Homily 8 — Hebrews, chapter 5

“For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in the things that concern God, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on the ignorant and on those who have gone astray, since he himself is also surrounded with weakness; and because of this he must offer for sins for himself, just as he does for the people.” [a]

The blessed Paul wants to show next that this covenant is far better than the old one. He does this by first laying down points that seem far from the subject. For in the new covenant there was nothing bodily, nothing made for show: no temple, for instance, no Holy of Holies, no priest in such splendid robes, no observances of the law. Everything was higher and more perfect. Nothing in it belonged to the body; everything lay in the things of the Spirit. And the things of the Spirit do not draw the weak the way bodily things do. So he sifts this whole matter thoroughly.

And notice his wisdom. He begins with the priest first, and keeps calling Christ a High Priest, and from this first point he shows the difference between the two covenants. That is why he first of all defines what a priest is, and shows whether Christ has the things that belong to a priest, and whether the marks of priesthood are found in him. Yet there was an objection in his way: Christ was not of a distinguished family, nor of the priestly tribe, nor a priest on earth. Someone may say: “How, then, was he a priest?”

In the letter to the Romans he had taken up an argument they were slow to accept: that faith accomplishes what the labor of the law could not, nor all the sweat of daily living. There he turned to the patriarch and carried the whole question back to that time. In the same way, here too he opens up the other road of the priesthood, showing its superiority from things that happened earlier. And just as, on the matter of punishment, he sets before them not hell alone but also what happened to their fathers, so here too he first establishes his point from things at hand. It would indeed be right to prove earthly things from heavenly ones; but when the hearers are weak, the opposite course is taken.

Up to a certain point he first sets out what Christ has in common with their high priests, and then shows that he is superior. For a true comparison arises this way: when in some respects there is something in common, and in others superiority. Otherwise it is no longer a comparison. [c]

“For every high priest taken from among men” — this is common to Christ. “Is appointed on behalf of men in the things that concern God” — this too. “To offer both gifts and sacrifices for the people” — this too, though not entirely. But what follows is no longer so: “He can have compassion on the ignorant and on those who have gone astray.” From this point on comes the superiority: “since he himself is also surrounded with weakness; and because of this he must offer for sins for himself, just as he does for the people.”

There are other points as well. He is made a priest, Paul says, by another, and does not push his own way into the office. This too is common (verse 4): “And no one takes this honor for himself, but only the one who is called by God, as Aaron was.”

Here again he wins them over on another point: that Christ was sent from God, which Christ himself was always saying to the Jews: “He who sent me is greater than I,” and, “I did not come on my own” (John 12, verse 49; John 14, verse 28; John 8, verse 42). In these words he seems to me also to hint at the priests of the Jews, as being no longer priests at all, but intruders who corrupt the law of the priesthood. (Verse 5) “So also Christ did not glorify himself to be made a High Priest.”

Someone says: “How, then, was he appointed?” Aaron’s appointment was shown many times — by the rod, and when the fire came down and destroyed those who wanted to push their way into the priesthood. But in this case it is the other way around: the Jewish priests not only suffered nothing, but are even held in high esteem. Where, then, does his appointment come from? Paul shows it from prophecy. He has nothing to point to that the senses can perceive, nothing visible. That is why he proves it from prophecy, from things still to come: “But it was he who said to him, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’” What has this to do with the Son? Yes, he says, it prepares the way for his being appointed by God.

Verse 6: “As he also says in another place, ‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.’” To whom, now, was this spoken? Who is “after the order of Melchizedek”? No one but him. For all the others were under the law; they all kept the Sabbaths; they were all circumcised. One could not point to anyone else but him.

Verses 7 and 8: “In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and pleas, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.” Do you see that he sets out nothing but Christ’s care and the overwhelming greatness of his love? For what does the expression “with loud cries” mean? The Gospel nowhere says this — neither that he wept when he prayed, nor that he cried aloud. Do you see that this was a stooping down to meet them? For he could not simply say that he prayed; he added, “with loud cries.” [e]

“And he was heard,” he says, “because of his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.” (Verses 9 and 10) “And having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, being called by God a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

Grant the “cries” — why also “loud cries and tears”?

“Having offered,” he says, “and having been heard because of his godly fear.” What are you saying? Let the heretics be ashamed! The Son of God “was heard because of his godly fear”! What more could anyone say about the prophets? And what sort of connection is there in saying, “He was heard because of his godly fear; although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered”? Would anyone say these things about God? Why, who was ever so mad? Who, even out of his mind, would have said such things? “Having been heard,” he says, “because of his godly fear, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.” What obedience? He had been obedient before this, even to death, as a Son to his Father; how did he learn it afterward? Do you see that this is said with reference to his becoming man?

Tell me now: did he pray to the Father to be saved from death? Was it for this that he was “exceedingly sorrowful” and said, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me”? (Matthew 26, verses 38 and 39) Yet nowhere did he pray to the Father about his resurrection. On the contrary, he openly declares, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2, verse 19), and, “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of myself” (John 10, verse 18). What does it mean, then? Why did he pray? (And again he said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again” — Matthew 20, verses 18 and 19 — and he did not say, “My Father will raise me up again.”) How, then, did he pray about this? But for whom did he pray? For those who believed in him.

What Paul means is this: he is readily listened to. Since they did not yet hold the right opinion about him, he said that he “was heard” — just as Christ himself, when he was consoling his disciples, said, “If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I am going to my Father” (John 14, verse 28), and, “My Father is greater than I.” But how did he not glorify himself — he who “made himself nothing” (Philippians 2, verse 7), he who gave himself up? For it is said, “He gave himself for our sins” (see Galatians 1, verse 4), and again, “who gave himself as a ransom for all” (First Timothy 2, verse 6). What does it mean, then? You see that it is with reference to the flesh that lowly things are said about him. So here too: “Although he was a Son, he was heard because of his godly fear,” it says. He wants to show that the success came from Christ himself rather than from God’s favor. So great was his reverence, Paul says, that on account of it God had regard for him.

“He learned,” he says — learned to obey God. Here again he shows how great the gain of sufferings is. “And having been made perfect,” he says, “he became the source of salvation for those who obey him.” But if he, the Son, gained obedience from his sufferings, much more will we. Do you see how much he says about obedience, so that they might be persuaded to it? For it seems to me that they would not let themselves be held in check. “From the things he suffered,” he says, he kept on “learning” to obey God, and was “made perfect” through sufferings. This, then, is perfection, and this is the way we must reach perfection. For he was not only saved himself; he also became for others an abundant supply of salvation. For “having been made perfect, he became the source of salvation for those who obey him.”

“Being called by God a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.” (Verse 11) “About him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain.” As he was about to go on to the difference in the priesthood, he first rebukes them. He points out both that this great stooping down was “milk,” and that it was because they were children that he had lingered so long on the lowly subject, the one that concerns the flesh, speaking of Christ as he would of any righteous man. And see: he neither kept entirely silent about the teaching nor stated it outright. On the one hand, he wanted to raise their thoughts and persuade them to become mature, so that they would not be deprived of the great teachings; on the other, he did not want to overwhelm their minds. [h]

“About him,” he says, “we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you are dull of hearing.” Because they do not listen, the teaching is “hard to explain.” For when someone is dealing with people who do not follow him or pay attention to what is said, he cannot explain the subject to them well.

But perhaps one of you standing here is puzzled, and thinks it hard that because of the Hebrews he himself is kept from hearing the more advanced teachings. No; rather, I think that perhaps here too, apart from a few, there are many like them, so that this might be said of you as well. But for the sake of those few I will speak. Did Paul, then, keep entirely silent? Or did he take up the subject again in what follows, and do the same as in the letter to the Romans? For there too, after first silencing those who argued back, saying, “No indeed — who are you, my friend, to answer back to God?” (Romans 9, verse 20), he then added the answer. For my own part, I think he was not altogether silent, and yet did not speak it out, so as to lead his hearers to long for the knowledge. For having mentioned the subject, and said that great things were stored up in the teaching, see how he combines his rebuke with praise.

This is always part of Paul’s wisdom: to mix painful things with kind ones. He does it in the letter to the Galatians too, saying, “You were running well; who hindered you?” (Galatians 5, verse 7), and, “Have you suffered so many things for nothing — if it really was for nothing?” (Galatians 3, verse 4), and, “I have confidence in you in the Lord” (Galatians 5, verse 10). He says it to these Hebrews also: “But we are convinced of better things concerning you, things that belong to salvation” (Hebrews 6, verse 9). In this way he achieves two things: he does not overstrain them, and he does not let them fall back. For if the examples of others are enough to rouse a hearer and stir him to match them, then when a man has himself for an example, and is told to match himself, he sees at once that it can be done. So Paul shows this too. He does not let them fall back, as though they were utterly condemned or had always been bad; he says that they were once even good. (Verse 12) For he says, “when, by reason of the time, you ought to be teachers.” Here he shows that they had been believers a long while, and also that they ought to be instructing others.

At any rate, notice how he keeps laboring to bring in the discussion of the High Priest, and keeps putting it off. Listen to how he began: “Having a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens” (Hebrews 4, verse 14). And without saying how he was great, he says again, “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in the things that concern God” (Hebrews 5, verse 1). And again, “So also Christ did not glorify himself to be made a High Priest” (Hebrews 5, verse 5). And again, after saying, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5, verse 6), he puts the subject off once more, saying, “In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and pleas” (Hebrews 5, verse 7). [i]

So when he had been turned back so many times, he says, as if excusing himself, “The fault is yours.” Alas, what a difference! When they ought to be teaching others, they are not even ordinary learners, but the lowest of learners. (Verse 12) “For when, by reason of the time, you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first elements of the oracles of God.” Here he means Christ’s human nature. For just as in the learning of the world outside the church one has to learn the letters first, so here too they were first taught about the human nature.

You see the reason he says lowly things. Paul did the same with the Athenians too, when he spoke to them, saying, “The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17, verses 30 and 31). So if he says anything lofty, he says it briefly, while the lowly statements are scattered through many parts of the letter. And in this way too he shows the lofty truth: the very lowliness of what is said rules out the suspicion that these things refer to the divine nature. So here, too, the safe ground was kept.

But what produces this dullness? He pointed it out especially in the letter to the Corinthians, saying, “For while there is envy and strife and divisions among you, are you not fleshly?” (First Corinthians 3, verse 3). But notice, I beg you, his great wisdom: how he always deals with the sickness in front of him. There the weakness came more from ignorance, or rather from sin; but here it came not from sins only, but also from continual hardships. That is why he uses words chosen to show the difference. He does not say, “You have become fleshly,” but “dull.” In that case, “fleshly”; in this one, the pain is greater. The Corinthians could not bear his rebuke, because they were fleshly; but these could. For in saying, “since you have become dull of hearing” (Hebrews 5, verse 11), he shows that formerly they had been sound and healthy and strong, fervent in zeal — which he also testifies about them later on.

“And you have become people who need milk, not solid food.” He always calls the lowly teaching “milk,” both here and in the other place. [j]

“When,” he says, “by reason of the time, you ought to be teachers” — that is, because of the time. The very thing, the length of time, that should have made you especially strong is the very thing in which you have especially slipped backward. He calls it “milk” because it suits the simpler people. But to the more mature it is harmful, and dwelling on these things does damage. So it is not fitting now to bring in matters of the law or to draw the comparison from them — that he was a High Priest, that he offered sacrifice, that he needed cries and pleas. See, then, how these things are unwholesome for us now; but at that time they nourished them, and were in no way unwholesome for them.

So the oracles of God are true nourishment. “For I will give them,” he says, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord” (Amos 8, verse 11).

“I gave you milk to drink, not solid food” (First Corinthians 3, verse 2). He did not say, “I fed you,” showing that nourishment of this kind is not food at all. It is like the case of little children who cannot be fed with bread. Such children are not given drink; their food serves them in place of drink.

Again, he did not say, “You need,” but, “You have become people who need milk, not solid food.” That is: you chose it; you brought yourselves to this, to this need.

Verse 13: “For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.”

What is “the word of righteousness”? Here he seems to me to hint at conduct as well. What Christ said — “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” (Matthew 5, verse 20) — Paul says here too: “unskilled in the word of righteousness.” That is, the one who is unskilled in the philosophy that comes from above cannot take hold of a perfect and exact way of life. Or else by “righteousness” he means Christ here, and the lofty teaching about him.

That they had “become dull,” he said; but from what cause, he did not add. He left them to recognize it themselves, not wanting to make his words hard to bear. But with the Galatians he both “marveled” (Galatians 1, verse 6) and “was at a loss” (Galatians 4, verse 20), which encourages much more, since it is the language of a man who never expected such a thing to happen. That is what being at a loss implies.

You see that there is another kind of infancy; you see that there is another kind of maturity. Let us become “mature” in this sense. Even those who are children and the young can come to that maturity, for it is not a matter of nature but of virtue.

Verse 14: “But solid food belongs to the mature, to those who by practice have their senses trained to distinguish both good and evil.” These Hebrews did not have “their senses trained,” nor did they “know good and evil.” When he says “to distinguish good and evil,” he is not speaking now about how to live — for that is possible and easy for anyone to know — but about teachings: those that are wholesome and lofty, and those that are corrupt and low. A baby does not know how to tell bad food from good. Often it even puts dirt in its mouth and takes what is harmful, and it does everything without judgment. The grown man does not.

Like babies are those who listen carelessly to everything and lend their ears to anyone at all. This seems to me to be a rebuke to these Hebrews too, for being lightly “carried about,” giving themselves now to these teachers, now to those. He hinted at this near the end of the letter as well, saying, “Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings” (Hebrews 13, verse 9). This is the meaning of “to distinguish good and evil.” “For the mouth tastes food, but the soul tests words” (Job 34, verse 3).

Let us learn this lesson, then. When you hear that a man is neither a pagan nor a Jew, do not at once believe he is a Christian. Look into all the other points as well. For even the Manichaeans, and all the heresies, have put on this mask so as to deceive the simpler people by it. But if we “have the senses” of the soul “trained to distinguish both good and evil,” we can tell such teachers apart. [k]

But how do our “senses” become “trained”? By continual hearing, by experience of the Scriptures. When we set out the error of those heretics, and you hear it today and tomorrow, and test it and find that it is not right, you have learned the whole of it; you know the whole of it. And even if you do not grasp it today, you will grasp it tomorrow.

“Who have,” he says, their “senses trained.” You see that our hearing needs to be trained by the study of divine things, so that these things do not sound strange to it. “Trained,” he says, “to distinguish” — that is, to be skilled.

One man says there is no resurrection; another expects none of the things to come; another says there is a different God; another, that Christ had his beginning from Mary. And see at once how they have all fallen away through lack of moderation, some by going too far, others by falling short. For instance, the first heresy of all was Marcion’s. It brought in another, different God, one who does not exist. See the excess! After this came that of Sabellius, saying that the Son and the Spirit and the Father are one. Next came that of Marcellus and Photinus, setting out the same things. Then that of Paul of Samosata, saying that Christ had his beginning from Mary. After that, the heresy of the Manichaeans — for this is the most recent of all. After these, the heresy of Arius. And there are others besides.

This is why we have received the Faith: so that we would not be forced to take on countless heresies and deal with each of them, but would regard as counterfeit whatever anyone might try either to add or to take away. Those who issue the standard measures do not make people trouble themselves with countless measures; they tell them to keep to what has been given them. So it is with teachings too.

But no one is willing to pay attention to the Scriptures. If we did pay attention, we would not only avoid being caught in deceit ourselves; we would also set free others who are deceived and draw them out of danger. The strong soldier is able not only to help himself but also to protect his comrade and rescue him from the enemy’s malice. But as it is, some do not even know that there are any Scriptures. And yet the Holy Spirit made so many wise arrangements so that they might be kept safe. [o]

Look at it from the beginning, so that you may learn the unspeakable love of God. He inspired the blessed Moses. He engraved the tablets. He kept him on the mountain forty days, and again as many more, to give the law. After this he sent prophets, who suffered countless hardships. War came; they killed them all; they cut them to pieces; the books were burned. Again, he inspired another admirable man to bring them out again — Ezra, I mean — and had them put together from what remained. After this he arranged for them to be translated by the Seventy. They did translate them. Christ came; he receives them; the apostles spread them among all people. Christ worked signs and wonders.

And what came after so much care? The apostles wrote too. As Paul also said, “They were written for our warning, on whom the ends of the ages have come” (First Corinthians 10, verse 11). And again Christ said, “You are wrong, because you do not know the Scriptures” (Matthew 22, verse 29). And again Paul said, “so that through the endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15, verse 4). And again, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable” (Second Timothy 3, verse 16). And, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3, verse 16). And the prophet: “He will meditate on his law day and night” (Psalm 1, verse 2). And again in another place: “Let all your conversation be about the law of the Most High” (Sirach 9, verse 15). And again: “How sweet are your words to my throat!” — he did not say “to my hearing,” but “to my throat” — “sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth” (Psalm 119, verse 103). And Moses says, “You shall meditate on them continually, when you rise up, when you sit down, when you lie down” (Deuteronomy 6, verse 7). “Be in them,” he says (First Timothy 4, verse 15). One could say countless things about them. And yet after all this there are some who do not even know that there are Scriptures at all. That is why, believe me, nothing sound, nothing profitable comes from us.

Yet if anyone wanted to learn soldiering, he would have to learn the laws of war. If anyone set out to learn sailing or carpentry or anything else, he would have to learn the principles of the craft. But here they will do nothing of the kind, although this is a science that needs much wakeful attention. And that this too is a craft that needs teaching, listen to the prophet saying, “Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Psalm 34, verse 11). It follows, then, that the fear of God needs teaching. Then he says, “Who is the man who desires life?” (Psalm 34, verse 12). He means the life to come. And again: “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit; turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34, verses 13 and 14). [q]

Now, do you actually know who said these things — a prophet, or a historian, or an apostle, or an evangelist? For my own part, I do not think you do, apart from a few. And even those few, if we bring forward a testimony from some other place, will be in the same position as the rest of you. Look, I repeat the same statement in other words: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the wickedness from your souls before my eyes; learn to do good; seek justice. Keep your tongue from evil, and do good; learn to do good” (Isaiah 1, verses 16 and 17). Do you see that virtue needs to be taught? For the one says, “I will teach you the fear of the Lord,” and the other, “Learn to do good.”

Now, do you know where these words are? For my own part, I do not think you do, apart from a few. And yet these things are read to you every week, twice or even three times. When the reader goes up to the lectern, he first says whose the book is — the book of such-and-such a prophet — and then reads what he says, so that it will be clearer to you, and so that you may know not only the contents of the book but also the reason for the writings, and who spoke these things. But it is all in vain, all to no purpose. For your zeal is spent on the things of this life, and no account is taken of spiritual things.

That is why even those affairs do not turn out as you wish; there too there are many difficulties. For Christ says, “Seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6, verse 33). These things, he said, will be given as an addition. But we have turned the order upside down. We seek the earth and the good things on the earth, as if those heavenly things were to be given to us as an addition. That is why we have neither the one nor the other.

So let us wake up at last, and set our hearts on the things to come; for then these things too will follow. It is not possible for one who seeks the things of God not to obtain human blessings as well. It is the Truth himself who declares this. So let us not act otherwise, but hold fast to the counsel of Christ, so that we do not lose everything. And God is able to give you heartfelt sorrow and to make you better, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, and honor, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.