Good Morning Friends,
“In bringing many sons to glory, it was
fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the
author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who
are made holy are of the same family. So
Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of
the congregation I will sing your praises.’
And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’
And again he says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’ Since the children have flesh and blood, he
too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who
holds the power of death -- that is, the devil -- and free those who all their
lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:10-15)
Life is hard, there is no denying that. I would never try to deny that. God doesn’t try to deny it, either. No one who takes an honest look at what is
happening in the lives of the people around him can deny that life is
hard. Some of us have friends who have
cancer. We may have another friend whose
father is dying and another whose mother probably won’t live another month or
so. We know pregnant women who are
afraid that something might be wrong with the baby. We hear stories of those whose children have
been kidnapped. We all know a whole
bunch of stories like those. Life is
hard.
But here’s the point of today’s passage: Jesus understands. Jesus went through it, too. His work of salvation was only made complete
by going through the kind of suffering that other humans face. He lost a father to death (at least that’s
the assumption about Joseph). His family
turned against him. One of His closest
companions betrayed Him and another denied even knowing Him. The government wouldn’t come to His aid and
even assisted in His death. The
religious leaders who should have been His partners, instead thought He was a
blasphemer and schemed to get Him killed.
And then there’s the mockery of the trials, the pain of the tortures,
and the horror of the cross. Life was
hard for Jesus, too. But it’s through
the hard stuff that Jesus was able to complete what the Father sent Him to do.
It is only through the hard stuff that God
will be able to accomplish in us and through us what He desires.
It is because Jesus suffered through the hard
stuff of life and overcame it, that He is willing to call us brothers, who turn
to Him to overcome the hard stuff that we go through.
Jesus is our blood Brother, our suffering
Brother, our death Brother. He went
through what we go through, and He overcame it.
He overcame for us!
Thank You, Brother, Friend, Savior,
Lord! Thank You, Jesus!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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