Hebrews 5:7-10
7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Listening guide
Discussion questions
(no discussion questions for this time, please join our study group looking at vocation)
Sermon
Hebrews 5:7-10
Peace Lutheran Church
Nathaniel Timmermann
3/21/2021
Sermon Number
Lent 5
The perfect partner
About halfway through the pandemic, a young man I worked with on some projects switched jobs. I asked him why he switched. He mentioned a couple of ways he could use his skills at the new job. The main reason he said, he said that he wanted to work with people.
He was tired of working alone. He found it hard to stay motivated working alone. The organization he had been part of was changing rapidly. He worked alone a lot. The new job would be a very different situation. He would be part of a team again.
I’m not breaking any confidence saying that. This was public.
It was like a mirror though for me.
I never realized how alone I would feel. I assumed as an adult and a pastor, I would always be with people. I would always be connected with people. But I feel so alone!
Especially when things aren’t going well. Especially when stuff isn’t coming together. Especially when things are going badly. And I feel the most alone when I have conflict with people close to me. I feel alone as I experience the difficulties and the sadness and the pain of life.
So I was struck one time reading some words by Victor Frankl. Frankl was a Jewish man during WW2. He was captured by the Nazis. He lived in the concentration camps. He survived. He eventually became one of the fathers of a kind of mental therapy in the 20th century.
One of the insights he gained from the camp...
Most prisoners died on the inside from emptiness, desolation, and spiritual poverty. The worst part of the camp was not the physical part but the emptiness and desolation.
Some prisoners got through it by a more intense inner life. For example, this is what he had one time.
“We were at work in a trench. The dawn was grey around us; grey was the sky above; grey the snow in the pale light of dawn; grey the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces. I was again conversing silently with my wife, or perhaps I was struggling to find the reason for my sufferings, my slow dying. …. For hours I stood hacking at the icy ground. The guard passed by, insulting me, and once again I communed with my beloved. More and more I felt that she was present, that she was with me; I had the feeling that I was able to touch her, able to stretch out my hand and grasp hers. The feeling was very strong: she was there. (Frankl, Viktor E.. Man's Search for Meaning (pp. 39-41). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.)”
Adventure
In Frankl’s words, what got him through the pain and the suffering? “She was there”.
Frankl points us to this truth. The writer to the Hebrews says that whatever your wife could do for you is only a start.
This is a great relevant question: What gets us through the sufferings of life?
For most people the single biggest challenge to belief in God is this. The problems, the sufferings, the evil in the world.
It’s not the amount of evidence for God. It’s not the fact that belief is unpopular.
This is part of the answer.
Development
God starts like this: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect”. I want you to notice this Jesus.
This isn’t Jesus who challenged Nicodemus.
This isn’t Jesus cleaning out the temple.
This is not a powerful Jesus. What kind of a Jesus is this? [“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect”]
· This Jesus cries out.
· This Jesus cries tears.
· This Jesus submits.
This Jesus suffers.
There are basically two reasons given for suffering in life. The most common reason given for suffering is the circumstances of our life. These words hint at the circumstances when they say, “save him from death”. They’re suggesting that Jesus suffered in connection to his death. We do the same thing. If I walk up on a group of people all wearing muted clothing and some are crying, what kind of an event do you think I’m at? A funeral. External circumstances can cause suffering. There is another.
The other reason for suffering is personality and character. There is this hint here as well. Jesus had “fervent” cries and tears. This is his personality and character coming through. He suffered because he was passionate. Well because he was fervent. We notice the same thing. We say little things like “don’t worry, be happy”. If someone’s pet dies, someone might “it’s just a dog”.
But if ever there was a person who didn’t suffer because of his personality and characteristics, and didn’t suffer because of circumstances, it was Jesus.
I don’t care whether you believe in Jesus or not, everyone agrees he was a good guy. He isn’t suffering because of his personality and character. He had no character problems. And he was completely innocent. There was no reason for his external circumstances to cause him soul pain. He should have been angry. He should have been furious. But he shouldn’t have cried!
What I’m trying to show you is this. Personality plays into suffering. Circumstances play into suffering. But even good people, the best person suffered. There is one little word here you need to see.
The word “save”. Jesus cried out to the one who could “save” him. Jesus had to be saved? The best human being who ever lived had to be saved? As if death held something over him? As if there was some power in his life that forced him and controlled him and caused him to suffer and to die?
Yes.
Suffering is not just circumstances. It’s not just personality. Suffering is the expression sin.
I know most of you are going to agree with me. But some of you are saying, I don’t know. You’re trying to tell me there is some supernatural force out there or maybe in here (point at chest) that is crushing me and destroying me and hurting my life. And I don’t know about that, because in my experience most people are pretty good and the systems aren’t perfect but they aren’t bad.
So I just don’t know if I can buy that suffering is the expression of some supernatural force called sin.
You certainly aren’t the first person to say that. For example, I’ve told you part of the story of Langdon Gilkey before.
Gilkey was this guy who ended up in a Japanese internment camp during WW2. He is so interesting because he believed that people were basically good until he was placed in this camp about as big as our soccer field for a couple of years with 2,000 other people (https://timfam-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/nathaniel_timfam_us/EfB1HeDdSqpEhrH7ynp4OfkB8PeNktzl2vtWzSd2tGthAA?e=WgURI1)
Gilkey said, “Nothing indicates so clearly the fixed belief in the innate goodness of humans as does this confidence that when the chips are down, and we are revealed for what we ‘really are,’ we will all be good to each other. Nothing could be so totally in error.”
I understand that we all want to be pretty good. I understand that we all want to think everyone else is pretty good. And that suffering isn’t fair or right.
But the goodest person of them all (and yes, I made up that word) suffered the very worst stuff.
All so that you could say, without a shadow of doubt, that as much as suffering is with you, the God of the universe is with you just as much and more.
It says Jesus was “made perfect” by what he suffered. That means many things. It doesn’t mean there was something wrong with Jesus. He means the perfect place for Jesus in life was representing you, in all of your weakness, to God. What does that look like?
Like many people, I have offended individuals along the way in life. I did or said the wrong thing. One time I offended a gentleman. We weren't friends, just acquaintances. I said something he didn't appreciate. To this day, I'm still not sure exactly what I did or said. I tried talking to him and even visiting him at his home. But it didn't work. So eventually I asked an older gentleman I know to help me out. I asked him to be my advocate. He wasn't really good friends with the man, but they were much better friends than this other man and I. I asked him to help me offer a sincere apology to this other man.
So that is what we did. We sat around a table. I apologized. We talked through the situation. This other man assured the man I had offended that my repentance was real. He accepted my apology and we went on in life.
He put his reputation and years of hard work on the line so that I could experience forgiveness and reconciliation.
I didn’t even really think about it at the time, but he endured the embarrassment of representing me. He experienced the shame of having to assure someone else that I was genuinely sorry. He endured the guilt connected with my name. He dealt with an expression of sin for me.
That is what Jesus did.
There is no expression of sin in our lives, no suffering, that Jesus is not willing to take on himself so that God would know that you are sorry for your sins and you want nothing more than to feel his love, his acceptance, and his pleasure.
This is the main reason that Christians insist God can be trusted. “the main reason that Christians insist that God can be trusted in the midst of suffering is that . . . God himself has firsthand experience of suffering.”233 (Keller, Timothy. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering (p. 147). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition)
Nothing can change your suffering more than the tears of the one who has cried for us. He is the perfect partner for our pain and problems.
Action
You’ve got a perfect partner for the pain and problems. “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.”
Jesus is a priest. What does that mean?
A priest is someone with us who gets what we need from our god. He is more than an acquaintance, more than a friend. He is a partner.
You don’t wait for your best friend or your spouse to ask you questions about all the problems and the worries and the mistakes and the failures and the guilt of your life.
You don’t wait for your best friend to say, how did you mess up today? You don’t wait for your spouse to say, what made you ashamed today? You don’t wait for your best friend to say, what hurt you today?
No, you say, I’m feeling ashamed because I ___ . You say, I’m feeling guilty because I did ____________________. I was hurt today when this happened. I was ashamed because this happened. You don’t make your partner ask. You just tell him or her.
Jesus has got to be more than just an acquaintance or even a friend. He has to be your partner.
Is he your partner? Don’t make him wait. Tell him every problem. Tell him you love him before he asks. Praise him without prompting.
He is the perfect partner for the pain and problems.