse mean?

While Jesus was (and is) perfect in his status as God, His resurrection completes God’s importance for the human race. It is through Jesus’ sacrifice that we are redeemed in God’s eyes. It is His perfection however, which brings us back into a rightful relationship with God for all eternity.

8. If Jesus is perfect and sinless, then can He really sympathize with us?

We never want to forget Jesus’ divinity, his status as the ‘source of eternal salvation’ (which coincidentally, is the answer to the next question…). But at the same time, we need to be aware of the fact that Jesus came down to Earth to conduct His redeeming ministry as a man. It is arguable that Jesus faced temptation and suffering beyond what most of us will ever come to experience. Jesus was tempted by the devil himself (Mt 4:1-12), where He was offered the entire world. Similarly too, in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-45) expresses a very human aversion to His impending death.

Jesus’ ‘weakness’ (v2) allows Him to empathise and understand us even when we are under the most stressful of times. At the same time, Jesus is superior to all High Priests who have come before Him, as His weaknesses do not subject Him to the curse of sin.

9. According to this passage, where do we find eternal salvation?