Melchizedek - Hebrews 5

5:1-3 - After referring to Jesus as the “great high priest” in chapter 4, Paul expands on that as we move into chapter 5. It’s interesting because when I first read Paul calling Jesus the “great high priest” I had imagined him as simply the highest priesthood holder at the time, kind of like how Jesus is the Savior, this was just another name for him. But in chapter 5 we can see that Paul meant it to be more than just another name, but instead references the structure of Judaism to help the Jewish Christians he’s addressing to understand Jesus’ position in a way that they would already be familiar with. The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com explains that when calling Jesus the “great high priest,” “Paul is not speaking of the office of high priest in the Melchizedek priesthood. There was one man who held the office of high priest as the presiding authority of the Levitical priesthood.” Maybe it’s because all the Apostles hold the keys to the priesthood, or because our local priesthood leadership gets switched out so often, the idea that there is one guy who is in charge of doing everything is just very foreign to me. In fact, there is a key difference between the ancient office of high priest to which Paul is referring and what we know as “high priests” today. The IM says, “Aaron was called of God by revelation to serve as the high priest, who represented the people before God in sacred matters and presided over other priesthood holders (the Levites).” So anciently, the high priest represented the people to God in much the same that Jesus advocates for us to the Father. Today, the prophet represents God to the people. In Paul’s day, the Jewish Christian converts would have been very aware of the office of high priest and maybe seen the holder of that office as someone who performs the ordinances required to be forgiven of their sins. Paul calls it in verse 1, “that (the high priest) may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.” So now instead of the latest high priest offering sacrifices of animals or other material things for a forgiveness of sins, Jesus as the ultimate high priest offered himself as the sacrifice for everyone’s sins. In the NIV, Paul gives more characteristics of this new high priest, “He is able to deal gentle with those who are ignorant and are going astray.” If we think about the ancient office of high priest, when offering the required sacrifices, they most likely did so generally, like for instance after Mary gave birth to Jesus, they had to go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices so that she could be considered clean again. The priesthood official who performed that ordinance probably didn’t know Mary or Joseph personally, and surely didn’t understand what their sacrifice was for specifically. But if we consider Jesus to be the ultimate high priest, when it came down to performing his sacrifice for us personally, he absolutely knew each of us intimately, knew of every hope and dream, every pain and disappointment and all the pain that we’ve ever experienced in our whole lives. With that in depth personal understanding of us, when it comes time for him to represent us in front of His Father, he will know and therefore have “compassion” on us. And “no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” The article says, “when the Lord taught his ancient Apostles, he says, ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you.’ This short statement is a fundamental principle of the Lord’s true church. People do not have the right to call themselves to act in God’s name. Neither a desire to serve nor a love of God and fellowman- however heartfelt and sincere- authorizes one to claim God’s authority in matters relating to his church.” This is important because the process of God’s call and our desires leads to the right people being put in the right positions for the right reasons. This isn’t to say that the people in these positions are perfect, or sometimes even good at their job, but if we really accept that this is Christ’s gospel, then we have to accept the fact that He runs in his own way based on his knowledge of all things and all people and all circumstances. 5:4-10 - There seems to be a lot of back and forth between the regular high priest and Jesus as the “great high priest” but I think that if the law of Moses really way a representation of Jesus’ salvation, we can see the similarities in the position for both flawed mortal and the Savior. There’s also some discussion about Melchizedek and some have wondered in Paul was referring to him or the Savior. The IM says that these descriptions “apply to both Melchizedek and to Christ, because Melchizedek was a prototype of Christ and that prophet’s ministry typified and foreshadowed that of our Lord in the same sense that the ministry of Moses did.” The IM says that verses 5 and 6 was “Paul quoting from Psalm 2:7 and Psalm 110,” again grounding his teachings in scripture that they would know and bridging the gap between the law of Moses and the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the most powerful verses I think I’ve ever read comes in verse 8 which says, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” There are a few things we can take from this. First off, even though Jesus Christ was the Son of God, he still had to learn to be obedient and he still suffered the horrors of this life, and especially more for him because he performed the atonement in which he suffered all pain and horror that this life ever inflicts on anyone or anything ever. I don’t necessarily think that Paul’s saying that there was a specific onetime event that was painful for Jesus and from that he learned to be obedient, because that’s usually not how it happens for us either. It's a difficult concept to understand, that we experience pain and that God’s plan works with that pain to build us up spiritually. I think a couple of things to remember here is that we wanted to come to this earth and live this mortal life and even though we probably didn’t know specifics, we knew that it would suck but we signed up to go anyway. Another thing to remember is that I believe that the choice for us to come to earth was only given to us once Heavenly Father determined that we were sufficiently prepared. There was no throwing spiritual babies into this dumpster fire of a mortality against our will just to see what would happen. Another thing is that our lives in this world are planned out meticulously by a God who is all knowing and all loving, meaning that our experiences aren’t random, they have been planned and prepared for specifically for us because that’s what we need in order to grow spiritually. Now I don’t understand how this is the case because how is the horror of rape given to us as a trial for our own good. But I’m going to take Jesus’ word for it that it is and believe that one day I will understand. The suffering that Jesus endured in his mortality was part of his own process of perfection, and that included pain. The article quotes Bruce C. Haden as teaching, “In his own development toward perfection, the Savior received the Father’s grace. He ‘received not of the fullness at the first, but received grace for grace… until he received a fullness.’ His life was sinless; hence, he received grace not to compensate for his sins, but to empower his personal growth.” And just because we don’t live a sinless life doesn’t mean that the grace that comes to us as we repent can’t be for our personal growth as well, in fact I’m sure that that’s part of it for us as well. Learning to be obedient or to be spiritual because we are suffering is one thing, but wouldn’t it be so much better if we could just learn it without relying on adverse circumstances? As the master psychologist, Jesus has said that many people will not desire spiritual growth until they are compelled to through adversity. And that’s true, we can look throughout human history and see that this is the case. But again, what if we can be obedient without being forced to? I think that this is what goes into the “rest of the Lord” that Paul has been talking about. Righteousness doesn’t mean that everything is going to be easy, in fact many times it’s harder than it would be otherwise. But what it does mean is that even in trials and tribulations, we can be comforted, taught, and uplifted knowing that all the amazing promises of God will be delivered. 5:11-14 – All of this is a lot for Paul because he basically says, “you guys should already know this. You should be out there teaching this to other people, but instead you are being stubborn and making me bottle feed you the gospel.” The article against quotes Bruce C. Hafen as noting, “One essential element in (God’s) place is the principle of ‘line up line, precept upon precept.’ Not only does he leave to us to the initiative to believe, he imparts to his hearers only what they are ready to hear. Milk comes before meat… Hugh Nibley has described this guiding principle as the ‘policy of reticence,’ which the Lord has always followed ‘to protect sacred things from common misunderstandings and to protect the unworthy from damaging themselves with them.’”