Hebrews 5:5-10
At the start I need to confess I have always struggled with this passage. Hebrews as a book is both fun and exciting, but it terribly confusing, too. I struggle with this passage, because it tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ learned something in his suffering and obedience. That seems troubling to me. Why would Jesus need to learn anything?
In Hebrews 1:1-3 the author of Hebrews (The Preacher) tells us of Jesus’ sonship. He writes, “In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son. God made his Son the heir of everything and created the world through him. 3 The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being. He maintains everything with his powerful message. After he carried out the cleansing of people from their sins, he sat down at the right side of the highest majesty.”[1] The eternal son of the Father should have nothing to learn. Should he? From the very best lines of this great sermon we are shown how Jesus is superior to everything and everyone. He is superior to the angels. His message is superior to that of all the prophets.
In Chapter 2 we learn that Christ is the great high priest. He is superior to all others. He is the superior rest awaiting God’s people. All of these affirmations of superiority give us the picture that God’s final Word is all God’s people need. He satisfies the need of all humanity. But still, why does the eternal Son of God need to learn anything? It appears that the key to our quandary is the Incarnation. God in human flesh changes everything, doesn’t it? By the time we reach our passage in the sermon the Preacher has brought together the two themes of Son and great high priest: 14 14 He says, let’s hold on to the confession since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, who is Jesus, God’s Son….[2]
So perhaps in this combination of roles shows us a path forward. The whole language of sonship and priesthood brings together the three great oracles of God directed at Christ: Psalm 2:7; Psalm 110:1; and Psalm 110:4.[3] Something happens when these oracles come together. It surprises us, because of all that has gone before in this sermon. At first it might appear to contradict the message thus far. That is especially true, when we hear: “we don’t have a high priest who can’t sympathize with our weaknesses but instead one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin.”[4]
Learning obedience seems to imply that he did not always know how to obey, or that rebellion might be a part of his story. Yet, the story of Jesus tells us that is not possible. At every turn Jesus is superior and without sin. Consider the priests, like Aaron. The brother of Moses was a priest in the long line of priests that served God and Israel. Yet, all of them are a contrast to Jesus, because they were filled with sinful weakness. So, if Jesus is without sin, and he learned obedience by what he suffered, learning obedience has to mean something radically different than what we first think.
First, we need to pay attention to contrast in verbs. Jesus learned obedience (active verb), and the sinful high priest “was beset with weakness.”[5] Something must be going on in this contrast. Active obedience is an ongoing and never-ending faithfulness. Jesus was always obedient and always will be obedient to the Cross and beyond. He never failed as Son to be a fully obedience human. Jesus was what the priests were to be, but they were riddled with sin, and that never ended, until his obedience was manifested. Jesus was what all of us were supposed to be: fully alive; fully obedience; fully communing with the Father. Everything the Lord hoped and desired for us was lost by our constant rebellion.
So, it seems that Jesus’ learning obedience becomes how human redemption is possible. That which the world saw as pathetic and pitiful—his cries and tears—became the means of our salvation, because they were the faithful prayers of a faithful Son. Still, another interesting grammatical move by the Preacher further intensifies the meaning of learning obedience. The grammatical move is the first thing we should see, but we don’t. The quality of sonship, literally rendered “although being One who is Son” means that Christ’s sonship did not cease whie he was learning ‘obedience.’ When the Preacher speaks of the human Son his is always referring to the eternal Son who has assumed humanity.[6]
In fact we can take this point one step further: “In the same way, when he (the Preacher) speaks of the exalted Son, his is always referring to the eternal Son who became incarnate and through his obedient sacrifice has been exalted. Thus, those who would speak of the exalted Son without reference to his preexistence or incarnation distort the message of Hebrews.”[7] So, from the very first lines of the sermon we should have expected the learning of obedience. Jesus entered the world with all of the humanity of the rest of us, but never failing in faithfulness. This is no ordinary priest offering sacrifices, and hoping for the best. This is God offering Son, and the result is the possibility of obedience by all. His learning obedience is the learning of what it means to be perfectly obedient to the Father in human flesh.
So, now we must pick up that final odd and confusing reference of being “a priest according to the order of Melchizadek.” This priest is obscure and strange to us. He is barely mentioned in scripture, but what is known about him is that his high priesthood had no end noted. Thus, Jesus again surpasses the sinful weakness of Melchizadek by being the sinless high priest whose reign will know no end. And thus, the Preacher ties together the whole story here. The superior and perfect high priest, Jesus, made eternal salvation available to all, because his priesthood continues at the right hand of the Father.
It seems that all of my trouble with the strangeness of learning obedience was misguided. Son has perfected priesthood by offering the perfect and superior sacrifice, which needs no improvement or addition. Now, we return to the Preacher’s opening: “After he carried out the cleansing of people from their sins, he sat down at the right side of the highest majesty. 4 And the Son became so much greater than the other messengers, such as angels, that he received a more important title than theirs.”[8] If I have learned anything here, I have learned that learning obedience is forever, because Jesus is forever saving all by his glorious unrivaled life of perfection.
[1] Common English Bible (Heb 1:2–3). (2011). Common English Bible.
[2] Common English Bible (Heb 4:14). (2011). Common English Bible.
[3] Gareth Lee Cockerill, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: Hebrews (Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, 2012), 238.
[4] Common English Bible (Heb 4:15). (2011). Common English Bible.
[5] Cockerill, 247.
[6] Cockerill, 247.
[7] Cockerill, 247.
[8] Common English Bible (Heb 1:3–4). (2011). Common English Bible.