Tempted in all points

             Writing the last post on Lazarus actually helped me clarify some striking gleanings from this amazing tale of God’s power: 

Jesus loved His friends, Lazarus and his two sisters. 

He also loved His heavenly Father, and He knew God had a good plan for His sick friend. 

Always one to speak directly, He challenged the sisters’ faith at their most vulnerable 

moments.

He grieved and felt sadness at Lazarus’s death just like the sisters and others.

He stuck with His father’s plan and spoke boldly, “Take the stone away.”

One “new” possible insight about the human Jesus came up at a recent Prayer and Share meeting I attend as we discussed this story in our continued study on the book of John.

               Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan and his attempts to distract and lure Him from God’s path for His ministry and purpose on earth.  A very revealing verse in Hebrews 4:15 expands what the human Jesus experienced:  “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”  The “without sin” part settles in easily; it is the “in all points” that seems surprising for someone like Jesus. 

               At times, I am tempted to feel fear and doubt even as I cry out to God when I face struggles and overwhelming difficulties.  Does that mean that those kinds of feelings even tempted Jesus during His ministry here on earth?  It seems to me that the writer of Hebrews is saying exactly that.  And if this is true, then perhaps little thoughts of fear and doubt nagged Him as He pressed on from start to finish with God’s good plan for Lazarus.  When Lazarus emerged from the tomb, still wrapped in grave clothes, this proof of God’s power over death perhaps was a “faith builder” for Jesus, too. 

               Numerous exhortations in the New Testament point out the need for building ourselves up—in faith, in knowledge, in love, etc.  The life of faith isn’t a one-time big gift.  It is a sustained seeking, a humble abiding in the words and the presence of the living God, and a great dependence on Him through His Holy Spirit for guidance, strength and patience to “pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).  Jesus’s life illustrates this kind of daily walk with God as He spent time alone, even whole nights in prayer and fellowship with His Father.

               And so perhaps it is possible that when God’s power raised Lazarus from the dead according to God’s revelation to do so, that Jesus, too, was strengthened and edified in His humanness.  Lazarus came back to life; the faith in God that overcomes even death itself, death in this life as well as in eternity powerfully demonstrated itself.  The Father had revealed a good plan to Jesus where He would also need to be brought back to life by the power of the living God. 

Following God’s instructions and seeing His faithfulness time after time to heal, to deliver, to open blind eyes and set the captives free must have contributed to strengthening Him to remain “without sin” even when tempted to do otherwise.  He knows our frame and our need to draw near to God for faith that “overcomes the world” (1 John 5:4).  That's something worth considering and remembering.