A Better Sympathizer

Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet was without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Remember when you were so tired that all you wanted to do was sleep, and instead your baby with an ear infection woke up every time you tried to lay her down? When you wanted to get some extra tasks done at the office, and fell farther behind? When you looked forward to leisurely weekend of watching March Madness games, and ended up fixing the garage door? When your good friends turned on you and shut you out from the group? When you and your family did not see eye-to-eye?

Know this about God whom you worship: Jesus came down to our world, and He knows how you feel. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.” What a comfort knowing that when you talk to your Savior in prayer, you are not talking to someone who’s sitting back on His distant throne in detached serenity. Rather, you are talking to someone who has been exactly where you are. In fact, Jesus did not merely get a small taste of what the battles of the world are like. Instead, Jesus fully felt the very worst that this world can launch against us.

Poverty? He knew it. Pain. He suffered it. Rejection? He endured it. Temptation? He felt it. Betrayal? He lived it. Loneliness? He experienced it. Death? He tasted it. Stress? He could write the book on it. Being deserted for another love, yet always accepting the deserter back out of divine love. He did write the book on that.

When you tell God you’ve reached your limit, He knows what you mean. When your palms sweat at the impossible deadline, when your plans are interrupted by people who have other plans, He nods in sympathy. When you pray, “Lord, take this cup from me,” Jesus has already prayed that prayer. It is extraordinarily comforting to know that Jesus is like you in every way, but He had no sin. It brings calm to the most frayed nerves, serenity to the most frenzied and frazzled of days.

But remember: Jesus did this not only so He could feel what we feel. He did it to be our perfect Substitute.  He willingly took the punishment for our failures and paid for them completely at the cross.

Every day through his Word, Jesus sits down with you. Every day Jesus says, “Let’s talk.” When He does, think about where He’s been. Think about what He’s done for you. He knows what the battle is like. He’s the one to carry you through.

As he has done throughout our Lenten series of a Better Savior, the writer to the Hebrews compares Jesus to the people, worship and sacrifices of the Old Testament. He asks them in these verses, why would they ever want to go back to the Old Testament high priest? Why go back to Judaism where sinners did not dare approach a holy God except through the mediation of a human high priest once a year. Rather, because of our Greater High Priest, who is also our Greater Sacrifice, the author urges us, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence.”

With fear and trembling, the ancient high priest approached God’s mercy seat between the two cherubs on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. Before God’s throne of infinite majesty and holy justice in heaven, we sinners should shrink back in terror and stand mute in guilt. But with Christ our Greater High Priest standing there, it becomes a throne of grace where believers “receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Now we can approach God’s throne of grace in our congregational prayers or in our personal prayer life. In the nick of time, right when we need it, when temptations come and troubles abound, we can approach our Greater Sympathizer who knows exactly what we need and knows just how to give it. We approach this throne of grace humbly with our sins and receive healing forgiveness. We pour out our sorrow and receive resurrection comfort. We lay down our weakness and receive strength from the Almighty. We tell God our needs and He gives us what we need at that time.

You can confide in your pastor, speak to a teacher, receive advice from your parent, converse with a friend or be helped by a counselor. But none of them have experienced what you are going through. They don’t know what you know. But there is One who does. He understands. Jesus knows. He is the Better Sympathizer. He felt repeated and very real temptations, so He understands what it’s all about. From experience, Jesus knows what we face and His heart can well sympathize with us.

That’s part of what makes Him so much better. In Jesus’ life on earth, when He took on our human nature and became true man, He was also “tempted in every way just as we are.” From the beginning to the end of that earthly stay, Jesus faced temptations more severe than we will ever know. He felt the full pressure and pull as all the troops in hell’s barracks with all the weapons from hell’s arsenals stormed against Him. He felt those temptations even more than we do because while we so often fall under temptation’s first round, He remained standing to the final bell to receive every assault.

He willingly underwent hunger, thirst, cold, heat, exhaustion, ridicule, persecution, sorrow, poverty, imprisonment, scourging, the piercing of thorns, and even a bitter death on a cross. How wondrous is this kind of love that plunged our Savior willingly into a sea of that kind of suffering for miserable and ungrateful slaves such as us. We committed the crime. He underwent the punishment. We plundered. He made amends. We caused the debt. He became our defendant. We sinned. He was punished.

Because of everything we have done, because of everything we have left undone, because of who we are and what we have become, we rightfully deserve to be assigned to the unceasing, scorching flames of hell. But our Greater Sympathizer boiled with the fire of love on the altar of the cross, setting us free from those hellish flames. We should be cast away from God’s presence forever. But our Great High Priest chose to be abandoned by His heavenly Father and cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We deserve to be tormented daily and eternally by the devil and his demons. But with immeasurable love, Jesus cried out that all of that is finished!

Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet He remained without sin. Have you ever wondered about some of those temptations? As Jesus lay down on a hard mat in Peter’s guest room, because He had no place of His own, do you think Jesus was ever tempted to reclaim the glory and majesty of His heavenly mansion? In the middle of a long trip, did He ever consider transporting Himself to the next city? When the rain chilled His bones, was He tempted to change the weather? When the heat parched His lips, did He give thought to popping over to the Caribbean for some refreshment?

If ever Jesus entertained such thoughts, He never gave in to them. Not once. Stop and think about this. Not once did Christ use His supernatural powers for personal comfort. With one word He could have transformed the hard earth into a soft bed, but He didn’t. With a wave of His hand, He could have boomeranged the spit of His accusers back into their faces, but He didn’t. With an arch of His brow, He could have paralyzed the hand of the soldier as He braided the crown of thorns. But He didn’t. With a single word, He could have called down a legion of angels to wipe out His enemies. With the breath of His mouth, He could have wiped out this whole earth and started over. But He didn’t.

Why is all of this so important? How is Jesus’ coming so vital for us to understand? What is the coolest thing about everything Jesus did leading up to His death on Good Friday?  

It is not that in an instant, Jesus went from needing nothing to needing air, food and water to wash His dirty feet. It is not that He kept His cool while His twelve best friends felt the heat and got out of the kitchen. It is not that He gave no command to the angels who begged, “Just give the nod, Lord. One word and these demons will be deviled eggs.”

It is not that He literally turned the other cheek to receive another blow. It is not that He prayed for His disciples before they fled or that He reached out to Judas before His betrayal. It is not that He declined the tears of the women, but told them to weep for Jerusalem. It is not that the Palm Sunday King was crucified as a criminal on Good Friday. It is not that the crowds who cheered for Him on a bright morning in the beginning of the week had turned to jeer at Him on a dark Friday afternoon.

It is not that He refused to defend Himself when blamed for every sin since Adam. It is not that He endured the poisonous bite of the serpent, while its head was being crushed. Or that He stood silent as the Ancient of Days’ verdict of judgment was pronounced upon Him. Or that the Giver of Light was surrounded by fallen creation’s darkness.

It wasn’t even that after three days in a dark hole, Jesus stepped into the Easter sunrise with a smile and a swagger and a question for lowly Lucifer: “Is that your best punch?”

That was cool, incredibly cool.

But do you want to know the coolest, most vital, most important thing about the One who gave up the crown of heaven for a crown of thorns?

He did it all for you. Just for you. To save you. To sympathize with you. Amen.