Jesus, Taken to the Limit

Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, January 16, 2024

The week of the second Sunday after the Epiphany

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

8Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 945)

AM Psalm 26, 28; PM Psalm 36, 39

Gen. 9:1-17; Heb. 5:7-14; John 3:16-21

David’s Reflections

How could Jesus “learn” obedience?  That concept takes us outside our normal categories of thought about Jesus’ life, because the Gospels give very few windows into his inner life.  The author of Hebrews makes several statements about Jesus that surprise and prompt reflection The verb “learned” comes from the same root as the noun "disciple."  What did Jesus learn?

Even making an adequate translation into English has its challenges, especially in verse 7.  “He was heard because of his reverent submission” translates a very pregnant and difficult phrase in the Greek that reads literally “he was heard from fear.”  The word “fear” can have a wide variety of translations, and no matter how one renders it words have to be supplied in English that are not present in the Greek text.  An alternative translation would be “he was heard (and delivered) from fear.”  (Suggested by H. W. Montefiore in his commentary on Hebrews.*)

The scene the writer references here probably involves the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of Jesus’ arrest.  Jesus prayed that the cup of suffering might pass from him, and that prayer was not answered.  Yet, in the Garden, it appears that Jesus was delivered from fear and faced his arrest and death with rare courage.  (Mark 15 gives the most emotional account of Jesus’ distress in the Garden, and Luke tells us an angel came and ministered to him in that moment.)

What a picture of Jesus’ real humanity.  He prayed for himself, which a deity would have no need to do.  His emotions found their way out in strong crying and tears.  He struggled with fear and found deliverance through prayer.  He learned the lessons of obedience.  No wonder the writer can say in 4:16 that we have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our weakness.  Jesus had moments from which there was no escape and for which there was no easy answer., moments when he was stretched to the limit.

What did he learn?  Montefiere’s words are helpful.  “He learnt that prayer can meet with an answer very different from that which is requested.  He learnt, too, to submit himself to the very conditions from which he had asked to be freed. . . . He does not say that the Son learnt to obey through sufferings, nor that he learnt obedience as one who had known its meaning before.  Rather, he took his obedience ‘up to death’ (Phil. ii.8), to the point beyond which it could be taken no further. . . . That the Son learnt full obedience in the only way possible in an incarnate life, through submission to the will of God in a situation of ultimate concern and under pressure of emotional shock and physical distress.” *

That Jesus, stretched to the limit, keeps company with us in moments when obedience to God’s voice and living according to our own core values takes us to the limit of our will and commitment, the Jesus who will stay awake with us in our Garden, because he knows what it is like to want and need support, only to have his closest friends sleep through the moment.

In what stretching moments have you “learned obedience” and been delivered from fear into a larger, peaceful place? What have those moments taught you about God, about yourself, about life? How can you and I be more fully present to others being stretched to the limit, thanks to our moments in the darkness?

The English Methodist, Leslie Weatherhead,  remarked about this. It recurs in memory in those dark, garden moments. "I can only write down this simple testimony.  Like all men, I prefer the sunny uplands of experience when health, happiness and success abound;  but I have learned more about God, life and myself in the darkness of fear and failure than I have ever learned in sunshine.  There are such things as the treasures of darkness.  The darkness, thank God, passes, but what one learns in the darkness he possesses forever.” +

* H. W. Montefiore, The Epistle to the Hebrews (London:  A & C Black, 1964), pp. 99-100.

+ Leslie Weatherhead, cited by Bruce Van Blair, A Year to Remember (Seattle:  Glen Abbey Books, 1988), p. 213.

Collect of the Day, The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen..  (BCP, 215)

A Collect for Peace

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (BCP, 99)

Of the Reign of Christ

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together

under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 254)

A Collect for Early Evening

O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified:  Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.  (BCP, 100)

Daily Office Epistle, Hebrews 5:7-14

7In 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. 8Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. 11About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. 12For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; 13for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer