Hebrews 2:17

Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.

Behooved carries with it the idea of indebtedness, as of money owed, and indicates that Christ, having decided to help people, incurred the frightful obligations inherent in such a decision. "Like unto his brethren" is suggestive of the great prophecy concerning "that Prophet" (Deuteronomy 18:15) who was specifically promised as one who would be "like unto his brethren." That Christ was made "in all things" like his brethren should be qualified by the considerations that: (1) in his birth; (2) in his sinlessness; and (3) in his death for our sins according to the scriptures, Christ was utterly different from all others who ever lived. The expression "merciful and faithful high priest" involves a dual relationship, toward God and toward man.

"Merciful" is placed before the verb and is thus emphatic; so that we evidently have two predictions: "made merciful" toward his brothers, and a "faithful" high priest toward God.[26]

The merciful nature of Christ's priesthood contrasted sharply with that of the cold and merciless Sadducees with whom the original readers of this epistle were familiar. Robertson noted that "The Sadducean high priests were political and ecclesiastical tools and puppets out of sympathy with the people and chosen by Rome."[27] The Jewish Christians who first received Hebrews must have warmed to the thought of such a high priest as Jesus is shown to be. It may at first seem that the designation of Christ as high priest in this place is abrupt, but it logically follows the marvelous statements made concerning him a little earlier, to the effect that he is the "author" of salvation, and made "purification for sins," and "tasted of death for every man." More on this below.

A merciful and faithful high priest denominates Christ as the holy and effective high priest of his people, and much of the subsequent material in this epistle is concerned with an elaboration of this significant office of the Saviour. As Hewitt observed, "The word `high priest' occurs here for the first time in Hebrews. It is also the first time that it is directly applied to Jesus in scripture."[28] In fulfillment of the office of high priest, Christ is the reality of that which was typically performed by the Jewish high priest who, on the day of atonement, entered into the holiest place and offered blood for the sins of the people; Christ entered heaven and offered his own blood for the sins of all people; and, just as the priest slew the victim prior to offering its blood, Christ offered himself upon the cross, thus combining in himself the functions of both the victim and the one offering the blood. The high priesthood of Christ is so predominantly discussed in Hebrews that some find this as the theme of the entire epistle. Many other things pertinent to this subject will be discussed later in the epistle. The verse before us stresses the qualifications of our Lord, his sympathetic mercy toward man and the utmost fidelity toward God.

We note especially the sympathy of Jesus as indicated by his mercy. People who have never fallen are likely to be too severe, those who have, too lenient; but Christ, though tempted in all points, did not fall, and is alone capable of making the proper judgment concerning people. How encouraging is the thought that, whatever sorrow or temptation befalls man, Christ has full and perfect knowledge of it. In him, there is none of that cold arrogant detachment that characterized men like Annas and Caiaphas. How thankful all people should be for the mercy of the Lord.

Make propitiation for the sins of the people focuses attention upon the meaning of "propitiation." Although the Greek usage of the word applies it to making sacrifices to gods or men to mollify their anger or procure their favors, scholars assure us that there is no implication of any exactly parallel meaning in its application to the work of Christ. This is true because God cannot be appeased or propitiated in the sense such was understood of pagan deities or worldly princes. It is not God who needs to change his mind, but people who need to change theirs. The sacrifice of Christ therefore was not to reconcile God to man, but man to God. As Paul taught, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself" (1 Corinthians 5:19). Other New Testament passages in which the word "propitiation" is found are: Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10; and in the prayer of the publican, Luke 18:13. Thus, as Paul explained it in Romans 3:24ff, God's righteousness and justice could be vindicated only by the invocation of the penalty of death. The great love and mercy of God are seen in that he paid it himself, in the person of his Son upon the cross, thus doing for man that thing which man alone could not in a billion years have done for himself; also making God the one who propitiates and the one propitiated at the same time!

In the inexpressibly sublime and wonderful fact that God gave the sacrifice for man's sins, the Christian faith parts company with all the ethnic and purely human religions which through the ages have risen and flourished on the earth. In all the human religions, without exception, it is man who pays and pays a thousand years; it is the boldest warrior of the tribe that faces the dragon; it is the fairest maiden offered as a sacrifice; and it was a man, Prometheus, who was bound to the rock forever with the vultures upon him. Strangely enough, in that latter myth, the sentence was eternal and could be lifted only when some immortal consented to die in Prometheus' place, thus providing pagan testimony to the spiritual truth that redemption must come from without mankind. But it is precisely in this business of "Who pays?" that the unique superiority of Christianity appears; for in the Bible it is God who pays it all.

Being tempted, as used here, seems to make Christ's temptations to consist chiefly of his sufferings. He might well have thought, "Why bother with it all? Why go through such an agony as the cross for the sake of saving people who constantly seemed to prove themselves unworthy of it?" That some such thoughts did occur to Jesus is implied by his reference to the twelve legions of angels whom he had the power to summon to his aid (Matthew 26:53). Only his great eternal love could have strengthened and steadied him against aborting his mission of salvation and calling it off.

As for the alleged impossibility of Christ's committing a sin, such has never appeared reasonable to this writer; because, in the very nature of all things, no man can be tempted to do that which he is incapable of doing. The value of Christ's temptations is seen in the enhanced position it gave him as one able to comfort his human children. Cargill explained this thus,

He did not suffer in vain. If you have never known temptation, you cannot succor another. I have observed that there is no comforter for a widow like one who has lost her husband. The mother who has lost her child is the most comforting to another mother.[29]

[26] A. T. Robertson, op. cit., p. 351.

[27] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 94.

[28] Thomas Hewitt, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960), p. 17.

[29] Robert L. Cargill, op. cit., p. 25.