A Prayer about Jesus’ Sympathy for Us

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

 Gracious and Generous God,

How often do we pause to consider 

how a sympathetic Savior changes everything? 

As we bow before you today, 

may we grasp afresh 

the hope that is ours in our beloved Christ:

Jesus, in his sinless humanity, 

is sympathetic to our weakness.

How can this be?

In my favorite book of the year, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund 

explains it so much better than I can:
“It is in our ‘weaknesses’ that Jesus sympathizes with us.” 

[Sympathize means “to suffer with.”]

“Sympathize here is not cool and detached pity…

In our pain, Jesus is pained; 

in our suffering, 

he feels the suffering as his own 

even though it isn’t…

His is a love that cannot be held back 

when he sees his people in pain.”* 

Oh, Lord, thank you for sending 

a suffering and sympathetic Savior. 

May we cling to our suffering Savior. 

May we rest in Christ’s sympathy for us, 

even as we battle sin, 

even as we suffer in a fallen world. 

In Jesus’ sympathetic name. Amen. 

Read Hebrews 4:14-16.

*(Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, page 46).