Jesus - Perfected Intercessor through Suffering

Recently I've gone through the book of Hebrews several times, fascinated by the beauty of Jesus that I have seen anew in this book. In the next few weeks I hope to share random thoughts from the book of Hebrews and from other Scriptures as well.

I was struck afresh with the truth of Hebrews 5:8,9 where the author says of Jesus' earthly life: "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him..."

I asked the Holy Spirit what "being made perfect" meant for Jesus, who was sinless; and He immediately quickened Hebrews 4:15 to me: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin..."

What I understood the Spirit to show me in this is that one meaning of His being made perfect is that Jesus, though a son, was made a "perfect/complete" Intercessor through actually tasting and experiencing human weakness and frailty and vulnerability. I believe He tasted this in a couple of ways - first of all, simply by becoming fully human and tasting the limitations of created humans in many ways as He walked the earth for about 33 years; secondly, by yielding Himself up to the Father in death and becoming sin for us, therein drinking of the cup of suffering in its fullest measure, descending into the hell of human sin and suffering.

Though He was a sinless and beloved Son, He had to be made complete/perfect in understanding and sympathizing with all of human weakness. His suffering made Him an approachable, tender, non-judgmental High Priest, the Source of our salvation, to whom we can now go with confidence (Heb. 4:16). We now know, because of what He walked through, that no matter what the issue - be it our own acts of sin, or inner hidden sin and selfishness, or pain over others' sin against us, or loss, or the brokenness of dear ones, or the suffering of persecution, or poverty - there is ONE who is touched deeply with our feelings because He fully entered into them and His response to us will be one of compassion and understanding rather than impatience and irritation or disgust over our weaknesses.

We can see this in Jesus even before the cross in His dealings with humans. He was always tender and understanding with the weak and sinful and needy ones. Although the truth is that all humans are weak and sinful and needy, when Jesus encountered those who recognized their state, He loved being around them.

I believe that for those of us in the process of being conformed to His image, suffering can serve the purposes of purging us of sin and selfishness (since, unlike Jesus, we are sinful); but, like Jesus, suffering can serve to make us sympathetic, non-judgmental intercessors and lovers of people. I'm convinced that while prayer and the spiritual disciplines have a role in helping us understand God and others, there is a place of understanding and sympathy with others' feelings that is only possible through the experience of personal suffering; if Jesus needed to be made complete (fully mature) through the means of suffering, then certainly we need the same. His Spirit knows exactly what shape that suffering needs to take for each one of us.

It is important to realize that it's possible to "waste" our sufferings; in other words, if my suffering isn't met with faith, it won't produce godly compassion and understanding in me but will tend to cause my heart to harden and grow bitter. Faith understands that my pain and affliction counts for something eternal and is producing the likeness of the great Intercessor who is touched by the feelings of weak people; while it doesn't necessarily remove the painful feelings, it empowers me to be able to appreciate and say yes to the Spirit's good intentions for me in the suffering.

So I encourage you (and myself) to view the difficult situation(s) in our lives as the means that the loving Father has chosen or allowed to further shape us into the likeness of Jesus, the sympathetic High Priest who is totally approachable and without any shadow of judgmentalism towards the weak.

Grace and peace be yours in Him this week!