The Fourth Day of Advent

The Fourth Day of Advent

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Although he was a Son,

he learned obedience 

through what he suffered;

and being made perfect

he became the source 

of eternal salvation

to all who obey him.

Hebrews 5:9

There are times when I read the Scripture, and I can hardly believe what I am seeing. I don’t argue with God, but I have on more than one occasion said to him, “Father, if I did not know that you superintended the writing of this Book, I would have to say that this is a mistake.” Do you see anything in the above verse that would prompt that response from you?

What about “he learned obedience?” Jesus was perfect and never sinned. So he had to learn to be that way? I believe he did. As I thought about this verse, I remembered another in Luke (2:52): “And he grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man.” Jesus grew intellectually, physically, socially, and spiritually according to Luke, and now we learn that he also learned obedience.

I don’t want to learn obedience; I just want to be obedient. Especially I don’t want to learn obedience by suffering, but we read here that’s how Jesus learned. So when I am struggling to do the right thing or when I am trying not to speak when I know I should not, I am learning obedience just as he did! When I am resisting the need to confess something that I know is wrong, I am learning obedience as I yield to my conscience, confess and receive forgiveness.

What he was learning was critically important, it led to his becoming the source of salvation for you and me!  Had he not learned he would not have been perfect, and were he not perfect, he could not have been our atonement. Only perfect lambs could be sacrificed for the sin of people, and he had to be a perfect lamb – a perfection that he learned through being tempted, just as we are tempted.

Only he never yielded to that temptation, so he never had to confess!

Father, thank you for Jesus’ persistence in learning to be obedient! Thank you that he was perfect and could atone for our sin, but thank you also for the example that he gives us that in our struggling or suffering we too can learn obedience – not obedience as the world suggests, but obedience to you. Teach us your word so that we may be obedient to it and to you. Amen.

The Light of the World
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, 2008,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator.