Commentary on Hebrews 5:1-10

Affluence, social status, academic degrees of all sorts, summa cum laude honors, and worldly wisdom are useful, and people should dream of all these things. However, Hebrews warns us that these earthly achievements will not be of service in building the kingdom of God. Neither do they bring revival and growth to the church of Jesus Christ. What makes one become an instrument of God is, first and foremost, being called by God, being born again, and being filled by the Holy Spirit, willing to surrender to God’s will, and then and only then does God appoint people in his vineyard. 

Indeed, those who aspire to work for God must, first and foremost, be called by God, intentionally put in charge of godly affairs, and must become the embodiment of God’s kingdom. Yes, it takes only God to fill hearts with his power, and then the spiritual renewal of a lost church will be born again. That is the gospel message of Hebrews 5:1–10. In Christ’s submission, humanity had access to salvation, and with Christ’s obedience to God, the redemption of the world was set in motion. 

Hence, the Hebrews preacher has a series of affirmations, beginning with the humanity of Jesus (5:1–4). The preacher of Hebrews makes a bold affirmation of the identity and the being of Jesus Christ (5:1–10). Several qualifications and preparations of Jesus as the high priest and manifestation of God are enumerated by the preacher. Jesus, our high priest who shared in all our human struggles and was tested in every manner yet found without sin, was entirely obedient and faithful to God. 

However, the obedience of Jesus did come at an excruciating and agonizing cost, with cries, tears, and death, and his prayers in the garden of Gethsemane and on the cross did not even deliver him, but he remained centered in God. Healthy self-love is most manageable when the awareness of how marvelously God has gifted each servant is acknowledged. Indeed, when abilities are exercised and weaknesses are minimized, one gains a glimpse of God’s plan for the way one is to live life.

The more directly a person relies on God to guide decision-making, the more effectively that life will be lived as a gift to the world. Jesus lived and conducted his life with deep humility, and like all biblical faith and spiritual leaders, Jesus did not aspire to the role of a Savior or even work to attain the position. Instead, God appointed him and sent him into the world to live, minister, and die for all humanity as a proclamation and demonstration of God’s love for humanity. This, in turn, created great satisfaction and encouraged greater communion with his Father, our God. 

The more self-accepting Jesus did, the more he came to accept all who have faith in God. Hence, God’s love begets self-love, which begets love that resembles the ripple effects of water touched by a rock. The earthly life of Jesus was a training and preparation for a much higher divine office; he was empathetic to humanity and divinely obedient to God. Having been perfected by challenges and pain, Jesus was glorified by God and appointed to be the Savior of the world. Unlike various leaders in the world, who appoint themselves, Jesus was proclaimed by God as a high priest and given a name higher than any other names in or under the world (Philippians 2:1–11). 

While people claim to be called by God and work hard to be ordained as pastors, the preacher of Hebrews invites us to view ordination as God’s own prerogative, and in that manner, denominational ordination does give us a job. Hence, authentic ordination comes through the power of the Holy Spirit, and in many cases, ordination becomes a reality when laypeople claim one as their pastor. 

The humility and submissive obedience of Jesus Christ to God earned him the crown of glory. In the Hebrew Bible, we read about prophets and even disciples who had weaknesses and at times failed to obey God’s word. On the other hand, Jesus did not turn his back against God, and in no one instance did he stray from God. This is a lesson to leaders in the 21st-century church that when situations are difficult, the last thing one should do is compromise faith. The easy way out is not an option, but Jesus modeled the hard way of suffering, crying, and dying while still holding faith in God. 

In other words, the road to heaven goes through pain, struggles, tears, limping, and loss of one’s being. The preacher of Hebrews informs us that God’s work is not a political exercise in which one appoints himself or herself to be a bishop, clergy, or ecclesial leader. These positions are given to us by God, as the Scriptures say in Psalm 2:7 and 110:4. However, because of people’s desires to get richer and richer, we are experiencing many leaders of denominations claiming power, even if it means others die. The sin of our time is that humanity tends to step into positions and use God’s name to maintain power and abuse people. 

Could it be that 21st-century humanity has lost its sense of being called by God or that God is no longer part of what we call the church? The answer to this poignant question is indeed true because Jesus, as the Son of God and Savior of the world, learned to submit to God’s will; he learned to endure hardships, trials, beatings, persecutions, and death on the cross. And he was in the grave, but on the third day, God resurrected Jesus, and that deep sense of humility demonstrated by his perfect obedience to God qualified him to be the harbinger of eternal salvation to all believers.  

In Hebrews 5:10, the preacher makes a supreme point that Jesus was appointed by God as a high priest in the order of Melchizedek (see also 7:1–28). In 5:7–8, the sermon takes us back to the earthly days of Jesus when he prayed to God, the only one who has the power to save, and God saw his reverent submission. Carrying and sharing the pain of human experiences, Jesus offered prayers and supplications with anguish of heart and cries of the soul for the sake of saving humanity. Even today, Jesus Christ is involved in the ministry of salvation to all people in the world. His prayers and ours are an offering from the soul to God. 

Similarly, believers are heirs to Christ, and it is essential for us to learn obedience through suffering as Jesus did. We all love comfort, but in comfort, we fail to learn obedience to God. The learning of obedience in Jesus’ case consisted not of unlearning disobedience or gaining skills in fighting pain. Rather, Jesus learned obedience through the trials and perils of the heart’s desires. He passed the test and endured at all costs, and was obedient even unto death, and the last hours of his life were a testament to and a climax of the testing of his obedience (Philippians 2:8). Indeed, with the expiring cry “It is finished,” the lesson was learned, and the learner was made perfect by God for the priesthood he was to exercise. 

That is the lesson we all must endure, and in the end, God will perfect us, strengthen us, equip us, and make us ready to serve in any location and context. Disciples, like their master, are made perfect by the experience of life and death.

In our 21st-century world, we may ask the following questions: Where are the submissive and obedient leaders of the church? Who is willing to build and embody the kingdom of God? Where has the church gone wrong in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ that leads to social justice in the world? Can the remnant learn the ways of Christ’s perfect obedience? The message of Hebrews is due and is urgently needed in the 21st-century global church.