One of the great distinctive features of Christianity is that God entered into our world and identified with us "ordinary mortals" in our day to day traumas. Perhaps WE have become a little more used to this fact, but for the Jews it was a particularly revolutionary idea. God for them was SO HOLY that they were reluctant even to speak his Name. God was removed and unapproachable, and the notion that, in Christ, he should feel tired, shed tears, think of avoiding suffering, and in so many ways re-act to life as we do, was unthinkable.

But that is just the glory of our Gospel! Because Christ was truly human, as well. as being truly God, he CAN identify with our needs. He has 'been this way before'. True, he wasn't a single parent left to cope alone. He didn't experience a long and distressing illness. He didn't have to endure redundancy. (a variation of suffering?), But he DID experience what lies behind the various faces of tragedy in this life: pain, rejection , loneliness, betrayal.

In the Jewish faith, (into which Jesus was born), the High Priest was very much the mediator between the people and God. He was the person who passed on the instructions of God to the people, and offered the people's sacrifices to God, and prayed to God for the people. He was, if you like, a go-between. High priests were also meant to be the teachers and moral guides of the nation, to maintain disciplined behaviour, and to ensure high levels of cleanliness. (guardians of national health.)

The High Priest was a man chosen from among men by God; a person who knew the sufferings of his fellows, understood what they really were, so that he COULD be a bridge-builder. And so it is that Christ, being fully human, and suffering as a human being, becomes, as one writer puts it, 'fully qualified to be the Saviour and the High Priest of all His people' (Bruce}.

In these few verses before us today, the writer sums up in a few words what he will then spend "five chapters" explaining and enlarging on! that Jesus as a human being, learned submission to God's will, was an acceptable sacrifice, being 'made perfect through suffering' (Hebrews2.10) and being thus accepted by his Father, He became the source, or beginning, of eternal life to all who submit to him in faith, (Coughlan).

Now. this may sound all a 'bit remote' - you may think "so what?" But not if you really think about it! In fact, the letter to the Hebrews is very exciting stuff!! It is also a very practical reality in our lives, knowing that NO MATTER WHAT path of suffering we may tread - whether it be physical or - or spiritual -or relational. It is a suffering that is familiar to Jesus, and. Therefore He knows how to support us in it.

-With that in mind, I would like to look at just two verses of our Gospel reading with you. John 12 v.27-8. At that point, Jesus knows that his crucifixion is not very far away. It is not a pleasant prospect.
He says: 'Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, GLORIFY YOUR NAME!' -I suggest that this is the perfect example of a child of God facing insurmountable and horrific things in the best possible way!
Let us see how He handles it!

1. HE ADMITS WHERE HE IS AT (as they say). 'Now my heart is troubled.' There is no hint here of denial.. He does not say "Everything is fine, I'm OK" or "I can handle this". or "It's just one of those things . You just have to grin and. bear it". He does not even suggest that he must be brave for the sake of everyone else. There is no pretense.
Rather we have here the honest recognition of his inner reality, 'my heart is troubled'.

2. And what is HIS RESPONSE to this inner trouble going to be," and what shall I say?"
We each have a choice of how to respond in any situation. We don't always acknowledge the choice. Sometimes we allow ourselves to be victims of the circumstances, letting it sweep us whichever way it will. But even when we don't have control over the circumstances, we do have a measure of choice about what our inner response will be to those circumstances. "What shall I say to this trouble?"

3. Jesus continues His musing: "Shall I say 'FATHER, SAVE ME FROM THIS HOUR?' (If it is all too big for me -if I am going to be overwhelmed by this thing, should I ask to be spared, to avoid it, to have it taken away?)

Well - that MAY feel very appropriate - may even be so sometimes. But if we are sure we are in God's will,/ as Jesus was sure, we can know that there IS A REASON for whatever comes to us, even if we do not see that reason.

Jesus knows that the purpose of his whole life as a man is his DEATH -SACRIFICE- for us, which now looms large before him.

4.So He DETERMINES that the options of prayer he has first considered will not be the ones he chooses. Instead He decides on a very short, very simple, utterly profound prayer of total trust and commitment. "FATHER, GLORIFY YOUR NAME! No matter what the scenario, Father, -no matter what the agony - no matter what the cost -let me do it in such a way that YOU ARE HONOURED, and YOUR PURPOSES are achieved.
I will say no more. Except to encourage you to consider these things within your own hearts as Good Friday approaches. Ponder His words. "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I CAME TO THIS HOUR. FATHER, GLORIFY YOUR NAME!"

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