There is no doubt that the matters the writer has been talking about in the last couple of passages are weighty. Such weightiness calls for greater clarification, but he can’t do that because his listeners are not in a place to hear it. This is because they are, simply put, not mature. In this passage he will dive into this hard, but necessary to hear topic on immaturity/maturity.
As we pick up where we left off in verse 4, we’ll see that the writer is not ready to move away from the topic of the High Priest. We saw 2 weeks ago that this was a much-needed position with very clear qualifications and duties, but only Jesus can fulfill them perfectly. So, the position is filled by Him alone. We will see precisely how this is so in the next verses of chapter 5 that Jesus is the only true candidate for the position of the THE High Priest.
Last week’s message on Jesus as our High Priest was really just the beginning of our exploration of this topic because the writer of Hebrews revisits this matter MANY times. In fact, the very next time is now as we dive back into the role of High Priest. In these verses the matter revolves around the qualifications and duties of the High Priest as established by God.