In one of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis, there’s a little girl named Aravis who has a slave girl. She treats her terribly. Aslan, the Christ figure in the Chronicle series, comes to Aravis and scratches her. She asks why he did it, and Aslan answers, “I didn’t scratch you because you needed to be punished. I scratched you because you needed to know what it feels like.”During his days on earth Jesus went to the farthest edge of human experience in both his life and his death. His soft sandaled feet walked our dirty streets, and he died a horrific death in our place. In every way, from beginning to end, he learned firsthand what it feels like to live in a fallen world.

In other words, Jesus came in the flesh not just to keep you from being lonely or afraid but to be lonely and afraid himself. He came not just to keep you from dying but to die himself. And because he knows what it feels like, the writer of Hebrews tells us, he is sympathetic and gentle. See you on Sunday.