“Jesus, the Master of Self Control”


BIBLE READING: Luke 22- John 2
DISCUSSION                                      
                One of the hardest things to understand about Jesus, is that although He was God, He was human as well.  This had to be the case for Jesus to become our Ultimate High Priest as the writer of Hebrews illustrates. “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).  He had to be able to “sympathize” or “commiserate” and understand what life is like for humanity so He could become the sinless sacrifice.  That means that Jesus as a human, was faced with temptation, just as we are faced with temptation.  Jesus was able to endure those temptations because of His purpose and focus on what the Father had planned for Him to do.   It could very well be that the greatest strength Jesus possessed on this earth wasn’t His miraculous power, but rather His ability to be a master at self-control.   It also might be true that the greatest example of this attribute of Jesus is illustrated while He is on the cross.   Right after we read the words of Jesus in Luke 23.34 about forgiving the people because they didn’t truly understand what they were doing, it says “And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at Him saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his chosen One”. (Luke 24.35).  Little did they know that He had all the power that the world had ever seen, as well as an army of ten thousand angels waiting on Him to give the order to destroy the world.  Although the deity side of Jesus knew what must be done, the human side must have been so frustrated at them and their rejection of Him.  As a human being myself, (although to some that is debatable), that would have been very difficult for him to not obliterate them for what they have done.  Ahh…. Now it makes sense what our parents and teachers always taught us in school, it shows more strength to walk away for a fight than being involved in one.  If that is the case, Christ is the strongest person we will ever know!

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