Our Small Town Summits theme for 2024 is “Our Extraordinary Christ.” All six Summits in the New England states will include expositions from Hebrews as we see together that the supremacy of Christ is rocket fuel for a joyfully tenacious life and ministry. In light of this theme and goal, our Small Town Summits Articles for 2024 will highlight one chapter of Hebrews each month.

The Hebrew Christians of the epistle in view have spiritual amnesia. Moreover, they’ve “become too lazy to understand” (5:11). A gospel feast has been set before them but like “the sluggard” they find it wearisome to lift the food to their mouths (Prov.26:15). How did this happen?

Erik Raymond once wrote that the path to apostasy is paved with the bricks of apathy toward Christ. The writer to the Hebrews implores them: “pay attention” (2:1); “consider Jesus” (3:1); “draw near” (10:22); “keep your eyes on Jesus” (12:2). If the path to apostasy is paved with the bricks of apathy toward Christ, then the path to maturity is paved with a dogged attention to Christ. He is the King whose throne is forever (1:8). He is the Prophet who is himself God’s Word (1:2). These are glorious truths for us to behold. Yet, the writer to Hebrews would have us consider at length that Jesus is the Priest, who is eternally gracious to weak and wayward people like us. This is the subject of Hebrews chapter 5. The path to spiritual maturity involves an intimate relationship to Jesus as Priest. Why?

The Need for a Priest Like Us

Hebrews 5:1-4 showcases the Levitical Priesthood of the Old Covenant. The God of Sinai, Tabernacle, and Temple was with his people, but also removed from his people. In his kindness, he appointed mediators from among the people. At their best, these priests could deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward, because they too were clothed in weakness. In their weakness, God was pleased to call them into the honor of identifying with the people. Think of the comfort this was to an everyday Israelite. To know that the priest was in the precincts of the holy place fulfilling his duties; to know that the high priest was making atonement in the Most Holy Place; to see him walking about gently helping the ignorant and even wayward. “There goes my priest!” “He’s one of us. He understands us. He represents us!” And yet, even the best of men are still men at best. In the last book of the Old Testament, The LORD rebukes the priests of Israel as those who “have turned from the way” (Malachi 2:8). We’re left longing for a Great High Priest, one who is both like us in our humanity and unlike us in our sinfulness.

The Need for a Priest Unlike Us

Hebrews 5:5-10 shows Jesus as the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Future chapters of Hebrews and STS Articles will address this typological figure. Suffice it to say, Jesus is a priest forever, because he (like Melchizedek) is not like us. Jesus our sinless High Priest went to the garden of testing, to the garden of our failure. The anguish of his loud cries and tears echo still today. When faced with the cup of wrath, his human nature faltered and then submitted to the divine will. He died. And yet, he was heard, because God raised him from the dead. In this way, Jesus was made perfect through the obedience of his sufferings. In other words, he passed the test. The perfection of the bud gave way to the perfection of the flower.[1] The Son was declared to be the Son. Our sacrificial priest was declared now to be our priest forever. “He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (5:9).

Our Extraordinary Path to Spiritual Maturity

Daily we grapple with besetting sins, uncertainties, insecurities, and our own limitations. Small-town ministry, with less ability to paper over these realities, often seems to put a magnifying glass on all this weakness. In response, we can look for lesser priests who promise to deal gently with us. Whether it’s the fleeting relief of human approval or the busyness of pastoral tasks that shield us from vulnerability, we can so easily take our eyes off of our eternal priest. We do so at our own peril, leaving us in perpetual immaturity. Toddlers might demand toys and rattles to distract themselves, but only a parent’s loving connection can bring them to maturity. We grow and develop in a context of care.

So it is with our Priestly Savior. We can only make progress in maturity by knowing him. When I’ve taught my kids how to ride their bikes, I have to remind them again and again to keep pedaling. The balance and movement necessary for riding come from the motion of pedaling. There are two pedals we must work together if we’ll move on to maturity: trust and obey.

Trust your eternal priest. Rely upon him. He has already sacrificed himself for your sins. It is finished and he is exalted! Trust that his heart is eternally gracious toward you—not because of what you’ve done, but because of what he has done. Despite our ongoing ignorance and waywardness (“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it”), Jesus deals gently with us. Dane Ortlund writes, “Contrary to what we expect to be the case…the deeper into weakness and suffering and testing we go, the deeper Christ’s solidarity with us. As we go down into pain and anguish, we are descending ever deeper into Christ’s very heart, not away from it.”[2] We trust in Jesus, not as a doctrinal box to check, but as our living priest who gently attends to us on the path toward maturity.

Obey your eternal priest. This is not a separate “to-do” item in addition to trust. Obedience and trust are distinct yet inseparable. Just like pedals work together, so do our trust and obedience. Trust without obedience is superficial. Obedience without trust is short-lived. One without the other will quickly bring us crashing down. What a comfort that the Jesus we’re commanded to obey is a Jesus who learned obedience himself. Jesus blazed the trail before us, and now he is the source (or ground) of eternal salvation to those who obey him (5:9). Jesus is the Path. We obey him by following after him, in the steps he has already trod. How can we not say “yes” to him?

We have two paths laid before us: one is without Christ; the other is with Christ. Only one will bring us to maturity, and only that path will give us the thrill of pedaling further into the journey that leads to the destination of our great and glorious God.

[1] Leon Morris, The Cross in the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1965).

[2] Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Crossway, 2020).