The last paragraph of Hebrews 5 is – to my surprise as I’ve studied it – one of the strongest exhortations in Scripture about the importance of having depth to our sermons. The writer is trying to encourage the Jewish Christians who had grown weary and were in danger of reverting back to Judaism. He wanted them to know that Jesus Christ is greater than anything in the Old Testament, including the Hebrew High Priests. The writer mentions that Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest after “the order of Melchizedek.”
Now before plunging into this deep and mysterious subject, the writer pauses. He’ll get back to Melchizedek later, at the end of chapter 6. But right now he’s going to pause and say something to his readers and to you and me. Here is my paraphrase of the last paragraph of Hebrews 5:
“I know that this is a deep subject, that talking about the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and the order of Melchizedek is little confusing and may seem totally unrelated to your lives. I know you would like some nice little story and inspirational quote and practical application. I know what you may not be too interested in what I’m about to say about Melchizedek. But that’s because you are shallow, dull, immature, and no longer trying to understand. You are babies. You ought to be adults, but you’re infants. You ought to be eating solid food, but you’re still drinking baby formula. It’s time for you grow up and deal with some serious subjects in Scripture and go deeper in your Bible study and develop a mature and righteous life. So hold on to your hats and let’s press on into this subject.”
I wonder what would happen if I said something like that to my congregation? Well, we’ll see tomorrow morning…
PS – For my complete sermon on this paragraph, click here.