Thursday, February 23, 2012
Hebrews 5:7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission
WE LIVE BECAUSE OF JESUS' OBEDIENCE AND SUFFERING
To make the perfect sacrifice, Jesus had to live a life of perfect obedience. However, this obedience would lead Him through tremendous suffering. Let us reflect on Hebrews 5:7 speaking of Jesus "who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death."
Think back to Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was anticipating what was on the road ahead. He knew full well the excruciating ordeal He was about to undertake. He prayed so hard that we are told that His sweat was like drops of blood. This was agonizing. I remember being sent to my room as a kid, and having to sweat it out for a couple of hours until my dad came home with the punishment. In that case, as it is so often in life, the anticipation is worse than the reality. Not so with Jesus. The reality was as bad as the anticipation.
Despite knowing this, Jesus still asked for His Father's will to be done. If there was no way for the cup of suffering to be removed, than He would drink it. Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. We are told that He learned obedience through suffering, not that He was deficient in anything, but this was His experience. As the perfect Son of God Jesus had not experienced suffering, but for the sake of mankind, and out of obedient love to His Father, He drank the cup of suffering down to the very dregs. For Him, obedience and suffering went hand in hand.
Because of the perfect obedience, Jesus became the perfect High Priest offering the perfect sacrifice. This was not some animal, but the Lamb of God Himself. Often in Lent we sing the hymn "Not All the Blood of Beasts" (The Lutheran Hymnal, 156). No matter how many sacrifices were made by the Israelites, no matter how blood-stained the altars were, no matter how great the obedience of God's people was, it could not pay for sin. It took the perfection of Christ. We live because of Jesus' obedience and suffering.
