For years I have wrestled with the truth that Jesus "in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15) Not because I doubt He was fully human, not because the source of that knowledge is unreliable, not because I doubt the heart of God. But there are times that I truly feel as though Jesus has NO idea what my struggles are like.
The reason for that: Jesus was a man.
Put differently, Jesus was NOT a woman.
His DNA, his hormones, his physical make-up was literally opposite of mine in some respects. I can imagine his weakness and temptation being incredibly real in any other realm of life and circumstances. But He never experienced in His body the surging and plunging of estrogen and progesterone on cue each month that at times leaves my mind helpless against the merciless hostile take-over of my emotions.
How in the world does He know what it feels like to laugh uncontrollably? Literally uncontrollably, helplessly, embarrassingly, publicly. Or weep for that matter over a ruined dinner, a rude cashier, a to-do list. How does He empathize with the bi-polar tendencies even the otherwise healthiest woman may experience once a month?
This week I feel like a different person altogether than I was last week--praise the Lord! I cried every day last week, my world was about to end, I was overwhelmed, lonely and irritable.
Not to paint the picture that I am now feeling perfect, but those feelings are non-issues this week. Yet my situation is exactly what it has been for months.
How does He intercede for that? What does He say when He comes before His Father on the throne? How does He communicate my fragility, my good intentions, my deep desire for holiness and my miserable inability to perform? What life experience does He harken back to for those visits to the throne room?
It hit me last night. Duh. How have I never thought of it before?
Mary must have been the most hormonal, psychotic mess at some point in Jesus' life.
With all due respect to the blessed virgin mother, she was human! Yes, the Lord showed her favor, and I do not mean to make light of her willingness to serve in a role that did not gain her any worldly recognition until well after the hardest times were endured. But for Jesus to have experienced every human weakness, for Him to have compassion on me now, I really believe that His sweet mother must have struggled immensely during His 33 years.
We can even see it if we look closely.
Mary was the one who encouraged Jesus to perform His first miracle, sending the wedding servants to Jesus so that He could turn water into wine.
But she was also right there with her likewise hormonal daughters and her jealous sons, urging Jesus to stop showing off and come home to His former life of carpentry.
And we see at the cross just how deeply Jesus cared for His mother as He instructed His beloved disciple to take on responsibility for her as though He were her son.
In the same way that Stephen has compassion on my strenuous emotional plight because he grew up with a mother and two sisters, I believe Jesus was very much concerned for the women in His life who also battled their hormones. Little did those sweet ladies know, but the extremity of their mood swings was preparing Jesus to be in every way the Great High Priest for us, having experienced even the particularly female side of sin.
"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16
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