Day 69: Our Empathetic Hero

Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. Hebrews 2:17–18

Jesus was desperate in the garden of Gethsemane. He surely had the stooped shoulders and bloodshot eyes of a man in agony. In Matthew’s account of what took place during those dark hours, it says Jesus was so troubled He told the disciples: My heart is full of sorrow, to the point of death (Matt. 26:38a ncv) and in Dr. Luke’s version, he adds the medical note that the Messiah was under such extreme stress: His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44b ncv).

Contrary to some sermons I’ve heard over the years, Jesus didn’t square His shoulders and face the cross with unblinking fortitude. He wasn’t some stoic martyr; He experienced distress. Not because our Savior was afraid to die, but because He dreaded being separated from His Father and receiving God’s wrath. Yet He endured that unimaginable ache alone. Even mouthy, well-intentioned Peter, who’d vowed to stick to Jesus like Velcro, fell asleep while the Messiah mourned under those gnarled olive trees.

Our Savior was bereft of companionship. No one dropped by with a pint of chicken soup. No one wrote Him a note expressing their condolences. Every single person abandoned Him during His time of deepest need.

Which is why the author of Hebrews was able to galvanize a bunch of exhausted, New Testament believers who were limping in their walk of faith with the good news that Jesus had already blazed the trail they were stumbling on. Because Jesus didn’t skip to the front of the pain line. Instead He chose to be an empathetic Hero—sharing perfectly in the frailty and loneliness of our humanity.

C. S. Lewis eloquently describes this miracle of divine empathy: “But supposing God became a man—suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person—then that person could help us. . . . That is the sense in which He pays our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself need not suffer at all.”13 May our hearts be bent in gratitude over the sacrificial and substitutional death our Redeemer chose so that we could call the Friday before Easter “good.”

• Poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone,” but the Bible says that God stores our tears in a bottle (Ps. 56:8). How does it make you feel that sorrow and isolation don’t have to be joined at the hip? That God wants to be near you when you’re in distress?
• Have you ever leaned against God’s chest when your own was heaving with grief?
• How does Jesus’ experience in Gethsemane empower you in your darkest moments?