Heb 5:7-10 Suffering and Obedience

Hebrews 5:7–10 ESV

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Heb 5:7-10 Suffering and Obedience 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

This past Summer we celebrate the day of the Christian martyr. During that Sunday we study about the life and death of John Chau. This young man, 26-year-old went to proclaim Christ to the most unreached population, the people of North Sentinel Island, and he was killed in his second short interaction with the people on the island. John Chau's story is a clear example of someone who suffered while being obedient to the Father. However, his story left many of us wondering why. Why did God send this young man to die, in our eyes and understanding it seems like it didn’t accomplish much. He was able to interact with the people for two short moments and then was killed. But, his life shows us that he was obedient even though he didn’t understand.

In the passage we are going to study today, we will see this theme of suffering and obedience.

After the author of Hebrews told us the amazing truth that Jesus is both King and Priest now, he goes on to describe Christ's perfection as a high priest. It says:

Hebrews 5:7 ESV

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

When it says “in the days of his flesh” it is pointing to the time when Christ was on earth, meaning He existed before He created everything, and He continues to exist for eternity. This section of scripture will talk about Christ's suffering here on earth. But let’s consider for a moment how much suffering it must have been for Jesus to come down to earth as a mere man in the days of his flesh.

He existed from eternity past with the Father and the Spirit. The Triune God created everything, the visible and the invisible, everything in creation that we see, like the mountains and the multitude of flowers and animals, and the things we don’t see the angels and the other heavenly beings that are described in the book of Revelation. Jesus was exalted and worshipped by angels, He enjoyed full fellowship with the Father and the Spirit. Yet, out of love for us, He left his position to come down as a man for a time… simply indicated here in the phrase “in the days of his flesh”.

It is hard to think of any illustration that would come even close to the drastic change it must have been for Jesus to come down on earth. The following comparison is imperfect and I’m not even considering the fact that Jesus' life on earth was so full of humility and lowly status, with no honor and many cases little respect from the people. How drastic of a change was it for Jesus just to leave heaven and come down to earth as a man?

It would be far worse than if we would need to leave the comfort of our families, our homes, and our jobs and go to North Korea and be a prisoner in one of their concentration camps. Why would we do this? because we love the prisoner guards, those that seem to have immense pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering, because we wanted to offer them hope and an escape from their lostness. This is really unfathomable! Yet this drastic attempt leaves much unstated or illustrated.

Jesus left perfection to live as one “imperfect” among and depend upon those who are imperfect. In the illustration, we leave comfort, but Jesus left perfection. We involuntarily become prisoners, Jesus volunteered and willingly became a servant and a sacrificial lamb. We use words to point to salvation through Christ, while Jesus in the days of his flesh became the sacrifice and the only way to salvation.

And despite all of this “Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him [the Father] who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”

Here we see Jesus wrestling as fully human with the suffering that He was going to face. On top of that as fully God He knew to the full extent what was going to happen. In His divinity He knew that was the way, He loved us perfectly, but in His flesh, He struggle. Here is an application for us, this is how and why Jesus can relate to our struggle with sin and suffering… not that He sinned and suffered, but when He suffered because of our sin. He needed to rely on the Father. He demonstrated to us how and to what extent we can rely on the Father. So now, when we face suffering we have an example to follow, to pray crying out to the Father.

Jesus prayed to the Father. This verse doesn’t say that Jesus only prayed, but that He earnestly prayed, He was urgently praying, supplicating with the Father, not only with words but with tears and loud cries, because the suffering was so great, everything in His human body cried out for deliverance from the suffering He was going to face on the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus said “my soul is very sorrowful, even to death” and his distress was so great that He was sweating blood. Modern medical research shows that it is possible on some rare occasions for our human body to be in so great distress that might cause hematidrosis, that is to sweat blood.

In this great distress, Jesus cried out to the Father “who was able to save him from death” and then it says “and he was heard because of his reverence.” This might sound like a puzzling verse because we know that Jesus was not delivered from the great suffering that He asked the Father to be delivered from. Jesus did say “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” however the cup of God’s wrath did not pass from Jesus, but He took it completely. Therefore, how were Jesus’ prayers heard by the Father?

The Father heard Jesus’ prayers and even though it caused great suffering to Jesus, the Father did not deliver Jesus from that suffering. Does that mean that Father did not love Jesus? The Father absolutely loves the Son, He is eternally loved, and He is part of the Trinity. Why then did the Father did not deliver Jesus from that suffering? Because of you and me, and everyone else that was ever saved and those that will be saved.

Now here is an application that we cannot overlook. If Jesus’ prayer was not answered the way He desired at that moment, we should not be surprised if God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want. We might not understand why, in the moment. We will be tempted to not trust God and doubt His love for us, while His answer to us is because He loves us. Even though we don’t understand we can stand firm on the promise that He works all things for good for those that love Him. And we need to be careful not to take this too far… that our “no” always results in others benefiting, though it is certainly a possibility. Ultimately Jesus was exalted for His obedience beyond what it could have been otherwise.

Some of you might be dealing with this right now. It might be cancer that still causes pain and suffering. It might be a family member that still is causing great heartache or a loved one whose health does not seem to improve. You might have prayed yet your spouse still died from a disease you were not expecting. It might be a work situation that has not changed and even got worse. It might be a spouse that you have been praying for over many years but God has not answered.

Has the Father heard your prayers? Yes, He has; Does God love you? Yes, absolutely he does. Does He care for you? Yes, no one cares for you the way God does.

Is God able to change any situation? Yes, He is more than able, the stars are in His hands, and He holds the future.

Then why are we still going through this suffering? The simple answer is: I don’t know, and we might not ever know in this life.

If you are going through some tough situations, you might look at me and say. Well, that wasn’t helpful… :) or you may say what do you, as a youngster know about suffering in this life and God saying no?

I don’t know as much as you do, but I have had some tough times when I was crying out to God for food, and His answer was no. I did question His love for me, and His care, and often asked why, but I did not have an answer, and often during that time I would say and think that I had learned what I thought God was teaching me through that suffering, but nothing I did changed God’s answer to me. At that time I did not know why, but I knew one thing. I was not going to give up on Jesus no matter what. So, even though I did not understand I trusted God when it hurt.

When I look back, I can see how it was good for me that God said no, because it taught me that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We all can say that during the most difficult times in our lives is when we felt God the closest or we see that our faith increased through suffering.

However, our suffering is nothing compared to Jesus’ suffering. Remember when we go through suffering it might be because of our sin or our disobedience to God’s law. But, Jesus never did anything wrong, the only reason He suffered was because of our sins. He voluntarily took our sin upon Himself on the cross because He loved us and because He was obedient to the Father, even though in His flesh He pleaded with the Father to deliver Him from that suffering. Jesus gives us the example that we can trust God no matter how painful or how sorrowful it might be, what we are called to do is to entrust ourselves to our Savior.

We know that Jesus still took the cup. He was in great distress in the garden. The Father did not answer Jesus’ prayer by delivering Him from suffering, rather the Father gave Jesus the strength and the ability to face the worst suffering that Jesus was going to face in the flesh.

Have you ever noticed that while Jesus was in the garden praying He was in great distress, but after that, He was quiet. He did not say a word, like a lamb going to the slaughter. It seems to me that Jesus during the worst suffering He faced was calm and at peace. When we read the description of how the religious leaders, the soldiers, and Pontius Pilate were distressed and in a hurry to execute Jesus, it seems like they were out of control in their anger and hate of Jesus, while Jesus is the only one that was calm, quiet and at peace. Why? He was at peace because the Father answered His prayer by giving Him what He needed to take the cup.

[slow pace next paragraph]

In the same way, no matter what we are going through if God’s answer is no. He will provide what we need to face the suffering, each day at a time. Even if everyone else abandons us He will be with us and give us the strength, energy, peace, calmness, and endurance that we will need. Our job is to trust God and be obedient to Him, even in the midst of suffering, logical or illogical.

Hebrews 5:8 ESV

8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Jesus was not exempt from suffering, but through what he suffered he learned obedience. The first thing that strikes me in this verse is that Jesus learned something. How did Jesus learn? I mean how can God learn something, since Jesus is God; He is omniscient; He knows all things.

Jesus as fully God could not have learned any new information, however Jesus as fully man was able to do what as God he could not, that is to suffer. In the days of his flesh, Jesus as fully man learned experientially through what He suffered. He experienced suffering because of His obedience to the Father, and His love for us. No one took His life, but He willingly gave it up, out of love for those whom He shed His blood.

What is the big deal that he learned obedience through what he suffered? First, we should note that His suffering was not because He did sin, but it was because of our sin. Jesus did not need to learn obedience, He always obeyed fully the Father. Then why did he learn obedience through suffering? It was for our benefit so that He might show us and give us an example of submission to the Father even to death. Furthermore, it teaches us how far our submission and obedience to God must be. We have to submit and obey God even if it will lead to death.

This is what this short verse teaches us, but we know we are unable to submit and obey to this extent. If we are truly honest we will recognize that we failed to submit and obey God even when there is no cost and no suffering. How will be able to stay steadfast when there will be suffering for obedience?

If we depend on our own strength we will not. It is impossible. We are not able to do it in our own strength. But, thanks be to God that Jesus ascended and sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper, to be our strength. God does not expect us to do it on our own, but He expects us to rely on Him, depend on Him, and ask Jesus for the ability to obey and submit to God. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. It is through Christ that we can, we cannot without Him. He is not only our King and Priest, He is our rock. He is the source of our strength and the source of our salvation.

Finally, the author here teaches us that Jesus learned obedience so that He could be made perfect!

Hebrews 5:9 ESV

9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

Wait… what? Here again, we can ask how was Jesus made perfect since He as God is perfect. As we have seen the main focus of the author here is not the divinity of Jesus, but His humanity. Jesus as fully God cannot be made perfect. However, Jesus as fully man can be made perfect. Since Jesus as fully man never sinned, always obeyed the Father, and never did anything wrong His learning obedience resulted in us being able to see, in the most extreme way, that Jesus never sinned. He was perfect… the unblemished sacrificial lamb and high priest.

It was through His suffering that He was made a perfect representative of the people. Jesus is the perfect High Priest. He is perfectly merciful and faithful, He perfectly sympathizes with us. He is the only perfect Savior and High Priest. Because of His suffering, He offered himself as the perfect lamb as the atoning sacrifice for His people, and because of that, He became the perfect High Priest.

Because of Christ's great suffering, “he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” which means there is no other way. There is salvation through no one else, only in Jesus. He is the source of eternal salvation. There are no works, there is nothing that we can do to have eternal salvation, it is only by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. He is the source of eternal salvation.

Notice here that this great news of salvation through Christ has a condition “to all who obey him”. The condition for salvation is our obedience to Christ, to repent and believe in Him. Christ’s obedience through suffering will be beneficial to us if we in turn obey Jesus, believe, and live like He is our Lord and Savior.

Here is what Guthrie, a bible commentator said regarding obedience to Christ.

“to obey [means] in the sense of submitting one’s will, understanding, conduct, or allegiance to the will of another. Just as Jesus “learned obedience” in his earthly suffering, he calls people to respond in obedience to his will. Just as Jesus persevered, reverently bending his will to that of the Father in spite of extreme suffering, so Christians are called to total abandonment to the divine will; this call does not change with the onslaught of persecution.”

And as we obey Jesus, repent and believe in Him, we will find our strength in Him. He will never abandon us, He will never forsake us. But, He will keep us. “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deut 31:8)

Furthermore, we have a perfect high priest who is merciful and faithful, and who sympathizes with us. V10 ends with the repeated information that Jesus is:

Hebrews 5:10 ESV

10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

The author of Hebrews circles back to this idea that Jesus is the perfect high Priest. Jesus was designated by God, meaning He was called and appointed as a high priest, just as Aaron was.

Therefore, Jesus was declared by God as a high priest. Jesus is fully God and fully man. Through Jesus' humanity, He obtained perfected qualifications as a high priest, namely, He was called and appointed by God the Father, through His suffering He provides salvation and perfect sympathy. Therefore Jesus is the only merciful and faithful high Priest that we need.

We live in a day where we are told at least a thousand times each day what we need. Commercials will tell us we need certain products to be happy. We need to purchase something because it is on the Black Friday sale. The world will tell us we need money in order to survive and be happy. Grocery stores will tell us we need certain things. We easily fall into believing that we need something, while we really just want something.

However, there is one thing we truly need more than we need air, water, and food. We need Jesus. Without Him, we will not have salvation and His presence now in this life. Every time you think or say I need… remind yourself of the truth that All I truly need is Jesus.