Our sympathetic High-priest – 4:15
Reading Matthew 4:1-11; Heb 4:14-5:10
Jesus wept. –John 11:35
Text
15 For we do not have a High-priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
We touched on this before when we looked at Chapter 2, but the truth is so wonderful that it bears repetition!
Have you ever felt really down, perhaps you were unwell, or somehow things were going badly. An acquaintance saw how blue you were and decided to cheer you up. They told you that your problems weren’t so bad and proceeded to tell you that it was your own fault and you needed to get a grip, pick yourself up by your bootstraps, dust yourself down and get on with your life! Now didn’t that helpful advice make you feel a lot better? … No? You do surprise me!
The truth was that they didn’t understand what you were going through. They didn’t understand how badly your head or heart ached. If they had they would have been much more sympathetic, now there is a lovely word. When we are blue, true sympathy is better than all the know-it-alls who think they have all the answers – but don’t really understand the half of it.
Of course God knows us through and through. He knows what makes us tick – after all he designed and made us. He knows the cause of our health problems and our heartaches. But if we spoke to Him about our troubles we might expect Him to respond with indifference, most manufacturers don’t care after they have got your money – you try going back for help with a 20, 50, or 80 year old product that has gone faulty! Even if you did find someone who wanted to be helpful you might expect a diagnosis that required a PhD to understand and a billionaire’s bank account to pay for it.
The Bible reminds us, time and time again, that it is not like that with God. He is interested in our concerns and heartaches. And not just like a curious scientist watching laboratory rats, but because He loves us. Perhaps, though, you think that He is so remote, up in heaven that He can’t understand how we feel. He may understand the theory of our problems – what is wrong with our dickey ticker, creaky joints, or auto-immune system. This verse makes it clear that this just isn’t so. Jesus doesn’t only understand the theory of our weaknesses – He understands the feeling of our infirmities as the AV puts it. Why? Because He stood where we stand and faced the sort of problems that we face! Let’s think about it for a while:
• Have you had a tough life? So did Jesus! He was born in a stable and lived the life of a peasant.
• Do you have housing problems? Jesus had no place to lay His head. Mt 8:20
• Do family responsibilities weigh you down? There is no mention of Joseph after Jesus 12th birthday. Jesus probably had to support Mary and His half brothers and sisters from an early age. As He died in agony on the cross He even had to think who would take care of His mother.
• Do people undervalue you or put you down? Those who lived in Nazareth saw Him only as the boy who had grown up among them, the son of Joseph and Mary. When He tried to reveal His true identity they tried to stone Him. Mk 6:3; John 6:42
• Do people slander you and make unkind remarks? They called Jesus illegitimate – John 8:41, a glutton and a drunkard. Mt 11:19
• Are you misunderstood? He ate with the dregs of society and they said he was just as bad – Mt 9:11. He healed a paralysed man they called Him a blasphemer – Mt 9:3. He cast out demons and they said He did it by the power of Satan – Mt 12:24.
• Are you under too much pressure? Crowds followed him everywhere, until He was so tired he slept in a little boat in the middle of a storm Mt 8:24
• Are you hated or unjustly treated? The Pharisees saw Jesus as a threat and hated Him so much that they determined to destroy him, arrested Him, rigged His trial and arranged His execution. His judge knew that he was innocent, but condemned him to death anyway – it was politically expedient – Mt 12:14.
• Are you lonely or let you down by your friends? Judas sold Him; Peter denied Him with oaths and curses; His closest friends deserted Him. The crowd who had screamed His praises a week before bayed for His death. On the cross even His Father forsook Him.
• Do you suffer pain? They beat Jesus, made a crown of thorns put it on His head and hit Him on it. They plucked the hairs from His beard, forced Him to carry His own cross, nailed Him to it with jagged iron spikes, leaving Him there to bleed and die of thirst and suffocation under the hot eastern sun. He was the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isa 53:3) and has not forgotten.
• Do you feel unwanted? And they all cried out at once, saying, “Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas” Lu 23:18
• Do people ridicule you? They laughed at Him and taunted Him as He hung dying on the cross – He saved others himself he cannot save Mt 9:24
Are there problems you face and He has not endured worse? He is able to sympathise because He truly understands. To represent us to God as our high-priest He had to be one of us He had to be taken from among men as 5:1 puts it. We need a high-priest who can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray 5:2. As we have seen, Jesus is perfectly fitted to represent us because He understands what it is like to face the problems that we face – from personal experience.
What more wonderful combination could there be? He loves us; He is sympathetic; yet He is also the Son of God (4:15; 5:5) strategically placed in the very throne room of the universe (4:14)! Still better He is the one who gives eternal salvation to all who obey Him 5:9.
A mother was trying to calm her fretful little daughter who had climbed up onto her lap. Soon her loving embrace and tender caresses quieted the 4 year olds uneasiness. But the mother herself was grieving for she had just buried her own dear mother. Looking up, the little girl saw her moist eyes and asked sweetly, “Mama, do you want to be holded too?” Then the mother’s tears began to flow freely, and the child hugged her and whispered, “Mama, God will hold you, won’t He?”
Do you need to be holded as well? You only have to ask!
Yet without sin
Wonderful as it is to know that Jesus has faced the same problems as us, there is a difference; we face temptation and all too often give in. We want what others have; we do what we should not do to make money, win power or to make us feel good for a little while; we surrender to hopelessness and depression, forgetting God’s love and purpose. Jesus faced tougher trials yet He never surrendered to temptation.
A young boy’s father told him “don’t swim in that canal.” “O.K., Dad,” he answered. But he came home carrying a wet bathing suit that evening. “Where have you been?” demanded the father. “Swimming in the canal,” answered the boy. “Why did you?” the father asked. “Well, Dad,” the boy explained, “I had my bathing suit with me and I couldn’t resist the temptation.” “Why did, you take your bathing suit with you?” his father asked. “So I’d be prepared to swim, in case I was tempted,” he replied.
Like the boy, too many of us expect to sin and plan ahead for it! Of course being tempted is not the same as sinning; sin comes when we give in to the temptation. Of course we shouldn’t play with temptation like the boy. We are commanded to flee youthful lusts (2Tim 2:22) and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts Rom13:14. All of us have our weaknesses and we need to avoid exposing these to the enemy.
We sometimes feel that things are worse for us, but as Paul said, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man 1Cor 10:13. Our experience is not unique. Others have faced the same problems. We need to put our experience in perspective.
A lady was in great pain most of the time as she came to the end of her life. Someone said to her with deep compassion, “You suffer a lot, don’t you?” “Yes,” she replied as she lifted up her hands, “but look, there are no nails here. He had the nails, I have the peace!” Then she put her hand on her brow and said, “See, there are no thorns here, He had the thorns, I have the peace!” Then she touched her side and said, “There is no spear here. He had the spear, I have the peace!” With those words she slipped quietly into the presence of the Lord.
The story of Jesus temptation that we read together shows us that knowing and loving the Word of God is the key to resisting temptation. But we must resist – Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4: 7). And we must resist in God’s strength, for only then we shall find, as 1Cor 10 goes on to say, that He is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
We also need to understand why trials and difficulties come into our lives. Satan tempts us so that we may fall, not that we need a lot of help! God knows what we can carry and He tests us to make us dependent on Him, to strengthen us and to shape us.
How then should this truth affect our lives?
It should encourage us to:
• turn to Christ for help knowing He understands us – more on this next time DV
• resist temptation 1 Peter 5:8-9, Eph. 6:11-12.
• be sympathetic to others – because we know how hard trials and temptations are; how many times we have failed ourselves and how forgiving God has been to us
7 “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”… 10 He said to her, … Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” John 8
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Mt 5:7
25 And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Mark 11
21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed. 1 Peter 2
Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin;
Each victory will help you some other to win;
Fight manfully onward, dark passions subdue,
Look ever to Jesus, He’ll carry you through.
Chorus
Ask the Saviour to help you,
Comfort, strengthen and keep you;
He is willing to aid you,
He will carry you through.
Shun evil companions, bad language disdain,
God’s Name hold in reverence, nor take it in vain;
Be thoughtful and earnest, kindhearted and true,
Look ever to Jesus, He’ll carry you through.
To him that o’ercometh, God giveth a crown;
Through faith we shall conquer, though often cast down;
He Who is our Saviour our strength will renew;
Look ever to Jesus, He’ll carry you through.
