(Audio)
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.
Jesus is in this together with us. We have a high priest that sympathizes with us. Let's take the time here to be amazed. Even angels don't have to experience what Jesus chose to experience for our sakes. When Jesus appeared on earth he allowed himself to seem "lower than the angels" because he wanted to be like us and to embrace the whole of human experience. He wanted to renew us from the inside out, transforming every facet of the human experience. He didn't care what that entailed for him as long as it meant "bringing many children to glory".
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
His authority was surprising, wrapped as it was in the humility of his incarnation. But it is precisely this combination, the authority of God from God, Light from Light, and the human nature and flesh he receives from Mary, that make him the perfect redeemer of mankind. He has the most profound sympathy for us but abides in the truth. We often hand one another over to lesser instincts and call it sympathy. Jesus is at once too human and too divine to let any misplaced sympathy keep us from the fullness of life that he wants for us.
Along with the demons we may feel that healing will destroy us. It does seem that way at times. That is, that we feel it may remove some essential aspect of who we are. But we can trust the one who speaks with authority and who has complete sympathy for our suffering.
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!"
Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
How do we respond to a God so great as the one we meet in Jesus? The crowds have the answer.
All were amazed and asked one another,
"What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
Let's pause to be amazed at the greatness of our God. When we suffer today let us try to remember that Jesus is with us and that he need not have been and let this amazement permeate our day.
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
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