What qualifications define the authentic high priesthood and how does Christ fulfill them according to the order of Melchisedech in Hebrews 5?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Hebrews 5 reveals that a true high priest is chosen by God to offer sacrifices with compassionate empathy for sinners, a dignity Christ did not claim for Himself but received from the Father through His reverent suffering, obedience, and perfection as a priest forever after the order of Melchisedech.

Chapter breakdown

The author explains the essential character and sacred function of the high priesthood under divine law. Every high priest selected from among humanity is appointed to act as a representative of mankind in matters relating to God, charged with offering both liturgical gifts and expiatory sacrifices for sins. Because the earthly priest is himself enveloped in human frailty, he is able to deal gently and patiently with those who fall into ignorance or spiritual error; for this very reason, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own personal transgressions just as he does for the sins of the congregation. Furthermore, no man presumes to seize this sacred honor by personal ambition; he must receive a divine vocation directly from God, as demonstrated in the historic calling of Aaron.

In the same manner, Christ did not elevate Himself to the dignity of the high priesthood through self-glorification. Rather, He was designated by the eternal Father, who addressed Him in the quoted sayings as His begotten Son and proclaimed Him a perpetual priest according to the distinct order of Melchisedech. During the earthly days of His mortal life, Jesus offered up earnest supplications and tearful pleas accompanied by loud cries to the Father, who possessed the almighty power to rescue Him from death. On account of His filial reverence and humble piety, He was heard for His reverence. Although He was the divine Son, Christ learned the experiential cost of obedience through the tribulations He endured. Being consummated, He became the author of everlasting salvation for all who render Him obedience, formally acknowledged by God as the supreme high priest after the pattern of Melchisedech.

Turning to his audience, the author observes that there is profound teaching to unfold concerning Melchisedech's mysterious priesthood, yet it is arduous to articulate because the community has become sluggish and dull in spiritual comprehension. Given the duration of their Christian life, they ought by now to be instructing others; instead, they still need someone to teach them the elementary lessons of God's revealed truth. They resemble infants who depend upon milk, incapable of digesting solid food. Anyone whose spiritual diet remains restricted to milk is unskilled in the teaching of righteousness, possessing the limited capacity of a toddler. In contrast, solid food is intended for mature disciples, whose spiritual faculties have been trained by custom to distinguish between good and evil.

The story inside

High priests taken from men are ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, can compassionate ignorant and erring people because they share infirmity, and offer for themselves too. Honor is by God’s calling as Aaron’s. Christ did not glorify himself: quoted sayings name Son and priest forever in Melchisedech’s order. In flesh he offered prayers with cry and tears and was heard for reverence. He learned obedience by suffering and, consummated, became salvation’s cause to those obeying him. Further teaching is hard because hearers are weak: they should be masters but need first elements and milk. Strong meat belongs to those whose senses by custom discern good and evil.

Lessons worth keeping

1
No prayer location or audience objection to Christ’s ancestry is given.
2
Salvation’s stated scope includes all that obey him.
3
Milk and strong meat are teaching metaphors, not dietary or medical directions.

Test your recall

According to Hebrews 5, what two prophetic declarations from the psalms did God speak to establish Christ's divine Sonship and eternal priesthood?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 135499–135510
5:1. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins: 5:2. Who can have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err: because he himself also is compassed with infirmity. 5:3. And therefore he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. 5:4. Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was.
Lines 135512–135517
5:5. So Christ also did not glorify himself, that he might be made a high priest: but he that said unto him: Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee. 5:6. As he saith also in another place: Thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech.
Lines 135519–135530
5:7. Who in the days of his flesh, with a strong cry and tears, offering up prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death, was heard for his reverence. 5:8. And whereas indeed he was the Son of God, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. 5:9. And being consummated, he became, to all that obey him, the cause of eternal salvation: 5:10. Called by God a high priest, according to the order of Melchisedech.
Lines 135532–135543
5:11. Of whom we have much to say and hard to be intelligibly uttered: because you are become weak to hear. 5:12. For whereas for the time you ought to be masters, you have need to be taught again what are the first elements of the words of God: and you are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. 5:13. For every one that is a partaker of milk is unskilful in the word of justice: for he is a little child. 5:14. But strong meat is for the perfect: for them who by custom have their senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil.