Are You in a Difficult Season? Here’s Some Comfort.

Are you in a hard season?

Perhaps you’ve:

• Been shockingly betrayed by someone,
• Watched someone you adore suffer physically or emotionally, or both
• Been let down by friends when you needed them
• Felt misunderstood
• Suffered from false accusations
• Experienced what feels like failure
• Struggled with the agony of a difficult decision
• Been physically harmed and humiliated

AND especially in these moments, do you feel like: No one really understands what I am going through?

I have found that looking carefully at the personal hardships Christ faced helps me face my own.

Two passages in the Bible continue to have a radical impact in my life because they enable me to consider my issues from Jesus’s perspective and begin to receive His comfort in a more meaningful way. Whoever wrote Hebrews wanted the reader to learn this lesson.

“Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:17-18)

“Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confessions. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)

The word “tempted” also means to be tested by hardship.

Most likely, we are approaching Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter with happy anticipations. Spring break, pageants, parties, flowers, and JOY! We look forward to shouting, “He is risen. He is risen indeed!”

However, as we draw near to Easter, I am finding it helpful to think about the pain that Jesus was carrying all during Holy Week.

What was this week really like for Jesus? I imagine it was awful, confusing, devastating, yet sprinkled with hope. Why hope? Because He was walking in total surrender and obedience to His heavenly Father. And because in His suffering, He knew that He was making possible comfort, redemption, and hope to each one of us.

It’s helpful to ask, where in Christ’s life did He experience what I am experiencing?

Here are three examples to help us ask this question. (There are many more).

1. Have you ever been betrayed by a friend? A friend with whom you shared deep secrets in confidence has told someone else. A colleague you have trusted has taken advantage of you. A spouse has walked out on you. A child has turned against you. Shocked, angry, and deeply wounded, your heart has been pierced. How will I ever trust again?
   
   Who can understand how I feel?
   
   Jesus.
   
   Remember his disciple Peter, the one he called “the rock.” When things got difficult, Peter denied three times that he even knew Jesus, let alone was one of his dearest friends. How do you think Jesus felt? And then in the garden (Matthew 26) Jesus asked his three best friends, Peter, James, and John, to be with Him, to stay with Him, to pray with Him. And they fell asleep. Didn’t they understand how much he needed them? They let him down. Betrayal and loneliness must have been crushing to Jesus as a man.
   
2. Have you experienced failure in some area of your life? If you are a parent, you have certainly experienced feelings of failure. Your child may have rejected the faith, chosen a lifestyle heartbreaking to you. The ache of your loss and your feelings of guilt as a parent scream condemnation and explode with heartache. Your wounds and regrets run deep, deeper hurts than anyone else could possibly understand.
   
   Except Jesus
   
   Although He has no biological children, His disciples became his family. His children. He spent three years of his life teaching, training, and above all, loving them. Yet they still displayed sibling rivalry. They argued about who was the greatest among them. James and John even went so far as to ask Jesus if they (not the others) could have the best position in his glory. Even their mom got in on this request (from Mark 9 & 10, Matthew 20). Jesus had to deal with a pushy mom! It’s almost funny. And then there was Judas. Even though He spent approximately the same number of years with Jesus as the other eleven, he eventually betrayed Him. Jesus Himself had a prodigal. He, the perfect “parent,” the only one with no sin, understands your pain. But there’s more. Because of His death on the cross for our sins and for those of our children and especially because of His power which not even death could limit, you can have the assurance that your ability to ruin your child is not nearly as great as His power to redeem your child.
   
3. Have you experienced crushing physical pain? And, in the midst of your pain, suffered the indignity of those hospital robes, which leave your body exposed to multiple people. Or perhaps you have watched a loved one suffer in this way.
   
   Or have you had your heart broken as your actions have brought great emotional pain to a loved one?
   
   Who can understand how I feel?
   
   Jesus
   
   Imagine the humiliation he felt as he stumbled and fell barely clothed, trying to carry His own cross up the hill to his crucifixion. And the rawness of exposure as he was hoisted up, mostly naked, to be nailed to the cross. Emotional pain and physical pain. But there is more.
   
   Imagine the emotional pain he experienced as he gazed down at his own mother sitting at the foot of his cross to watch her son experience horrific pain and die. He understands the intense pain a mother (or father) feels for her child—a child she wishes had chosen another path. Don’t miss the tender moment that occurs here. As Jesus sees his mother in her pain, he provides for her. He says to her, “Woman, here is your son.” And to his beloved disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19: 26-27)

There is so much more to think about as we contemplate the meaning of Jesus as God made man.

We have an opportunity to use the gift of imagination that God has given to each of us.

Too often, our imagination can run to fear, fear of the “what ifs.”

What if I get bad medical results, lose my job, don’t get married…

It helps to recognize our tendency to run to fear and instead choose to reflect on the positive, using our imagination to nurture the “power of wonder.”

Practice asking: Where in Christ’s life did He experience what I am experiencing?

Look for examples particularly in the gospel accounts. When we utilize our imagination in this positive way, we will gain a new perspective.

As we practice this, we will realize in a fresh way the truth of Psalm 147:5:

“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”

He alone really understands us.

I continue to ponder these truths, and I continue to receive new insights and timely applications from the life of Jesus as God made man. Growing in His truth is not a “one and done.” Instead, these concepts have fresh meaning over and over, and as we grow, we will discover new truths behind them and fresh applications for wherever we are in our journeys. A favorite verse of mine regarding this is:

“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” (Jeremiah 33:3)

In this season of Easter, let’s encourage one another to discover fresh applications—great and hidden things—from these Hebrews passages. Find a friend and decide together to take on this challenge in your personal quiet times, and then share what you have discovered after a few weeks. You will be blessed by each other.

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For more, be sure to read chapter seven of my book, Risky Faith, and my blog, What’s the Big Deal About a Donkey?