There is something in the human spirit which wants to pull down heroes off their pedestal. Washington owned slaves. Jefferson fathered mixed-race children. Lincoln was a racist. Perhaps we feel absolved for our faults by noticing the faults of even great people. The Bible wants to pull Jesus off a pedestal as well, not to belittle him but to show his connection with us. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way. Jesus as the Son of God seems too high an ideal to emulate. The Scripturea asks us to find how much in common we have with Jesus since he was tested as we are by doubts, fears, hopes, anxieties, worries, judgments, suffering. In doing so we find all of our “testing” will be transformed into moments of grace.
