5:1
Having declared that Jesus is the great high priest, the writer now goes on to expound on the what the Biblical requirements for a high priest are, and will show how the the Old Testament is all pointing to Jesus, and how He is the fulfilment of the Old Testament priesthood.
First a high priest is selected from “among the people”. He has to be a man, not an angel or some sort of super being.
Secondly he is appointed to represent them in matters related to God. His role is not to meet human aims and objectives, but God’s aims and objectives. And his primary purpose is to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Sin is our biggest problem, and the high priest is appointed by God to deal with this problem.
5:2
The high priest does not act as a superior being, for he is subject to weakness himself, ie he understands how and why we fail. So he is able to deal gently with those who “ignorant and going astray”. It is so much easier just to cast off the weak and failing people, but that is not the role of a high priest. We should remember that we are all part of a royal priesthood, so we should be on our guard against a superior, aloof attitude on our own part, something we are so prone to. God want us to help the weak and failing.
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