How would you feel if you knew exactly when and how you would die? If the choice was given to me, I’d rather not know! Knowing the time and the manner of death would hang over me so strongly that I would not be able to enjoy the time that I’m alive! Even when good things are happening, I’d be thinking about my death and how it would all end soon.

But what if I knew also what would happen to me after my death? That three days later, I would rise from the dead and would see the bewildered and amazed faces of all my friends and family? Now, that would be awesome! That would make any current hardships easy to bear, relatively.

Why such fantasy? That was no fantasy for Jesus. He knew exactly how and when He would die. As a matter of fact, He was the only man who was born to die. His birth (Christmas) was so that His death (Good Friday) would occur. He was like a lamb that was conceived for the purpose of being eaten….

There are things that Jesus experienced none of would ever know. His sorrows were much greater than we will ever know (He bore the sins of world). And His joys were much much greater than ours (For He saw the face of God the Father continuously!) No matter how hard we try to understand, we won’t be able. That is the role that He took on as God. He is God and thus there are things that He only would know. But that does’t mean that we can’t identify with Him at all. There are many things we can identify with and understand about Jesus because He was also man. Such as? Pain. Sorrows. Betrayal. Dread….

Hebrews 4:15, “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.”

Do you understand that one of the reasons He came to earth is so that He can sympathize with you?

He knows…. (your sighs, groans, tears, sins…)

PH