Do you know how sympathetic Jesus is to you?
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15
Gracious and Generous God,
How often do we pause to consider
how a sympathetic Savior changes everything?
As we bow before you today,
may we grasp afresh
the hope that is ours in our beloved Christ:
Jesus, in his sinless humanity,
is sympathetic to our weakness.
How can this be?
In one of my favorite books, the author
explains it so much better than I can:
“It is in our ‘weaknesses’ that Jesus sympathizes with us.”
[Sympathize means “to suffer with.”]
“Sympathize here is not cool and detached pity…
In our pain, Jesus is pained;
in our suffering,
he feels the suffering as his own
even though it isn’t…
His is a love that cannot be held back
when he sees his people in pain.”*
Oh, Lord, may we cling to our
suffering and sympathetic Savior.
May we rest in Christ’s sympathy for us,
even as we battle sin,
even as we suffer in a fallen world.
In Jesus’ sympathetic name. Amen.
Read Hebrews 4:14-16.
*(Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, by Dane Ortlund, page 46).
