"Through Suffering, Christ Saves"

27 Mar 09
Friday of the Fourth Week in Lent

Through Suffering, Christ Saves
Hebrews 5:5-10

To describe Jesus as the Great High Priest, a priest who lives forever, seems incongruous with the idea of suffering and tears. Ought not someone holding such a ‘high’ office be above normal human experience and emotions? Those in senior church leadership today would want to quickly respond with a resounding “no”. Not only do such people remain as ‘human’ as you and I, regardless of the office they hold, but sometimes the office itself can place upon them a burden of leadership and example which draws from them a greater level of suffering and human emotion.

Verse 7 is the pivotal verse in this 14-verse chapter and it is here that the writer takes us to the heart of the priesthood of Jesus. It says, “In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.” Clearly, the writer has in mind those agonizing moments in Gethsemane as Jesus wrestled in prayer with the Father, before going to the Cross. Charles Hutchison Gabriel, in his hymn, “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene”, expresses in poetry that moment in the garden which led Jesus to the Cross:

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: Not my will, but Thine;
He had no tears for His own grief,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore my burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

The sublime nature of the Priesthood of Jesus is found, not in a parade of His greatness, but in the actions of humility and submission to the will of the Father. And through such obedience, “He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (v9)

Commissioner David Bringans,
Territorial Commander, The Salvation Army,
Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar Territory.


Commitment:
Praise God today that through the obedience of Jesus, the burden and suffering of sin has been lifted from us as He Went to the Cross.

Prayer:
Dear Jesus, “What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest Friend, For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end? O make me Thine for ever! And should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never, Outlive my love to Thee.” Amen. (Paulus Gerhardt).