Read Hebrews 4:15, 5:2

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NASB)

Do you know how Jesus learned obedience? Through lessons taught severely.

Critics’ words, people’s actions, six illegal trials, unfair treatment, mocking, scourging, and, ultimately, torturous death—all reveal the Son’s obedience. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus was called, particularly by the Pharisees, everything from “illegitimate” to “demon possessed.” He was rejected and ignored. He was plotted against. He lived in the crosshairs of their conspiracy. Even while Jesus was on trial, the same man who found no fault in Him had Him scourged and then released to be crucified. Yet, Jesus resisted the temptation to retaliate, to hold a grudge, to be defensive or resentful or bitter, to lash out in anger or revenge.

Because Jesus experienced the lessons taught by suffering, He “can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness” (Hebrews 5:2). He knows what it’s like first-hand. When people suffer, they turn to those who understand—those who will deal gently with them because they have been there themselves.

That is why we must understand the suffering of Jesus and the meaning of His death on the cross. Because He was fully human, as well as fully God, He understands God’s penalty for sin, just as He understands the pain of our infirmities. He knows exactly what we are thinking and feeling because He has been there himself.

It is the cross that, inexorably, brings me to Christ. Through hardship, illness, heartache, crippling diseases, and a dozen other dark avenues, growth and maturity emerge.

Thank You, dear Father God, for Your Son who took our place, bearing our shame, and paying the maximum price for our sins. The darkness was darker than we’d ever imagined. The punishment He endured was even worse than we thought possible. And to think He did it all out of love for us. What grace!

May we be drawn to the cross. May it give us perspective when the suffering won’t go away. May we “behold the Man” and bow before Him who took our sins away.

Through Christ we pray, amen.

Adapted by Insight for Living staff from The Darkness and the Dawn by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2001 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com