Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; NRSVue
On Good Friday we remember the suffering and death of Jesus. I notice the tendency in others and myself as well to want to skip to Easter, to downplay the death itself in favor of the resurrection. Death is nothing more than the means to the end of resurrection. Yes, death is great in that it’s the gateway to resurrection, but since we are now a resurrection people, we no longer need to think about death since in Christ, death is swallowed up in life by Christ’s resurrection.
That does neither justice to the narratives in the gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) nor in what follows in the New Testament. We are followers of the Lamb, partaking simultaneously of Christ’s death and resurrection in this life. Unlike Jesus, we are not yet in our resurrection bodies. And yet Jesus still suffers with us by the Spirit. In fact, we are now his body on earth.
Because of that, even though still in “the days of our humiliation” in that we can suffer and die, yet we are also living a new life through Jesus during which we are to come boldly to the throne of grace to receive the help we need from the one who has lived through the same experiences. As we receive, we also give, able to empathize with those who experience the same struggles we ourselves go through, or who struggle like us, whatever those struggles may be. Jesus’s help with us.
Jesus community 