One Like Us
Many sinners believe that Jesus was sinless because He was God or because He had special help that we cannot access. But the Bible presents Jesus as a model for righteousness because He put aside His divinity and cloaked in human form He overcame sins in the same way that we can.

• Human Like Us. He wanted to be like His brethren. So He was both human and divine, yet He chose not to access His divine nature. He wanted to feel and experience the phases of life as a human so that He could become our example and be a righteous judge Who was plucked from a pool of His peers.
  Faithful High Priest. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of people. (Hebrews 2: 17)
  Righteous Judge. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear. But with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. (Isaiah 11: 4)
  » The Least of The Brethren. When He became a human, He came with the least acceptable credentials.
  ... to the extent that you have done it unto the least of my brethren, you have done it unto Me. (Matthew 25: 40)
• Emotions and Experiences Like Us. Because He lived as a human in the worst of conditions, He experienced a wide range of negative emotions and conditions. So He understands our struggles and is sympathetic with the less than ideal and challenging choices that we have to make.
  A Sympathetic High Priest. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses ... (Hebrews 4: 15)
• Tempted Like Us. So, being exposed to the same lousy choices and desires that we have, He was tempted.
  Tempted But Sinless. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4: 15)

How could He claim to be like us and be tempted like us if He did not undergo the worst of every form of treatment? He knows how we feel because He experienced all of the accompanying treatment and emotions in a suffering that was equivalent or greater than ours. So there is nothing that we will ever experience in which He cannot say that He understands those emotions and feelings.
In the estimation of God, if one is treated in a certain manner, then one has become that image in the eyes of those who accept or inflict this treatment. So let us see how Jesus was tempted to break the commandments and how He was falsely accused and treated as a sinner.

1. One God. He was also God, yet He did not covet the position, but submitted to the Father and relinquished His divine attributes so that He could live as a human target for the wrath of Satan.
   Gave up Heaven and the Attributes of Divinity. who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped ... (Philippians 2: 6)
   Worship Satan. Satan promised Him wealth and world dominion if He would worship him (Matthew 4: 8-9).
   » Worst Case: Drug Addicted Withdrawal. After 40 days of hunger and thirst, He should have been weakened and hallucinating and craving the basic physical needs. Yet, even suffering under the worst physical and medical handicap, He resisted the temptations of Satan. So Jesus understands the physical pains that accompany the severe cravings of addiction or extreme desire and the mighty temptations that accompany them.
2. Idols. He was the only image of God that could be worshipped. Yet He did not seek acclamation for Himself, but worked to restore the reputation of God at the price of His life.
3. Respect the Name of the Lord. His mission was to introduce God to the world and restore God's reputation. But He was constantly disrespected by people who knew that He was a good person. The disrespect culminated in beating and spitting and cursing and murder.
4. Sabbath. He was accused of Sabbath breaking although He even kept the Sabbath in His death. But He had no rest as He was being tortured on the way to the crucifixion and He worked tirelessly for the kingdom. Have you ever deprived yourself of all normal comforts so that you can work tirelessly for ungrateful people? Jesus did.
5. Honor Parents (Close Relationships). While He was impaled on the cross, He made arrangements for the care of His mother. Although He felt abandoned by God, He also obeyed the will of His Father God and suppressed His own desires and fears and stayed on the cross and died, not having the assurance that He had succeeded.
   • Parental Abandonment. Mary might have been there to receive the dead body, but neither she nor His loved ones did for Him what God Himself could not do. They all abandoned Him
     No Comforters. Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick and I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. (Psalm 69: 20)
     Abandoned by God. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. (Psalm 22: 1)
   • Abandoned Baby. Far away from family, among strangers, Mary was constantly frustrated in her attempt to find a safe place to give birth. How many of you were forced to be born with the smelly animals because people would not have pity on your pregnant mother? Both Mary and her baby were abandoned by Israel on the night of His birth. She wrapped Him in strips of torn cloth and placed Him in the feeding bin.
     It was the lowly creatures who first saw and heard the savior and God also honored their presence by symbolically representing His burdens and sacrifice for humans in the form of an innocent sheep, a donkey, a bull, a goat and a ram. Have you ever been negatively compared to an animal? Well God was proud to be represented among them.
   • Illegitimate Child. In a very religious society, He grew up with the label of an illegitimate, bastard child Who was the Son of a whore conceived in the filth of menstruation.
     Bastard. ... They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication. We have one father: God". (John 8: 41)
   • Ghetto Child. He was born in a barn with animals and slept in the feeding trough. Then He lived in Egypt as an alien when He was a young child and grew up in the poor, rough ghetto of Nazareth.
     No Good Ghetto Bastard! "... Can anything good thing come out of Nazareth? ..." (John 1: 46)
     Poor Environment! For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground ... (Isaiah 53: 2)
   • An Alien and A Stranger (Refugee). As a baby, He lived in exile in Egypt as the state tried to kill Him.
   • Sibling Rivalry. The evidence is that His family eventually rejected Him. After years of being called a whore and probably because of the shame imposed on the family, His brothers and sisters rejected Him.
     Alienated. I have become estranged from my brothers and an alien to my mother's sons. (Psalm 69: 8)
   • Unsavory Friends (Guilt by Association). He made friends from the rejects and lower class of society.
     The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. (Matthew 11: 19)
     Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they said to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?" (Matthew 9: 10-11)
   • Sinner. He was treated as a sinner because He took on the responsibility and punishment for our sins.
     He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us ... (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
   • Friends. It is clear that He did not have any childhood friends because none of His brothers or neighborhood joined Him when He began His mission. His disciples were mostly strangers that He met as He travelled. The only family members who believed in Him were His cousins, John the Baptist and possibly the disciple John.
   • A Parent's Worst Nightmare. If you are a parent who has had to watch your children suffer and wish that you could take the pain and suffering for them, then God knows how you feel. He watched His Son suffer and die and He could not help. He had to inflict some of the emotional pain by being an absentee parent. But when He saw the world suffering and dying, He stepped in and bore the pain and suffering for us.
   • Worst Case: A God Without Honor. In many ways, the external pressures of gossip and negative labeling made it a disfunctional environment for Him. Even after He returned to His hometown, showing signs and favors from God, His former neighbours could not overcome their prejudices towards Him and they ran Him out of town and tried to kill Him!
     He was a God without honor among His own creation.
   » The Boy from the 'Hood'. There is no excuse for failing life because you have been given a very unequal starting position. Look what happened to the poor deprived, maligned, sensitive, hungry little boy from the wrong side of town. He escaped the ghetto because He immersed Himself in the word of God and learned that He was important because a compassionate God loved Him. He is now the King of the universe, because He fought to not become a product of His environment or another grim statistic from the cesspool in the ghetto.
6. Sexual Immorality. Jesus never committed any sexual sins either in thought, word or deed.
   • Lust of the Flesh. He elevated lust to sin, declaring that these thoughts are also fornication.
   • Fornication and Adultery. He was accused of immorality because He made friends with prostitutes, drunkards, tax collectors and other vile sinners.
   • Homosexuality. This practice was open and rampant among the Romans of that era. Tiberias Caesar was a brutal pedophile who preyed on young boys. So consider that atmosphere with the fact that Jesus was unmarried, thirty years old, in the company of many young men in a society where people were married in their teenage years and life expectancy was low. He must have been accused. In addition, when the Roman soldiers stripped Him naked, mocked Him and taunted Him they must have threatened Him with rape.
   • Rape. Have you ever been raped? Unable to cry out because you are being threatened? Afraid to cry out because you are being violated by someone you trusted? Afraid to cry out because you think you are partially to blame? Have you ever felt trapped and hopeless, been restrained, stripped naked, violated, stared at, unable to hide your shame and forced to do what you do not want or forced to submit to someone who wants to harm you? Have you ever had regrets or relived your private nightmare every day for decades, plagued with questions about "What if"? If only I hadn't done this or that, gone here or there. If only .... If only .... If only ....
     So if that is your experience, then you have been raped and Jesus understands.
     Jesus took our blame and said that our sins were His fault. If only I hadn't made man ...
     » Worst Case: Child Prostitution. Can Jesus ever understand the suffering of a young child who is pimped out to pedophiles by drug addicted parents so that they can get high and feel good?
     Jesus understood what it was like to be unloved, to be used and abused.
     The prophecies indicate that Jesus was a spiritual baby, only one year old when He was crucified. Israel was His mother, so the high priest should have been His advocate and protector like a father figure. So when the high priests bought Him from His close friend for thirty pieces of silver and sold Him to the Romans, He was a Child Who was pimped out to brutal pedophiles by His pastor, brother and mother for the sake of security.
     When the soldiers stripped Him, beat Him severely and hung Him up naked on a cross where people laughed and spit on Him and nobody helped Him and the authorities were part of the conspiracy, He was being publicly raped in front of a cheering audience. They further violated Him by robbing Him of His only possessions.
     I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. (Psalm 22: 17-18).
     So His rape was the most humiliating and devastating of all. It was public and He had no sympathizers because the people watched and laughed and nobody came to His assistance.
   He experienced the entire spectrum of human emotion. He cried. He was afraid. He showed anger, sorrow, expressed regret, disappointment, astonishment, frustration and skepticism.
7. Kill. Jesus did not kill either physically or mentally. He did not dash the hopes of the sinner, but told them that He came to save, not destroy. The record says that He would not even break a bruised reed or extinguish a dim wick (Isaiah 42: 3). He came to bring hope and encouragement, not to condemn, humiliate and destroy.
   • Gossip. So He would not assassinate anyone's character with gossip. Instead, He elevated the status of the rejects of society, making friends with the worst sinners.
   • Anger. In righteous anger, He cleared out the temple to defend the name and reputation of God and drive out the merchants who were goughing the poor.
   • Tortured. He was tortured by the Romans before they murdered Him.
   • Martyred. He did not kill Himself, nor provoke anyone to want to murder Him, yet He was martyred because His beliefs became a threat to others. So He voluntarilly and peacefully submitted His life.
   • Abuse of Power. He was subjected to constant abuse, yet He resisted the temptation to use His divine power to help Himself or to punish His tormentors. He relied on the gleanings left for the poor to feed Himself instead of conjuring up a satisfying meal. He subjected Himself to human limitations.
   • Unrequited Love. Have you ever been in love, risking it all and pouring out everything on the one you loved? But she chose the bad boy who was your rival and paid him to have your kidnapped so that he could beat and murder you. Then she stood by and watch and laughed as you were being tortured to death and you saw her do this. Then you left everthing you possessed in a will for her and left instructions for her to be cared for. In addition, you confirmed the will while you were being killed.
     The romance between God and Israel was not the love story of Romeo and Juliet. It is the story of Samson and Delilah. Jesus loved Israel and gave up heaven to come and rescue her, only to find that she despised Him and chose Satan, His rival. Then He arranged for us to inherit heaven and eternal life if we would accept His forgiveness and overtures of love.
   • Woman. Submission kills and supresses the hopes and desires and contribution of women. How could He understand the plight of women when He was born into the automatic privileged status of a dominant male?
     The essence of the problem of women is that we must submit to male rule "because we sinned first". Submission is not punishment except it is from a position of strength. Otherwise, the one who submits is a child or a slave who needs to submit for practical reasons.
     Yet, the victory of our salvation was won not because Jesus used the privileges of male dominance and power, but because He humbled Himself and submitted like a weak and powerless woman, to a brutal tryant. Therefore, He honored women and showed the powerful and masterful weaponry of submission that defeated the serpent. Yes, the submission of a woman caused sin, but submission from a position of strength also erased sin. So, which is the greater test? A powerful God submitting to His brutal enemy or a woman submitting to her husband?
   • Worst Case: Unjustly Executed. He was falsely accused, arrested, imprisoned and executed in humiliating public spectacle as a criminal, a sinner and an enemy of the state.
     
   • Diseases (Mental and Physical Imperfection). The sacrifice definitely required that when Jesus was offered, He must be without defect or blemish and His bones must not be broken. This might not necessarily mean that He never had a cold or fever or scrape His knee or cut Himself. But if He never had any of these experiences as a child, He certainly experienced the pain and suffering of many diseases on the cross.
     • Pain and Suffering. He felt every range and degree of physical, mental and emotional pain.
     • Dislocated Joints. His bones were not broken but all of His joints were dislocated on the cross as He suffocated to death in the most painful manner.
     • Feelings. He felt extreme shame, disgrace, loneliness, rejection and abandonment.
     • Suicidal Depression. He was murdered, He did not kill Himself, but like Job, Jeremiah and Moses before Him, the emotional hardship might have driven Him to wish that He were dead so that the suffering would end.
       Unrelenting Hardship. You renew Your witness against me and increase Your anger towards me. Hardship after hardship is with me. I should have been as though I had not been, carried from womb to tomb. (Job 10: 17,19)
       Suicide. Jump off the temple and God will save You as He promised.
     • Mad Man. They said He was mad and demon-possessed, even His relatives believed this.
       They treated Him as an insane man and did not believe Him (Mark 3: 21, 31-35 and John 7: 3-5). His mother appeared to go along with this. She must have given up trying to fight the shame.
     • Loneliness. He was astonished that nobody would help Him.
       Treads the Wine Press Alone. Why is Your apparel red, and Your garment like the one who treads the wine press? I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath. And their life blood is sprinkled on My garments, and I stained all My raiment. (Isaiah 63: 2-3)
       Adam and all creatures were given a help mate, but Jesus was alone.
       No Helper. For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of redemption has come. I looked and there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; So My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My wrath upheld Me. I trod down the peoples in My anger, and made them drunk in My wrath, and I poured out their life blood on the earth. (Isaiah 63: 4-6)
       Worst Case: The Loneliness of the Outcast. The fat woman, black woman and the poor, fat, woman who is black from afar is the least desirable of all mates. Can Jesus understand the longing of such a person who desires a loving family of her own?
       With the gift of celibacy, Jesus understood a certain type of loneliness was His duty and within His power. But He understood the imposed loneliness that says "you are not good enough and nobody wants you". This type of rejection extended not only in the realm of marriage. It was a systemic rejection that assigned to the realm of the permanent outcast qualities that are outside of one's control. At the lowest end of the Roman society was a slave, a Jew, a poor, ugly man, a leper's leper from the ghetto of Nazareth Who was rejected because He was a bastard child.
     • Broken-Hearted. He suffered grief so overwhelming that it broke His heart and He died more quickly than expected. "Broken Heart Syndrome" is now a medically accepted phenomenon. The human heart will expand, weaken and fail under extreme emotional grief.
     • Worst Case: Handicapped. How could Jesus understand the problems of the handicapped or physically deformed or those who are less than perfect because of a birth defect?
       He could not be physically defective as the law required, but Jesus suffered the worst case of total physical and mental handicap of any human being who ever lived.
       As a person Who was both God and Man, He had to voluntarily surrender His attributes of divinity and resist the temptation to use them while He was trapped in a human body. Therefore, God was handicapped in Christ for over 33 years.
       • Quadraplegic. When He lost His omnipresence, He was unable to go where He pleased.
       • Paralysis. He lost omnipotence and suffered weakness and helplessness.
       • Mentally Handicapped . He was mentally retarded when He lost His omniscience surrendering the intelligence that created the world to the limits of one Who had to be taught to read and write and learn some science by observing nature and God.
       • Locked-In Syndrome. This is usually a fully functionong mind trapped in a paralyzed body with only the ability to blink as a form of communication. By resisting the temptation to use His power, He was basically a functioning mind trapped in a paralyzed body.
       • Minimally Conscious. When He was broken on the cross, He suddenly lost some level of deep consciousness of the Father and experienced real loneliness.
       • Persistent Vegetative State. While He was dead, His divine nature must have been in a state equivalent to this because it was impossible for God to die.
       So Christ was a quadraplegic, mentally handicapped and child-like God in human flesh. He limited His handicap by making the Father His role model. This is how we are victorious.
       God the Father is Our Hero and Role Model. Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly I say to you that the Son of Man can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing, and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel." (John 5: 19-20)
     If you have every been labeled as mad, mentally ill and ignored or marginalized, Jesus knows how you feel. It was worse for Him because He had something important to say and was frustrated in His attempt to communicate.
8. Steal. Jesus did not steal even though He lived a life that must have forced these temptations on Him. So, when He did not have the means to acquire life's necessities, He humbled Himself and resorted to the shame and indignities of begging and random acts of kindness to obtain the necessities of life.
   • Welfare Recipient. He was subjected to this indignity. Since He was deprived, He took advantage of the lawful social means available to the poor. By law, whatever was dropped on the ground or in the corners of a field or whatever you could pick and hold in a hand can be taken. So He took food set aside for the hungry and accepted any invitation to dinner.
   • Beggar. He relied on the kindness of strangers and asked for food or shelter.
   • Vagrant. He wandered about from city to city relying on what He could find.
   • Homeless. He had no home. He camped out like a nomad, using what was available in the open.
     And Jesus said unto him, the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head. (Matthew 8: 20)
   • Personal Use or Abuse of Power. He did nothing for personal gain or take advanrage of the company perks even in a situation of dire need. It is amazing that even with the gift of multiplying food, He did not use this power to feed Himself unless He was also feeding the hungry masses.
   • Worst Case: Robbing the Desolate and Oppressing the Poor. What could be worse than plundering a poor, helpless man, taking even the shirt off His back? They took His clothes and gambled for it.
     All who pass along the way plunder him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors. (Psalm 89: 41)
     Nothing Left. Then after the sixty two weeks the Messiah would be cut off and have nothing. (Daniel 9: 26)
9. Lie. He never told a lie. Instead, He came to reveal the truth about God and had to live with the consequences of false information spread about Him.
   • Not Believed. He endured the frustration of speaking without being heard because people ignored what He said and chose to act on what they wanted to believe. He repeatedly told His disciples plainly that He must suffer and die and they ignored Him.
   • Unjust Accusation. He was falsely imprisoned and executed for crimes that He did not commit.
   • Betrayed. He suffered the worst, because He did not have to deal with merely the accusations of His enemies or casual acquaintances. He had to fight the lies and betrayal of His friends and loved ones.
     Betrayed by a Friend. For it is not an enemy who reproached me, then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me. Then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend. (Psalm 55: 12-13)
     Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Psalm 41: 9
   • Worst Case: A Good Reputation Ruined. He could not escape the labels placed on Him since childhood. The people from his old neighborhood hated Him so much that the miracles He performed were not enough to temper their erroneous misconceptions. They chose to mock Him with His illegitimacy at every opportunity, completely ignoring the evidence of divine favor.
   Have you ever tried to repair a ruined reputation only to realize that people do not care? Have you ever seen that those who should know you best and be the first to defend your name and honor do not care about the truth but will continue to throw mud on a life lived honorably? Jesus was scandalized by His loved ones. His enemies merely joined in the feeding frenzy.
10. Covet (Lust of Life). Jesus faced unfulfilled desires, new desires, jealousy and a sense of failure by being content in all things. Convinced that He was doing the will of God and that God would care for Him, He resolved to be satisfied with whatever life offered Him.
    » Lust of the Eyes. He was deprived of even the bare necessities.
    • Unfulfilled Desires. He was celibate, so He had to deal with the struggles of a functioning hormonal system without even thinking about sex.
    • Hopelessness. Some claim that since Jesus knew that He would be successful, He really did not suffer as much as He could. The problem is that the curse required that His experience must be such that He would not have any assurance of success. This is why He had to be split from His divinity so that He would suffer with the handicap of humanity.
      No Assurance. Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. (Deuteronomy 28: 65-66)
      So He must have suffered the acute and chronic feelings of despair. He knew what it was like to be instantly in fear and uncertainty. He also knew the endless timeline that sets in with chronic hopelessness. He could not see the future. And whatever faith and hope He had was dashed when God did not act in ways that He expected. When God seemed to abandon Him, He saw the endlessnes of chronic hopelessness and He had nothing to look forward to except that God was just and good.
    • Deprivation. After 40 days of fasting He felt extreme hunger and thirst. His life was one of extreme poverty. In psychology, the hierarchy of needs is said to begin with the need for air, food, water, shelter, security and love. Jesus was tortured with a lack of these needs and He did not submit to Satan. On the cross, He slowly suffocated to death. In the desert, He nearly died of hunger and thirst. It was at these low points that Satan attacked and lost.
      Stones to Bread. Perform a miracle to relieve your suffering and prove that You are the Son of God.
    
    » Pride of Life. They took His gifts and ground Him in the dust.
    • Marrying Beneath You. Have you ever loved someone and married beneath you and been constantly criticized. Or have you been the lower status spouse who has never been good enough. Are you the mongrel among the pedigree or the child of privilege who has tainted the prestigious gene pool?
      Christ is the husband of this sinful planet. When God fought to save the world and married Israel He was raising the status of one in a class far beneath Him. Israel was good enough because God loved her.
      The Desolated Wife. ... For your husband is your maker, Whose name is the Lord of hosts, and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth. (Isaiah 54: 4)
    • Used. Do people hang around you because of your money or talents?
      No Trust. But Jesus on His part was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. (John 2: 24-25)
      Dinner and a Show. Jesus answered them and said, "Truly , truly I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled." (John 6: 26)
      Lip Service. These people honor Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me ... (Matthew 15: 8)
    • Failure. Jesus knew what is was like to sacrifice and work hard, then appear to fail. Israel had rejected Him. His disciples fled or betrayed Him and He had no evidence to show for all His hard work. He was a failure by all accounts and the prophecies indicate that He felt that His life was wasted.
      Wasted Life. Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God. (Isaiah 49: 4)
      Plans and Dreams Fail. My days are past, my plans are torn apart, even the wishes of my heart. Job 17: 11
    • The Ugly Duckling. Have you ever felt left out because you were not good enough or popular enough? Jesus was not physically handsome because God did not want people to follow Him because of His appearance, but for His message.
      Not Handsome. ... He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. (Isaiah 53: 2)
      Unattractive. Just as many were astonished at you, So His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men (Isaiah 52: 14)
      The requirements of the sacrifice demanded that He must be perfect and without blemish, but they never required Him to be handsome. His perfection was totally spiritual and physical.
    • Rock Star Treatment. Many people followed Him because of His miracles and His message. But He did not let the temptation of flattery and fame affect Him.
    » Minimalist. He never allowed His great needs to cause Him to want more than His mission required. Some may call this a lack of Ambition, but He was fully aware that He had an enemy who would seize on any opportunity to taunt Him with things that He could not have.

If you believe that you have experienced something that Jesus could never understand, remember that Satan hated this little boy and wanted to see Him fail so He must have made His life a living hell because His existence depended on it. If you believe that Jesus did feel eveything you did but that your suffering was greater because you suffered longer, remember that Jesus lived this nightmare for thirty three years and that God has been suffering the full brunt of all this pain for over six thousand years.