I wonder if we face the mystery of the Incarnation — that Jesus was fully a human being while at the same time remaining fully the Son of God — in all its implications. Do we think of Jesus as possessing the complex set of emotions and feelings that characterize us as human beings or to we imagine him as somehow above the nitty gritty of life as we know it? The Letter to the Hebrews is explicit: For 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, yet without sin. Jesus, like us, was tested by grief. No doubt when Joseph, the only father he knew, died he grieved with Mary. The gospels tell us he wept at the tomb of his friend, Lazarus. Jesus, like us, was tested by unreliable friends. James and John were just exhibits A and B of how clueless those who were closest to him were about his mission and identity. Jesus, like us, recoiled at the thought of suffering. In Gethesamene Jesus prayed that the will of God not include the “cup of suffering” all the while expressing a willingness to obey the divine plan wherever it lead. Jesus, like us, needed people. He gathered disciples around him, he was supported by Mary Magdalene and the other women, he hung out at the home of Martha and Mary. Jesus, like us, needed “me” time. He regularly would go off by himself to pray, to be alone with the Heavenly Father who loved him. Because Jesus can empathize with what we are going through, the epistle goes on to say: Let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
However, there is one test that Jesus did not go through which we have to endure. Jesus did not live to be an old man with all of the indignities that aging brings to the human body. Perhaps this reality might have occasioned Paul saying that we need to “fill up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ” (Colossians 1:24). As the Body of Christ we continue his saving mission in the world. Yes, his suffering won us salvation but our suffering completes the redemptive work of Jesus. Our weaknesses provide the opportunity to trust, as Jesus did, in the love of God no matter what we are going through.
