By David ReayMonday 27 Dec 2021LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has entered the inmost Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to our faith. For we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible—he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need. (PHILLIPS)
At first glance, this is a comforting Bible passage. Jesus knows what we are going through. The testing times we experience, the temptations we encounter, he understands because he has endured them. And he has endured them successfully, without succumbing to temptation or failing the test.
But we might find ourselves asking if this is really true. We need to note that there are common testings and temptations that find different expressions at different times. Our specific temptations are expressions of these general temptations.
Jesus could not have been tempted to be harsh with his children since he didn’t have any, but he could be tempted to be harsh to others in general. He could not have been tempted to be unfaithful to his wife because he was unmarried, but he could be tempted to abandon his solemn promises. He could not tempted to drown himself in online pornography because it didn’t exist then, but could be tempted to misuse healthy sexuality. He was not tempted to drive too fast because cars weren’t invented then, but he could be tempted to be recklessly inconsiderate of others.
Jesus may have been what his followers call “divine”, but he was also human. He truly was tested and tempted. And so we can come to him in our times of frailty and failure and fling ourselves on his mercy. He is not some harsh and superior human being sitting in judgement on us. He understands us. He is the only one qualified to tell us he knows exactly how we feel.
Blessings,
David