Made Like Us

When you are going through something hard, who helps most? Usually it is someone who has been through it too. Someone who can say, I know. I have been there. The Bible says that is exactly why Jesus came as one of us.

The writer to the Hebrews has just told his weary readers how great the Son of God is: the radiance of God's glory, greater than the angels. But then he turns a corner. This great Son, he says, was made for a little while lower than the angels. He became human. And the readers might ask, why? Why would the Son of God take on a body that could get tired, and hungry, and hurt, and die? In these few verses, the writer gives his answer, three reasons, one after another.

First, to defeat death. Since the children have flesh and blood, the writer says, he also himself likewise took part of the same. God's children are human, so the Son became human too. And why? That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Death was like a prison, and the devil held the keys. So the Son walked into that prison himself, as a man, to break it open from the inside. And he came to deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Fear of death had chained people all their lives. Jesus came to set them free.

Second, to be our priest. The writer reminds them that he did not come to help angels, but to help the children of Abraham, real people. And so it was right that he should be made like his brothers and sisters in every way. Why? So that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest before God. In Israel, the high priest stood between God and the people. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, he went into the holiest place to make atonement for the sins of the people. Jesus became human so that he could stand for us, as one of us, and deal with our sins once and for all.

And third, to help us when we are tested. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, the writer says, he is able to succour them that are tempted. To succour means to run to help. Jesus knows what it is to be tired, misunderstood, betrayed, in pain, tempted to take the easy way. Later the writer adds that he was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin. So when you are struggling, you are not praying to someone far away who cannot understand. You are praying to someone who has been there. The baby in Bethlehem grew up to be our brother.

The law of Moses described the high priest's clothes in detail. On his shoulders he wore two onyx stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Over his heart he wore a breastpiece with twelve precious stones, again carved with the tribes' names. Whenever he went before God, he literally carried his people on his shoulders and over his heart.

Made Like Us. You'll find it in Hebrews chapter two, verses fourteen to eighteen. At Christmas, Christians remember that God's Son took on flesh and blood so that he could free us, stand for us, and help us. So here is a question to carry with you. What are you facing right now that Jesus understands from the inside?