Ever since the Enemy first rebelled, his greatest goal has been the destruction of everything and anything good that God has made. As a liar and deceiver, he has succeeded in leading us astray time and again. But now Satan has set his sights on the ultimate prize—the Son of God, the promised Savior of the world.
Ever since the Enemy first rebelled, his greatest goal has been the destruction of everything and anything good that God has made. As a liar and deceiver, he has succeeded in leading us astray time and again. But now Satan has set his sights on the ultimate prize—the Son of God, the promised Savior of the world.
You know the story well. The urge within, the internal fighting, the struggle, and often, the defeat. Like Edward Hopper’s painting “Nighthawks,” you feel like the man sitting alone at the diner, lost in thought, holding a glass, but feeling unable to grip life. It’s strange that a person could feel so alone even though they never are. Such is the scandal called temptation. The subtle reference to the word is bursting your mind’s eye with memories, isn’t it? You know far more intimately than you ever wanted how this tragic narrative unfolds. The thought appears, the mind struggles, the hands twitch, the deed done, the guilt buries. The scandal of it all sets in. Then, the accusing begins, “How could anyone do something like you just did?” “Do you think Jesus could really love you after that?” “How frustrated God must be that for the 12th time this week you lost in your fight against temptation?” “Do you think God really understands you?” Maybe you’ve come here today feeling like no one gets it, like no one can understand your struggle, like no one but you can do something about it. There is a plot to scandalize you, one that’s been in place since the moment you entered this world. But Jesus has something he is desperate to tell you. He gets it. He had a plot against him too, and he won!
You’re not the first nor the last to bury your face in your pillow where no amount of soft cotton can lighten a load of guilt, scandal, and regret tightening your eyes shut. This book we call “Hebrews” was written to people who faced the question, “Is it worth it?” every day. Being a Christian in Rome, 60’s AD you were faced with that choice constantly. The Christians there had to answer it when their property was ripped away, when their jobs were terminated, when they stared down a ravenous lion in front of thousands of bloodthirsty spectators, when people spit at them, laughed at them, and slandered them. But not only that, they faced an even deeper life question, “Does Jesus get it?” “Lord, where are you?” “How can I stand up to this?” “Why have you placed me in this fight, God?” “How do I fight this plot against me?”
I think of a dear friend of mine, struggling with pornography. Finding him curled up on his dorm room couch, blanket over his face, only with enough strength to whisper, “Unlovable, me.” I don’t know your struggle with sin as you do. But I do know that you know the struggle more closely than even your closest friend. You know when your life scene darkens, the battle is beginning, the urge flares, the momentary pause that will decide if you win or lose. You and I have come to know so well the feelings of deep loneliness. The constant accusation, “If people knew who you really are, they would never look at you again, let alone be your friend.” The lie that you are a walking scandal. How the roaring lion, Satan, lies, including one of his most debilitating, “Jesus doesn’t get it.” “He’s God, he doesn’t understand what it’s like to be you.” “It’s on you, you get it, but no one else does.” “Just accept it, you’re alone.”
The people of God have battled temptations since the Garden of Eden. It’s all part of the plot Satan put into play at the beginning. The devil’s refrain played over and over, “Did God really say?” These battles were there too in the wilderness with Moses. Can you imagine the smell of grilled sheep, the unforgettable sight of blood streaming, thousands packed at the Tabernacle, their tent church, watching the high priest, their pastor, their representative before God, disappear behind the curtains of the Most Holy Place, where God’s presence was, the smell of blood raising your nostrils? All the people hold their breath as the sacrifice is made, this visual display of their sins atoned for. But as their sandaled feet kick up dust on their walk home, the question returns, “Did God really say?” “Does God really get it?” “Will God really fight for me?”
How do sacrifices and high priests connect in our conversation about the scandal of temptation? We are far removed from the Old Testament and the priestly system, but not as much as you think. The high priest was Israel’s human representative to God. He brought forth the entirety of their community into God’s presence. Yet, he also brought his own baggage, his own struggles, his own sin scandals, the blind leading the blind, in desperate need himself of forgiveness. Both high priests and people need someone, need a sacrifice for sin, need anyone to understand, someone to speak on their behalf, someone who gets it, someone who overcomes the plot.
We need someone to represent us in this fight, to be our champion because we know this is impossible for us. We need someone to gently hold his hand over our mouths to let him do the talking as Satan, the accuser shames us, and scandalizes us. We need someone to pick up our broken temptation weapons, hide us in his shadow, and win for us. We need someone who gets it. We need not just a high priest, but a “great high priest.”
We have just the right priest for the job. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s our high priest who identifies with our reality. We have a priest who empathizes more than we will ever know. We have a priest who gets it. His name? Jesus. But maybe you are still wondering if he really does. How can Jesus know what it’s like to cry every time you see your body in the mirror? How can Jesus relate to when you’re shaking your head, regretting losing your temper with your kids? How can Jesus really understand how you feel paralyzed with doubt and fear? He can because he is one who was “tempted in every way.” The temptations and struggles you’re fighting, Jesus felt those temptations even more than you have. Every punch Satan had, Jesus felt. You and I so often fall after the first round of punches. Jesus remained standing to face every last punch and kick all the way to the cross, all for you. He endured scandal so you could know freedom unlike any other.
Jesus’ empathy is so much more than a simple “I feel bad for you.” He chose to experience the very last drops of your suffering. He cried your tears. He shook as he saw what the scandal of sin has done to you. He is not aloof, he is ascended. His empathy is no mere psychological feeling, but a true identification, an affectedness, an ability to feel with, to suffer together with your weaknesses. His empathy is so much bigger than a “He gets us” Super Bowl ad. Because Jesus assumed our human nature, he is, as God, able to be an empathetic high priest who understands our fears, our pains, our temptations, and our weaknesses because he made them his own. But not only does he get it, but as God, he wins it.
Your hope comes not from looking into the sky to an indifferent God, but looking in history to the suffering, scandalized Servant-Savior whose ongoing empathy offers you hope for the future. By looking at the suffering, dying high priest sacrificing himself on the cross, you can always have confidence that God genuinely understands and cares about your suffering. At the cross, we see that God is not distant, aloof, or indifferent to suffering, for through Christ, God himself entered into your distress and mine and intimately acquainted himself with the human condition. In his exaltation, the incarnate Christ remains your merciful high priest who is forever able to empathize with and help you because of his earthly suffering and temptation. God’s answer to your hard thoughts, temptations, and suffering is Jesus. He gets it. He gets you.
When we face our minute-by-minute battles with anxiety over Ukraine, the cancer we have, our fear of the future, our doubts, our lust, our negative thoughts, and our danger to be lost in grief, how can we find victory in the plot against us? Not in just anybody, but one great high priest. The devil wants to disconnect us from our representative, but Jesus gets that and he won’t let it happen. Jesus has ascended into heaven, bringing the blood that purchased our forgiveness into the presence of God. Jesus is in the heavens, does his invisibility bother us? No. His invisibility is his advantage. His absence indicates his greatness. The fact that he longer needs to make sacrifices shows his great accomplishment of salvation. Satan cannot see God’s plan. He does not know the full extent of Jesus' power. It is invisible to him. Jesus is our high priest who gets it, and who made life worth living and death worth dying.
Jesus gets it, and he perfectly conquered it. But even more so, he answers the question we are dying to know every day, “Does God love me?” See your Savior stumbling in victorious exhaustion in the wilderness after struggling with Satan for you. Feel his hands in yours, strongly yet gently raising you to your feet. Fall again and again on the steps of “God’s throne of grace.” Not timidly, or ashamedly, but “with confidence.” Because you know deeply, his real love for you. See your king step down from his throne and throw his arms over you. Rely on him in every moment, clench your hands on his robes and never let go. Open your eyes and see his nail-marked hands never letting you go. Your days of fighting are over. Your triumph day has come.
Jesus gets it. He will come through. “In (your) time of need” which is every second you breathe, he stands ready to wipe away your tears of shame with the hands of his forgiving grace. When you are searching for mercy, relief, and victory in the everyday battle for your soul, Satan’s plot, you will find it only in the Word made flesh, Jesus. He gets it. You no longer need to timidly walk through life, fearing that temptation to come. Even as the devil still seethes in rage against you, you can face him and his temptations unafraid, confident that your champion has already won the victory.
You know what Karolina Sandell knew: Jesus gets it. The daughter of a Lutheran pastor, who knew the warmth of her Savior, even through severe illness, even though by age 28, she helplessly witnessed her father drown, her sister die of tuberculosis, the birth of a stillborn daughter. The devil constantly invited her to reject her Heavenly Father, her dearest Savior-Brother. Instead, she would cling to what she knew to be true. Remembering as a girl sitting on the branch of an ash tree and hearing the content chirping of the birds, all the while humming her hymn that became her life song, “Children of the heavenly Father, safely in his bosom gather…neither life nor death shall ever from the Lord, his children sever, unto them his grace he showeth and their sorrows all he knoweth.” Jesus gets it. You don’t struggle alone. You struggle with him and when the devil sees Jesus at your side, fear is his face, defeat is his home, and for you? The warm embrace of the God who loves you more than you will ever know. No plot can overcome our Savior, and that will always be your story. Amen.