Sanctified to Sympathize

"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin."

Hebrews 4:14-15

Long before the existence of the nebulous word empathy, "sympathize" was defined by Webster in his 1828 Dictionary as:  "To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain; to feel in consequence of what another feels; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected."  When Jesus put on human flesh and came to earth, our Creator personally entered into the complete human experience.  Through experience, He knew what it was to feel hungry, thirsty, sleepy and sore.  He endured without sin all the physical influences that often overpower our resolve and cheerful attitudes.  Unlike us, Jesus never became short-tempered and snapped in frustration when He felt tired, nor did He become crabby or angry when He was starving.  But He can sympathize with our weaknesses.

As Jesus continued to walk righteously and stand strong in the face of temptation to sin, we ought to hold fast our confession of faith.  Since Jesus can sympathize with us in our weakness by His grace, this is an example we are to follow in our relationships with others.  We may naturally look upon weakness with disdain, but Jesus looks upon all with compassion.  Genuine sympathy does not come as naturally for some as others, and thank God He is able to make us new creations and fill us with the Holy Spirit.  Our temptation may be to be callous or uncaring when others experience difficulties, pains and trials, but by the grace of God He supplies wisdom and strength to walk according to His will:  to love one another as He loves us.  Having been set apart by God to do His will, it is our responsibility to embrace our sanctification to intentionally follow Jesus in all aspects of life.

Since Jesus experienced human weakness yet did not sin, it follows we should seek the LORD Jesus who overcame the power of sin in the world by His death and resurrection.  He successfully navigated human frailty and fleshly tendency to sin and was righteous.  Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."  For me, switching gears between thinking and feeling can be slow and clunky--and sometimes in my weakness I can go past feeling.  Our weakness and sin, evidenced by what we say, do and even feel--by things naturally out of our control--ought to lead us to desperately seek our Saviour in repentance who provides mercy and grace to help in time of need.  Because we are new creations by the power of the Gospel that raised Jesus from the dead, even an old dog can learn a new way of living by renewing our minds by the word of God.