Great High Priset

Great High Priest

 

 

…we have a great high priest…Jesus the Son of God…who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.  (Hebrews 4:14–16)

 

Miss Cynthia is a great cook, and her three boys love to come home and enjoy a meal around her table. Miss Cynthia was raised on the coast of North Carolina in a little fishing village called Harkers Island. Fried shrimp is one of her specialties, and the boys will travel for miles to eat mom's shrimp. The reward of enjoying that shrimp dinner is worth every sacrifice they must make to get there. Not everyone has had a taste of Miss Cynthia's shrimp, but those who have know that it's a meal to remember.

 

Miss Cynthia's boys and their wives have been known to bring guests along to eat at mom's house. The guests, who do not know all that is waiting for them at mom's table, sometimes give in to their hunger and stop for a burger or a chicken leg along the way. Miss Cynthia's boys never do. They may become hungry on the long drive, but they never stop to eat.

 

Why? Because they know what that shrimp is going to taste like.

 

Now, who do you think knows more about temptation? Is it the friend who settles for a hamburger at the first drive-through, or is it the son who faithfully resists until he pulls his chair up to mom's table?

 

It is the son.

 

He knows more about temptation because he fights it longer and more often than the friend, who gives in at the outset. The son is able to resist because he values the taste of the shrimp—and the smile on his momma's face—more than the temporary satisfaction of an inferior taste treat.

 

The one who has faithfully persevered to the end without giving in to the impulse to sin is the one who knows the most about temptation. And no one knows more about it or understands it better than our Great High Priest.    —Dan LeRoy