Christ - the true High Priest
4:14 - This is the central theme of this letter.
Jesus, like a high priest of ST, passes through the Holy Place, then, the Holy of Holies, than through the heavens (the Jews counted them to be seven) and then sat down at the right hand of the Father in a true Tabernacle (Hebr 9:11.24).
Thus, heavens here seems to a be a intermediary level between earth and the dwelling of God.
Again, our High Priest is great - we already know that He is greater than angels and greater than Moses. Our High Priest is Jesus, the Son of God.
This alone should move us to hold on to the confession of our faith.
4:15 - Our High Priest is not only great but also merciful. He understand us well, particularly our weaknesses.
His temptations did not come from a sinful nature, as some of ours do, since He had no sinful nature, but He suffered temptation as we do because He was fully human. Consequently He can sympathize (feel and suffer) with us when we experience temptation. The writer’s point was that Jesus understands us, He sympathizes with us, and He overcame temptation Himself.
4:16 - From 4:15 comes a conclusion - namely since Jesus sympathizes with us, so we can approach Him in our moment of need. Since we have such a High Priest to intercede for us with God, we can approach God confidently in prayer (cf. 3:6; 10:19, 35).
5:1 - A high priest was chosen from among the people and his service is for the people in the matters pertaining to God.
Gifts and sacrifices for sins - Leviticus 1–7 contains different types of sacrifices.
5:1- Lev 9:7 - the high priest of the OT was also a sinner, so he should understand the people he served.
5:2–3
“Metriopathein” - to feel in due measure - means, that the high priest knowing his own weaknesses does not get angry and upset with the sins of his people to such extend that he would not be willing to intercede for them.
However, his compassion and understanding only goes to those who commit sins out of weakness (Lev 4:2.13.22.27; 5:2–4), even if those are grave sins. But not to those who purposely sin. Such sins were seriously punished (Lev 15:30–31).
Because of that infirmity, the high priest is not above the sinners but one with them. So, the sacrifices he offers are also for him (Lev 9:7; 16:6; 17:24.33).
5:4 - another important aspect is that to be a high priest is a calling, an election by God (Ex 28:1).
5:5–6 - the same is applicable to Christ (Ps 2:7; 110:4).
“The appeal to Melchizedek, who as the first priest mentioned in Scripture is the archetype of all priesthood, validates Jesus’ priesthood as different from and superior to the Levitical priesthood.”[157]
5:7–10
So far, we were told about the sympathy of our High Priest, now we are told about His obedience. A similar thought is in 2:10.
5:7 beautifully describes Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane (Matt 26:39.42).
There are two types of “salvation” from death: (1) preventing one to die; (2) bringing one through death to resurrection. In the case of Christ, His prayer (Ps 22:1) was heard (Ps 22:25) on the third day. But, some also point out that His request of completing God’s will was answered by God - thus, Jesus went all the way to the Cross.
But, Christ becomes a model for us. Looking at our sufferings for the sake of our faith, we can find a deep meaning in it.
Christ’s life on earth was the school of His priesthood.
Christ was the Son and yet He went through sufferings. How about us?
By completing God’s will became our Savior - those who obey Him. Obeying God means trusting Him (cf. John 6:29; Acts 6:7; Rom. 10:16; 1 Pet. 1:22).
Jesus Christ is not only superior to angels (1:5–14) and Moses (3:1–6) but now also to Aaron (5:1–10).