Communion With the Christ:: With Cries and Tears

During 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. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered" Hebrews:5:7-8a

We can, as Christians look upon Jesus Christ, the Holy Perfect Son of the Living God, and imagine, as we read the Scriptures, that Jesus moved through this life among us with little to no difficulties or real challenges. We can somehow elevate his humanity to a level which seems to supersede the bounds of the reality of each and all of us, yet we are told, in the very word of God that Jesus was tempted in all ways, just as we are.

We, as sinful humans find ourselves facing some very great temptations. And so did our Lord Jesus.

Assuming the Flesh

When the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, through the incarnation, assumed our humanity, Jesus assumed all of our humanity with all its weakness and limitations. This is what the early primitive Church and post-Apostolic Theologians called "Assumptio Carnis", it means, to assume the flesh; and in this assumption of the flesh the sinless Son of God, though never ceasing to be God, became fully human with all our limitations and nature, yet never once gave into the pulls which we so easily succumb to.

In Jesus, the great God joined himself to us through the incarnation of the Son of God for the purpose of redeeming our fallen race.

In order to redeem us Jesus had to be fully one of us which includes our brokenness and limitations and all the toxic frailties of our flesh, Jesus assumed up our "complete " humanity in order to bring us "complete" redemption.

Athanasius, one of great post-Apostolic Church Theologians from Egypt, speaking of the Son's assumption of our flesh, said "that which is not assumed is not redeemed."

Gregory Nazianzen, who was known as one of the Great Cappadocians expressed a very similar idea in saying "the unassumed is the unredeemed".

When the Word of God, who the Apostle St. John identifies for us as the man Jesus of Nazareth, takes on our humanity he does not exempt himself in any way from being anything other than flesh as we are flesh. "

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling (or Tabernacled) among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth". Jhn:1:14

Jesus entered the world of the flesh. A world spawned by the flesh, yet in spite of its pulls and temptations Jesus never gives into it and remains the sinless Son of God with his deity undiminished in any way. As Jesus grows , in the flesh, he faced real temptations which exceed anything that we might face in our day-to-day living. A word we find in the Luke's Gospel gives us insight into what Jesus faced and the severity of the Temptations that he encountered in his life.

"And Jesus grew (proekopten) in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Luke: 2:52

St. Luke is telling us more than what we may first realize. The Evangelist is not just telling us that Jesus "matured" as a young man, but in that maturing Jesus faced the real pulls of the flesh.

The word which St. Luke chooses to describe Jesus' "maturing” or as St. Luke wrote "grew” is "Proekopten”. The word "proekopten" gives us insight into Jesus' personal struggles with the “pulls" of the flesh. Jesus, however, rather than condescending to them, Jesus overcomes them and as a result Jesus develops "in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man".

"Proekopten" means "to fight ahead or to cast blows to defeat what is before you, to struggle in making progress and move forward , it carries with it the connation of being “pounded upon” as an harmer strikes a anvil” and to beaten into shape.

With Cries and Tears

What this tells us is, that Jesus faced real and unrelenting pulls of the flesh even as we do, yet Jesus always conformed to the divine will of his Father and remained the sinless Son of God.

The pulls of the flesh upon our Lord Jesus were real and ever present even as they are for each and all of us. Yet, even though he be the Son of God he was not exempt from the pulls of the flesh and faced their onslaught and fought his way forward through them, ever maintaining his sinlessness.

At times the pulls of our fallen state were so powerful that they drove or Lord to the point of tears as he appealed unto Heaven and his Father for the power to overcome them.

Jesus faced real temptations in the Wilderness as he was tempted by Satan. Yet Jesus was fixed go obey his Heavenly Father. These temptations were clever, yet Jesus saw the true intent behind them and overcame them. Matt: 4:1-11& Luke: 4:1-13

This is spoken of our Lord's perfect obedience to the Father in the face of these powerful temptations.

"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. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered" Heb:5:7-8a

What this tell each and all us is that Jesus understands what we face in our lives as we struggle with the pulls of the flesh. Jesus did not come as one who was unable to identify with humanity in our broken estate rather, he lived it without giving in to it for us.

This makes Jesus uniquely able to stand in as our High Priest on our behalf. Jesus does not just understand the pulls of the flesh in theory but in reality, from his own struggles here upon the Earth.

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin." Heb:4:15

This place as our High Priest which Jesus has , and who understand all that we face in this life should give us great confidence and hope knowing that in our times when we are under the pulls of the flesh or even when we have given in to them we can approach Jesus and cry out to him knowing that he has been where we are yet without sin.

This should give us greater appreciation to our God who loved us more than we can ever know and who he himself has provided us with complete redemption and a mediator who ever intercedes for us and with us.

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." 1Jhn:2:1

Jesus as our High Priest is ever present with the Great God to speak on our behalf always obtaining help and divine assistance and grace for us thru out our lives.

"Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." Heb: 7:25

This means that on this day and every day our Lord Jesus has offered prayer and intersession for us regarding whatever we might face and the temptations which beset us. Jesus has prayed for us and our names have been spoken before the very throne of God today and every day by Jesus.

For Our Redemption

The perfect Holy Son of God's condescension into our fallen flesh was for our redemption and in joining himself with us God has elevated humanity to the place of his adopted Children, this was not out of necessity but rather out of his perfect love for us that we might share in the life of the Holy Trinity through Jesus.

We are told that "he who knew no sin became sin for us". All the wretched condition of the flesh and sin and all that it spawns was judged upon Jesus through the offerings of his self, his flesh, upon the cross, so that there be nothing to keep us from having a relationship with God, but our own unwillingness to receive it when we hear the Gospel message.

Jesus had to be fully "in the flesh" in order to redeem the flesh. If Jesus was not "fully in the flesh" then the flesh could not be fully redeemed, and we would be without a Savior and unable to bound with our God.

Through Jesus' , God has provided the means for our flesh to be "sanctified" and used by him as a holy dwelling place, set free from the judgement of sin upon us. God in Christ did what no Law could do, not even God's own Holy Law for due to our flesh we are unable to bear its holy demands and as a result we would fail. Through Jesus we are able to be un-condemned and set free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and walk according to the true intent, or spirit of the Law.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Rm: 8:1-4

Our Lord Jesus understands all that we face, and the pulls and temptations that we have in this life for he himself struggled with them and defeated them.

Jesus is there understanding all that we face in this life through his own personal experiences in the flesh of our humanity; securing our redemption and standing as our Holy High Priest who; “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"

Benediction: May we each and all find the divine assistance which we need each and every day through our Lord Jesus Christ, today, tomorrow and forevermore ....Amen