"For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted." Hebrews 2:18
This is one of the greatest reasons for which I follow Jesus.
We, as humans, like to find things in common with one another. When we need to speak to large crowds of people, one of the things people recommend is that we find something in common with all those people. Even more poignant, how many times have you immediately responded to news with something that makes the news about you or connected in some way to you? When somebody says, "My friend is not doing so well right now," you immediately reply with, "Oh yeah, I've had something myself." We always want there to be a connection.
Not surprisingly, we want for the same connection to exist between us and our God. If I may be brash, take a look at what so many artists interpret how Jesus looks. Look at all the many depictions of Jesus in our movie screens, TV screens, pictures, ads, paintings. Jesus was a brunette, white man, with long hair and a not too long beard! Now, if we look to scientific evidence, there is almost no way Jesus could have looked like that. Yet, that Jesus that shows up in our English-speaking, America-centric because he looks like your run of the mill American man, with one or two distinguishing features. That depiction of Jesus connects us as Americans with him (although I don't quite identify, with me not being of directly European descent, but hear me out).
Depictions aside, though, we do have something universal about Jesus that transcends his Middle Eastern heritage or Hellenistic Gospel or any of the countless traditions that have risen from his ascension. Jesus lived as a human. Jesus felt the everyday pains that we do, the hunger, the heat, the struggle of working for long periods of time, the frustrations with friends, the human desire to survive. On top of all that, Jesus shows us so many ways we can overcome the temptations that face us everyday. We are not alone in our struggle, and we are being offered a helping hand. Reach out and take it.
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