Before we continue to the conclusion of this letter, we must ask, in what way is Jesus the model we are to follow? Since it was the issue of suffering that tempted the readers to return to Judaism, we must examine the nature of the suffering that tempted them to give up and go back.

We will find, in the life of Jesus, what His greatest test was in the course of His life on earth. The readers of this letter faced the same test above all other temptations, not to sin as in giving in to fleshly lusts but to sin by turning their backs on Jesus, their only hope of salvation.

Jesus suffered in two ways, according to Scripture. First, He was rejected by His own people.

Isaiah 53:3 NIV
[3] “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

John 1:10-11 NIV
[10] “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. [11] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

The Hebrew word for rejection, “chadal”, comes from the root meaning “vacant”. To call and treat someone as vacant is the worst form of insult. This attitude calls in question the very essence of who that person is, a human created in God’s image. In this case, mere humans were treating Jesus, the Son of God, as vacant, empty, and utterly worthless. Everything humans did to Jesus was the fruit of that rejection.

Jesus came to earth to redeem sinful humanity from slavery to the very choices and behaviour that caused their enslavement. To do this, He had to allow Himself to be sacrificed for us. He had to subject Himself to being treated as “vacant”, to give Himself for the very people who dismissed Him and His mission with contempt.

So, the second part of His suffering was temptation. In what way was Jesus tempted?

Since the issue, for the readers of this letter, was giving up, was the greatest temptation Jesus ever suffered, in the face of rejection, the temptation to give up, to abort His mission and return to the Father empty-handed?

At the start and at the finish of His public ministry, Jesus was under severe pressure to give up on His Father’s will for Him…which was to go to the cross. In the wilderness, the devil tried to get Him to break the unity between Father and Son by acting on His own. Jesus resolutely stood His ground by putting Himself under the authority of the Father and His Word.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, faced with the horror of His impending death, again Jesus was under pressure to give up. His own people’s rejection would inflict on Him the worst that humans could do to another human, let alone to their own God. The struggle was so intense that perspiration poured from Him like blood from a mortal wound.

Luke 22:44 NIV
[44] “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was LIKE drops of blood falling to the ground.”

How did Jesus react to this pressure? What did He do with the temptation to take the easy way out?

1 Peter 2:23 NIV
[23] “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”

Hebrews 2:17-18 NIV
[17] “For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. [18] Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Jesus’ experience was suffering of the worst kind. Insulted by His own people, knowing that He would be flayed to within an inch of His life, tortured, and crucified, He had to choose…to give up or to go on?

What was Satan’s motive behind the temptation to give up?

There was one overriding consideration, one thing Jesus would never betray…the love that bound Him and the Father together. To His enemies, He testified…repeatedly,

John 14:30-31 NIV
[30] “I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, [31] but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.”

Satan was desperate to get Jesus to break with the Father. If He could get Jesus to act alone, He would win the greatest victory of all…destroy the unity in the Trinity! His aim? To replace Jesus as king!

Jesus refused to give up. His love for the Father despite His suffering would be the very testimony to the world that He had overcome the devil! Love was the superglue that held Him to the Father’s will. Nothing, not even the worst that man could do to Him, could break that bond.

And so, for us the test is…how strong is the love that binds us to Jesus? The way we handle this test will determine the reality of our love.

1 John 4:10, 19 NIV
[10] “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…
[19] We love because he first loved us.”

Peter failed in the moment of his testing.

This “good news” is about the power of real love, the power of God’s love for the world that gave His Son, in the first place, to die despite what the world did to Him. The power of Jesus’ love for the Father kept Him steadfast to the end…and for us, God’s love for us and our response of love for Jesus is the same superglue that holds us to Him as it held Father and Son together.

John 17:23 NLT
[23] “I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”

Love and unity…the key to perseverance that guarantees our victory.

The Holy Spirit in us is the guarantee that love for Jesus will keep us glued to Him no matter how badly we are treated because of Him and how much we are tempted to abandon our loyalty to Him to save our skin.

Romans 5:3-5 NLT
[3] “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. [4] And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. [5] And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

This is the pattern, the model we are to follow.

Hebrews 12:1-2 NLT
[1] “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. [2] We do this by KEEPING OUR EYES ON JESUS, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”

Those who went before us clung to the hope of reaching God’s heavenly city. They refused to give up despite their suffering.
We, too, have that city in view, a celestial city that will be our eternal dwelling place with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, if we don’t give up.

To be continued…