The Empathy of God

Growing up, I often heard the phrase, “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.” Our perceptions and senses are altered as we live through the same experiences others face. When comforting a friend in deep grief, I have often had to say, “I have no capacity for knowing what you’re going through right now.” Other times I have been able to say, “I have been where you now are,” and, having been there, knew well enough to say nothing further.

Jesus Walking in Our Shoes

Although [Jesus] was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
– Luke 10:29, ESV – bracketed mine

As is often the case on this blog, this week, we find ourselves wrestling with a difficult passage. We’re talking about Jesus, the incarnate Christ, God in human form. God is omniscient. In what capacity does God need to learn anything? And to really hone the focus of this question, how is it that God needed to learn obedience? Is this not the same Jesus who said, “I always do the things that are pleasing to him” with reference to the Father?

In the Old Testament, under the priestly system, the High Priest ministered on behalf of the people offering various sacrifices to atone for their sins, but not only theirs. He offered sacrifice for his own sin first, before he could do so on behalf of the nation. The idea behind this is that the High Priest was able to deal compassionately with sinful people because he experienced what they also experience.

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
– Hebrews 5:1-2, ESV

Jesus serves now as our high priest.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
– Hebrews 4:14, ESV

The Reversal Phenomenon

It seems logical to conclude that one who experiences a specific weakness would likely be tolerant and forgiving of that same weakness in others. We can cite examples of that from our own experience. One person at church apologetically asks another, “Sorry…tell me your name again.” She responds, “Oh, it’s Susan. That’s okay. I’m terrible at remembering names too.”

Grace is extended by Susan because she suffers the same weakness. But it doesn’t always happen that way.

When King David impregnated Bathsheba¹ and passively murdered her husband, he was confronted in a somewhat sideways manner by the prophet Nathan. Nation presented an account of sin committed by some unnamed person. Upon hearing the account, David was incensed, and said, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!”² to which Nathan replied, “You are the man.” At that point, David changed his tune a bit.

Given David’s profound weakness, it would seem reasonable to think that he would be compassionate toward those with the same weakness, but sin doesn’t always affect us that way. Those who lust are often intolerant of lust in others. Those who are greedy are often intolerant of greed in others. Our own sin blinds us to the compassion required when dealing with the pain and weakness others face.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
– Galatians 6:1-2, ESV

Many years ago, I was entangled in a sin that needed to be confronted, and it was. My pastor and my best friend came to the house to confront this matter in my life so I could eradicate it. But rather than attempt a restoration in a spirit of gentleness as described above, the pastor began pounding on the table and cursing at me. It was not an effective approach. I did overcome that sin, however, without his help, and his approach made me wonder what he was hiding in his own life.

The Compassion of Jesus

We know that Jesus was God incarnate, God in human flesh. It’s a mind-blower, but it is a fact. We also know that, in that condition, Jesus was tempted. He was tempted in every respect as we are, yet was without sin.³ We know that Jesus suffered and cried out with loud cries.⁴ He knew weariness and thirst.⁵ What I am driving at is, Jesus was fully human, just as you are and I am.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
– Philippians 2:5-8, ESV

Scholar argue ad-nauseum over the phrase “emptied himself,” and what exactly it was Jesus emptied himself of. I’m not going to pretend that I have that answer, but will say I have no doubt that Jesus was fully human and experienced humanity just as I experience it day after day. The question with which we wrestle now is why Jesus did that. What was the benefit of that? And how is it that Jesus “learned obedience” by enduring that experience?

God learning obedience is such a bizarre concept that is feels weird to even type it. Similarly, learning obedience as the Son of God seems silly to even contemplate. But to be obedient as God in human flesh, God incarnate, the Son of God … that arches the eyebrow just a bit. Jesus was obedient through the experiences of our daily grind. He experienced everything you experience. And through it all, through every temptation, Jesus demonstrated the life of obedience, not in theory, but firsthand, and when faced with the worst of it, was able to say, “Thy will be done.”⁶

We Learn by Doing

I am a “doing” learner. I can read all about a process, even watch someone else work the process, but until I do it, I won’t learn it. It is like watching someone who is highly skilled at playing a video game. As I watch them rack up the high score, I can walk away and say, “Yeah, I know how to play that game.”

No, I don’t. I may understand concepts and certain patterns of behavior, but I don’t know until I handle the controls and face the challenges the game presents.

Jesus knew everything through omniscience, but he learned obedience through experience. And in those experiences, he learned those things that are necessary for him to function as our High Priest.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
– Hebrews 2:10, ESV

“Perfect” in that Hebrews context is τελειῶσαι (teliosai). Rather than “perfect” in the sense that we generally think of it, this term carries the idea of completeness, or finality. It is a thing accomplished, completed, fulfilled.

A Final Thought

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
– Luke 10:29, ESV

1. 2 Samuel 11 & 12
2. 2 Samuel 12:5
3. Hebrews 4:15
4. Hebrews 5:7
5. John 4:6-8
6. Luke 22:42