Sermon Commentary Library

Our weekly sermon commentaries are Lectionary-based, which across its three-year cycle, encompass a vast array of biblical texts. Filter the Sermon Commentary Library to search Scripture texts by book and chapter to find commentary, illustrations, and reflections to spark ideas.

Looking for something else? View our Heidelberg Catechism sermon resources and our Reformed Connections to the RCL section that traces Lectionary texts to specific parts of the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession.

Home » Sermon Commentary » Sermon Commentary Library

Hebrews 5:5-10 Sermon Commentary

Lent 5B

When Jesus’ friends think about his status and work, several things may quickly come to mind. Some Christians readily think of him as the Son of God, Savior and Lord. God’s dearly beloved people may also quickly think of Jesus as a healer, prophet, miracle worker and even a kind of Jewish religious iconoclast. This…

Explore Commentary

Hebrews 5:1-10 Sermon Commentary

Proper 24B

The master preacher scholar Fred Craddock once called the books of Hebrews and Revelation, “the literature most intimidating to readers of the New Testament.” After all, Hebrews’ Preacher packs his letter with tightly woven arguments that assume familiarity with Israel’s wilderness life. As Craddock also notes, however, even Hebrews’ writer seems to sense that his…

Explore Commentary

Hebrews 5:5-10 Sermon Commentary

Lent 5B

This week’s Epistolary Lesson assumes that for a relationship to exist between God and God’s people, as well as among groups and between individuals, things must be repaired and restored. However, Hebrews 5 insists that the only way that can happen is if God does it. We’re sometimes angered to hear our various leaders reveal…

Explore Commentary

Hebrews 5:1-10 Sermon Commentary

Proper 24B

This week’s Epistolary Lesson assumes that for a relationship to exist between God and God’s people, as well as among groups and between individuals, things must be repaired and restored between us.  However, Hebrews 5 insists that the only way that can happen is if God does it. During this American political campaign season, both…

Explore Commentary

Hebrews 5:1-10 Sermon Commentary

Lent 5B

It should count as a bit of an irony that just beyond the end of the assigned lection in Hebrews 5 we find the writer giving his readers a bit of a rebuke.  “You probably don’t understand what I just wrote,” verse 11 essentially begins, “and that’s too bad because by now you should be…

Explore Commentary

Hebrews 5:1-10 Sermon Commentary

Proper 24B

Comments and Observations In the verse right after our reading, the author admits that what he has just written is “hard to explain.” That is an understatement.  It is particularly hard to explain today’s lectionary reading to a 21st century church that isn’t one bit interested in closely reasoned arguments about a “high priest in…

Explore Commentary

Hebrews 5:1-10 Sermon Commentary

Lent 5B

Comments, Observations, and Questions I doubt that most preachers will chose this lectionary reading for their sermon on this fifth Sunday of Lent.  Hebrews is just plain tough to preach.  For one thing it is so complex, dealing as it does with long forgotten aspects of the Jewish faith.  Sermons on Hebrews require detailed explanations…

Explore Commentary