By David ReayThursday 17 Mar 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 3 minutes
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (NIV)
So often people might say to us, “I know exactly how you feel!” And we might be tempted to lose our good manners and reply that in fact they know little or nothing about how we feel. In truth, each experience is unique to each individual and the most we can say is that we know something of how someone else might be feeling, not exactly what they might be feeling.
Then again, as we will see, Jesus is the exception to that rule. The writer in the above passage refers to Jesus as the one who intercedes in heaven for us just as the Hebrew High Priests would intercede for the people in the times before Jesus. This Jesus died on the cross assuming the guilt of our shortcomings when he did so. So, he did away with what kept us from God. It is as if Jesus’ death and resurrection broke open the previously locked and barred door that kept us from God. He has passed through that now open door and stretches out his hand to us, inviting us to follow him into the presence of God. Our trust in what Jesus has done for us on the cross is like putting our hand in his hand and walking through that door with him into the presence of God. Not because we are good but because Jesus is good.
So back to this business of Jesus knowing how we feel. When he walked the earth, he was divine but also human…. something beyond our understanding. He was tempted to do wrong as we all are. He wasn’t a pretend human being. Not that he experienced every distinct temptation we do, but he experienced the essence of them. For example, he was never exposed to the lure of internet pornography but would have been tempted to distort his own sexuality.
So, when we come to him for help and mercy, we aren’t coming to some other worldly, saintly figure who is simply disgusted with sin. We come to someone who knows what it is like to be pulled in the wrong direction and yet to someone who never succumbed to the enticement. We get both a sympathetic listener and a strong counsellor. He won’t turn up his nose at us in revulsion, nor will he be shocked at us. He won’t despise our humanity given he took on humanity himself.
No need to shrink back from approaching Jesus. No need to hide. No need to put into words our hopes or our fears. We have a friend in the very highest of places who can say to us with both compassion and integrity, “I know just how you feel.”
Blessings,
David