1.
Please pray with me.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing
in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. Today
the church observes the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus. In today’s Gospel, we see Mary and Joseph
present our Savior Jesus, who was promised from the fall of man into sin, born
of a virgin’s womb. The true offering wasn’t the turtledoves or young pigeons.
It was Jesus they carried. This Child has come to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and
deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery”
(Heb. 2:14b–15). Set free by His
coming in our flesh and the promise of what He would do “in the service of God, to
make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17b), Simeon and Anna
rejoiced, and we with them, for we know that we can face death unafraid and “depart in peace” (Luke 2:29) when our time comes. The message is taken from Hebrews 2:14-18,
and is entitled, “Jesus, Our Suffering
Brother,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Hebrews
2:14-15 & 17-18 says, “14 Since
the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his
death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the
devil—15 and free those who all their lives were held in
slavery by their fear of death. 17 For this reason he had to be
made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a
merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make
atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself
suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
3.
In
Jesus the holy and transcendent God became fully and truly human. Jesus shares
in our humanity. I submit to you the traditional, moralistic religion has
completely forgotten this whole idea. In fact, if we really understood the fact
that Jesus shares in our humanity, we’d live differently. What does it teach us that God has flesh and
blood? What does that teach us about God and about life? What does that teach
us about God?
4.
The
passage says, “… he too shared in their
humanity …” Why? First, that Jesus might destroy him who has the power of
death, but secondly, “Because he himself
suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” “…
that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest …” Do you know
what that means? I suggest to you most of us don’t have the resources we could
have as Christians to face life in this world because we functionally deny the
real and true and full humanity of Jesus. The Bible tells us Jesus was
completely physical. He was really human, and, therefore, Jesus our brother
suffered for us.
5.
What
does it mean that Jesus became human like us, consider this illustration. There was an x-ray technician that worked in
a hospital, and he put people up on the table. But, this x-ray technician came
down with a kidney stone and had to be examined himself. When his pastor came
and spoke to him, he was in the hospital now was a patient. He was in a lot of
pain, and he had just been put on the table by one of his x-ray technician
colleagues. He’d just come back to his
room, and his pastor said, “How’s it
going?” He said to his pastor, “When
I get out of here I am going to have a radically different bedside manner.”
The pastor asked, “Why?” He said, “Well, I really never knew what it was like
to be on the table myself. I will never be impatient with a client again. I will never treat them like cattle, because
I know what it’s like. I’ve been changed. I’ve been on the table. Therefore, I
will never treat people on the table the same way.”
6.
Jesus
our suffering brother was really human. Here’s
someone who knows everything we know. Have you ever been betrayed? So has he.
Have you ever been isolated or lonely? So has he. Have you ever been broke and
in debt? So has he. Have you faced death? So has he. Jesus our suffering brother has faced pain
and rejection, homelessness and misunderstanding, isolation, grief, and loss.
7.
We’re
told in the Bible in 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.” Not a little tear in the eye, but loud
cries and tears. God not only came as a human being, but he refused to come as
a human being with nerves of steel, somebody who was always crying, weeping
over Jerusalem, weeping over his dead friend Lazarus, and sweating blood over
his own doom.
8.
What
does this mean that Jesus is our suffering brother? It means that if you have
in your mind Jesus is fully human, but you really think of him the way the
Sunday school books picture him, always beautifully tan, glowing, sort of
porcelain-looking, his white clothes glistening, and always sort of hovering
about six feet above the grass. That’s not the true Jesus of Scripture. No, Jesus has been on the table, and He’ll
never treat anybody else on the table in a way that’s inappropriate.
9.
If
you believe this, let me show you what would happen to you. First of all, you
would go to him when your life starts
to break apart. I’ve been a pastor for almost 7 years. It’ll be 7 years by this
July. Over the years one of the most
normal things I’ve found is when I notice somebody who was coming to church
seems to have stopped coming to church and if I run into them and I see they’ve
started drifting away and I ask what’s going on, so often the problem is
problems, troubles, brokenness in their lives.
“Terrible things are happening to
me, and it makes me feel far from God. I don’t want to pray. I don’t want to go
…” That’s denial of something. It’s a denial of the humanity of Jesus. What
do you want in a counselor? First of all, you want someone who knows what
you’re going through. You want somebody who understands, but you also don’t
want somebody in the same spot you’re in. You want somebody who has moved
beyond it. Jesus was on the table, He sacrificed on the cross for you for the
forgiveness of your sins, but he’s not there anymore. He’s risen from the dead.
He’s at the right hand of God. He’s the wonderful Counselor. You have to go to
him.
10.
Somebody
says, “Well, but when I go to God, I try
to have prayers answered, and very often my prayers aren’t answered.” Jesus
understands that too. He’s suffered in every way as you’ve suffered. He’s been
tempted in every way as you’ve been tempted. He knows what it’s like to offer
up a prayer and have it turned down. “…
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.…” Don’t you see?
11.
You
say, “Well, what I don’t understand is
why is he letting this happen to me? That’s the reason why I’m not praying.
That’s the reason why I’m not coming to church. Why is he letting this happen
to me?” I don’t know, but here’s what I do know. For you to be mad at him
because you’re suffering is to deny the humanity of Jesus. That x-ray
technician doesn’t say, “I no longer will
put people on the table.”
12.
Did
he say that? He knows as painful as it is for a person with a kidney stone to
have to move around, it’ll be a lot more painful if we don’t do something about
it. Therefore, what he has promised is he says, “I will never unnecessarily hurt somebody. I will be so gentle. I will
be so careful, because I’ve been on the table. There won’t be a single needless
jostle. There won’t be a single needless pain.”
If you’re suffering right now, remember that Jesus our suffering
brother has been on the table. There’s nothing
happening to us that’s random. If you deny that, you’re denying the humanity of
Jesus. What you’re really saying is, “You
don’t understand.” Jesus does. That’s what Christianity means. Jesus our
suffering brother knows the sorrowful.
13.
What
did Jesus accomplish by becoming our brother? The author points us first of all
to Satan. “Destroy” here doesn’t mean
to wipe out but to render ineffective. That’s what Jesus did to the devil, the
one “who holds the power of death.”
Death was the hold the devil had over man. Only God controls death. But, in
bringing sin into the world, the devil brought death, on earth and in hell, as
sin’s wage. As long as the devil can keep man sinning, he can demand that this
horrible wage be paid. And the result for the sinner? Lifelong slavery spent
cringing in fear as Satan cracks death’s whip.
14.
But
no more! Instead, we as Christians along with the Apostle Paul can say in
Philippians 1:23, “I desire to depart and
be with Christ, which is better by far.” Jesus, our brother, has nullified
the devil and neutralized his ultimate weapon of death. To accomplish this,
Jesus “shared in their humanity.” He
took on our flesh and blood that he might die and with his death free us from
our bondage. Jesus used that very thing with which Satan was bullying and
battering man to defeat Satan. Like some vicious dog, Satan has been chained,
and if some still die of his rabid bite, it’s because they have strayed too
close to him and too far away from the Prince of life.
15.
Through
the centuries artists have attempted to depict Jesus’ human appearance. If you
close your eyes for a moment, you will no doubt picture in your mind one of
those depictions of Jesus, the God-man. Likely, you will see in him some sure
sign of both his humanity and his divinity. What the writer to the Hebrews
wants us to believe is this: knowing Jesus, the Son of God, as a human being is
crucial to our Christian faith. That’s what we see in the temple presentation—the
miracle of God as human as can be. We give thanks that God in Jesus came as one
of us to save us. Amen.
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