LEARNING OBEDIENCE THROUGH SUFFERING

One of the scriptures that I find amazing is the opening text which talks about Jesus learning obedience from what he suffered. As the son of God in His divinity, He didn't have to learn obedience because He is God. However, in His incarnation(as a human), it was necessary for Him to learn obedience, not because He disobeyed or had rebelliousness to bring under control, but as a requirement for priesthood so that He can understand fully what humans go through. It is only through this experience He will be able to bring comfort and help to those passing through suffering which he had experienced: "Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested", Hebrews2:18.

So, I asked myself, what were the things He suffered while on earth? We are familiar with the suffering on the cross which is the ultimate but beyond that Jesus suffered from other things before the cross. It was through those things He learned obedience. Though He is God, Jesus obeyed His parents (Luke 2:51). He could have told His earthly father to shut up because He was anointed yet He took the lowly position of a child who had to obey His father and mother(like every other child) even though He is God. Sincerely, I may find it hard to obey any human if I was in the position of Jesus because I created them and I'm from heaven while they're from beneath. For God to come to a sinful earth is debasing and demeaning, yet Jesus lived like humans and was still without sin. That's not easy. Even as an adult, Jesus obeyed the law entirely (Matthew 5:17). When men accused Jesus wrongly and spoke ill about Him, He had the power to call legions of angels to deal with them yet He controlled Himself. Sincerely, I doubt if I won't prove a point if I was in His shoes.

All these experiences weren't palatable for Jesus but He learned to obey God's will through each of them. Sometimes, God will allow us have the Jesus treatment so that we can learn obedience. If you call the shots all the time, you can't tell if you're humble and obedient not until we bring you under someone who is lesser than you in every ramification but made a leader over you. When I was on campus, there were students who didn't attend a student fellowship because they couldn't stand a fellow student leading them. It is painful to see someone who have lesser credentials leading and ordering you around. If you're there, it is a learning phase. It is also a test. Please, don't fail. God won't use "divine" experiences to prune us and make us. He'll always give us the Jesus treatment by bringing us to face day-to-day earthly realities through which we can learn obedience. We pray and desire to be like Jesus but often we fail to realize that Jesus(in his incarnation) was made perfect through suffering. Anytime you pray that God should make and break you, you're praying for suffering. Whatever you're going through presently, I want you to find comfort in this: "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin", Hebrew 4:15.