What is the basic trajectory of this passage? Try to summarize the passage to include the essential points you think the writer is trying to make.

Jesus is the logical choice to lead humanity into salvation by virtue of his suffering.

God the sanctifier and those sanctified share a common "bond," namely, Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ close relationship to humanity is reflected in three passages from the ancient writings . . . all corroborating the claim that Jesus connects humanity with God.

Since being human requires a physical body, Jesus too assumed a human form in order to demolish the devil who ruled death and also to liberate all human beings who feared death.

Such is the reason why Jesus did not become an angel, but a human being. Only by becoming a human being could God be both compassionate but authentic by offering himself as atonement for humanity’s sins.

Through such suffering Jesus can help others who are exposed to sin.

CHRISTOLOGY—Christology is not bragging on Jesus in public, says Fred Craddock. Rather, it is a reflection on the interrelationship between Jesus / God / humanity. Distinctive christologies emerge in the New Testament that offer a variety of reflections on that relationship. The writer of Hebrews is clear: Jesus was pre-existent with God, existed on earth, and exists following his death and resurrection at God’s right hand. The Hebrews christology might be called the descent/ascent christology. [1]

connections

Life can be a frightening journey. In this passage the writer asserts, Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted (v 18). What are your greatest fears? How do you feel enslaved by your fears? How do you face the process of aging and the reality that you will someday die? Picture a situation in which you feel afraid. Invite Jesus to sit beside you. Slowly repeat to yourself verse 18. Memorize it. Recall it whenever you feel that fear is taking control of your mind or emotions.

gambits

A possible modern equivalent of the basic idea of a "go-between" that this lesson suggests is "mediator." Recall the newspaper accounts of tense discussions between labor unions and management around the table. Maybe they have been at loggerheads for weeks. One side shuts down negotiations and walks out on a proposal. Eventually, a mediator is called in to jump start negotiations. Both sides come back to the table. The mediator plays a critical role in this scenario. As the one in the middle, she or he has some connection with both sides; sympathizes with both. The mediator represents each side to the other and to broker an agreement that saves face and brings closure.

So our epistle lesson reflects a relationship that has been severed and is at loggerheads. God and humanity are estranged. Communication and friendship have broken down. Hostility exists. Nevertheless, a mediator is anticipated in the Hebrew Scriptures, and identified by Christians as Christ Jesus. [2]

How does Jesus embody the office of mediator? The book of Hebrews casts Jesus in a priestly role—as one who constantly intercedes for his people and as one who provides a sacrifice once and for all for sins. Thus, by offering himself as the God/human sacrifice, Jesus provides the perfect sacrifice that brings peace between two estranged parties—humanity and God.

C.S. Lewis on Mediation and Incarnation:

Unfortunately we now need God’s help in order to do something which God, in God’s own nature, never does at all—to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die. Nothing in God’s nature corresponds to this process at all. So that the one road for which we now need God’s leadership most of all is a road God, in God’s own nature, [which God] has never walked. God can share only what God has: this thing, in God’s own nature, God has not.

But supposing God became human—suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person—then that person could help us. Such a person could surrender their will, and suffer and die, because they are human; and they could do it perfectly because they were God . . . But we cannot share God’s dying unless God dies; and God cannot die except by being human. That is the sense in which God pays our debt, and suffers for us what God need not suffer at all. [3]

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[1] Fred Craddock in, The New Interpreter’s Bible XII (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), page 42.
[2] I have drawn some of my ideas for what follows from J.I. Packer, God’s Words (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), pp.109-120.
[3] Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root, eds. The Quotable Lewis (Wheaton: Tyndale Publishers, 1989), p. 331.