Hebrews 4:14-16 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Back when I was compiling my series, “Becoming the Bride of Christ: A Personal Journey”, I would comment in various places how awkward it felt at times to describe God’s behaviour toward me in the human terms I was using. I kept wanting to apologize for using such “low” descriptions in a vain effort to express how God had invaded my home as my unseen Husband. However, 7 – 8 years after writing my story in that series, Pastor shared a sermon this morning and I no longer feel awkward describing God’s behaviour toward me. He preached from the story of Mary, Martha and raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11. As we all know, this is where the shortest verse of the Bible is located:
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
Pastor shared a quote from another book he’d read, where the author asked why someone in writing would be set up as divine and then be allowed to “get sucked into” a mere mortal’s feelings and state of heart. The answer of course, was that Jesus had willingly accepted not only the form of mankind, but allowed Himself to fully experience life as a man, complete with temptations, limitations and feelings of a man. We are then told in Scripture, that He understands our infirmities, He’s been touched by them as much as we are. In choosing to experience these things, He also chose to empathize, to sympathize, and to enter into our feelings. The thought then, that even after rising again, God the Son would continue to ascribe human attributes to Himself as noted by the Apostle Paul and others in the New Testament, really is more than mental ascent or ethereal attribution! When we read in Hebrews that we have a High Priest who is touched by our infirmities, and when we read that He understands our feelings, it’s for real!
As I was going through a lengthy tedious step in my next book project this afternoon, I was thinking over this confirmation and consolation that I’m not out in left field, that Christ has been reaching out to me in a very human manner, all I could do was thank Him and praise Him for choosing to meet me in this way. Ever since God took me through that period of healing and restoration back in 2007, He’s been working at softening me and drawing out the “Mary” side of me to ease up on the harshness of the “Martha” side of me. I get so busy doing, and people around me get used to seeing me doing, that the idea of letting me just “be” in my Lord’s presence and allow Him that intimate relationship He longs for, can get to be a foreign concept at times. People around me can actually balk at it and refuse me what I long for in certain circumstances.
But now I actually feel freed in my usage of language to describe how Christ is to me. All these 7-8 years, I’ve been trying to keep God in the “Almighty God” description while trying to explain to people the intimate level in which He’s chosen to interact in my home, when all I had to do was look at the tender way Christ treated those closest to Him and realize that He willingly took on His human side and willingly chose to act in that capacity at times, and has decided to keep those qualities since His Resurrection. Sometimes my attempts to maintain that attitude of vertical reverence get in the way of the desired horizontal relationship He longs to have. . .that of coming alongside and sharing this journey with me.
