For He has not subjected to angels the world to come that we are talking about. But one has somewhere testified: What is man that You remember him, or the son of man that You care for him? You made him lower than the angels for a short time; You crowned him with glory and honor and subjected everything under his feet. For in subjecting everything to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death. For in bringing many sons to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—all things exist for Him and through Him—should make the source] of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying: I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing hymns to You in the congregation. Again, I will trust in Him. And again, Here I am with the children God gave Me. Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the Devil— and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it is clear that He does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. Therefore, He had to be like His brothers in every way, so that He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested. ~ Hebrews 2:5-18 (HCSB) Note: the word propitiation above can also be translated as atonement.

There is a lot in this set of verses. First, consider that Jesus is the one that we see crowned with glory and honor. But why? According to the writer of Hebrews, it is because of the things he suffered for us.

I won’t you to consider with me that the writer of Hebrews makes no mention of any condemnation, judgment, or punishment from God when he references the things that Jesus suffered. On the contrary, he tells us that by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone,  and he did so for the purpose of being perfected as the Captain of our Salvation, and to become our merciful and faithful High Priest.

It was the will of God for Jesus to experience the depths, sorrows, pain, despair, and trauma of human suffering – to be made like his brethren in all things – so that he might become the perfect representative for humanity in the presence of God.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus did this so that he could declare God’s name to his brothers (and of course his sisters). Have you ever considered why there is unfailing faithfulness to God within the heart of so many believers who have suffered much? Where does such faithfulness come from? It comes for the Spirit of Jesus, who declares to the heart the faithfulness of God, even in the midst of human suffering.

The writer of Hebrews also tells us that Jesus shared in our human experience so that he could destroy the one holding the power of death – that is the devil, and in doing so he frees us who were all our lifetime held in slavery by the fear of death.

Consider for a moment Jesus’s human experience. Jesus was betrayed by one of his own disciples that he appointed as an apostle. Have you ever been betrayed? It’s very painful isn’t it? Jesus knows the feeling.

Jesus’s crucifixion would have never happened if he had not been betrayed by Judas. The scriptures of the prophets had foretold that it would happen this way. The Jewish authorities had wanted to kill him for some time, and Jesus knew this. Imagine what it’s like living among those who hate you and want to kill you. Jesus experienced this.

After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since He did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill Him. ~ John 7: 1

Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law! Why do you want to kill Me?” ~ John 7:19

I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill Me because My word is not welcome among you. ~ John 8:37

But now you are trying to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this! ~ John 8:40

Notice the indictment that Jesus gives them. They wanted to kill him because his word was not in them, because they did not want the truth in him, and because they were not Abraham’s true children. Nevertheless they could not touch his life because his hour in which he would lay it down, had not yet come.

Then they tried to seize Him. Yet no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not yet come. ~ John 7:30

He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple complex. But no one seized Him, because His hour had not come. ~ John  8:20

It wasn’t until Satan entered into the heart of Judas that the crucifixion was set in motion.

Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Now by the time of supper, the Devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Him. Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands, that He had come from God, and that He was going back to God. So He got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself. Next, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around Him. ~ John 13:1-5

I want you to notice from the text above that Satan put it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. I also want you to notice that Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands. It was at this point that Jesus took off his robe and tied a towel around himself,as a servant (though he was Lord) and began washing his disciples’ feet.

This is what the cross is all about. The King of glory, who has authority over all things, took the place of the lowliest servant so that he might have compassion on all. This is the work of grace that God was perfecting in the humanity of his Son, Jesus. Now, consider the following from the same chapter in John’s gospel.

“I assure you: A slave is not greater than his master,  and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I’m not speaking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the Scripture must be fulfilled: The one who eats My bread has raised his heel against Me. “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. I assure you: Whoever receives anyone I send receives Me, and the one who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” When Jesus had said this, He was troubled in His spirit and testified, “I assure you: One of you will betray Me!” The disciples started looking at one another—uncertain which one He was speaking about. One of His disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus. Simon Peter motioned to him to find out who it was He was talking about. So he leaned back against Jesus and asked Him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus replied, “He’s the one I give the piece of bread to after I have dipped it.” When He had dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son. After Judas ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Therefore Jesus told him, “What you’re doing, do quickly.” None of those reclining at the table knew why He told him this. Since Judas kept the money-bag, some thought that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or that he should give something to the poor. After receiving the piece of bread, he went out immediately. And it was night. ~ John 13:16-30 

I want you to see that even though Satan had entered the heart of Judas, it wasn’t until Jesus told him, “What you are doing, do quickly” that Judas went out and betrayed him to the chief priests.

Jesus had said in John 10, “I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep. But I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves Me, because I am laying down My life so I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father.” ~ John 10:14-18

Jesus was fully God, and fully human. Satan had no power to touch his life until he laid it down. Though Jesus had all spiritual authority, he experienced human pain and suffering. He experienced rejection, hate, and betrayal. He entered the dark experience of human suffering when he laid down his life.

When Judas led a mob to arrest Jesus, Jesus said the following to them.

Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a criminal? Every day while I was with you in the temple complex, you never laid a hand on Me. But this is your hour—and the dominion of darkness.” ~ Luke 22: 52-53

The KJV says the power of darkness. We know this is a reference to Satan’s Kingdom because it was Satan who entered Judas’s heart to betray Jesus. The four gospels give us the vivid details of the dark powers working through the people as Jesus was betrayed, condemned by the Jewish leaders, falsely accused, placed on trial, rejected by the people, beaten, publicly humiliated, and crucified.

The writer of Hebrews describes the sufferings of Christ as testing by which he was perfected through suffering.

For in bringing many sons to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—all things exist for Him and through Him—should make the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ~ Hebrews 2:10

For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested. ~ Hebrews 2:18

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. ~ Hebrews 4:15

During His earthly life, He offered prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Though He was God’s Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. After He was perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him… ~ Hebrews 5;7-9

What God accomplished in Christ as our intercessor and High Priest, and through Christ as our sacrifice and offering, is referred to by Paul as a mystery which was hidden and kept secret from previous generations. Paul says, None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ~ 1 Corinthians 2:8

Paul’s words are consistent with the narrative we see in the gospels and Jesus’s declaration to those who arrested him,  “this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

It wasn’t God who betrayed Jesus by turning his back on him and condemning him. It was Judas, and those who were under the influence of the power of darkness who did that. This is why the apostles spoke so strongly in the Acts showing how even though the people had unjustly condemned the Just one, and murdered him, as Stepehen described it, the grave could not hold him because God raised him from the dead!

God did not send Jesus to the cross because he was angry with sinners. God sent Jesus to the cross because God loved sinners, and to perfect Jesus for us as a High Priest who knows the real pain of human suffering, who can intercede as one who is compassionate and merciful, and touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

It is not God who betrays, hates, and kills. It is the power of darkness, and in his death, Jesus overcame the power of darkness when he by the grace of God tasted death for every man. Now we are overcomers through him who loved us and gave himself for us. God was not substitutionally punishing his dying son, God was in him reconciling the world and perfecting his Son as our great High Priest, through whom God’s everlasting love, compassion, mercy, and grace could give us hope, strength, eternal life!

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?

God is the One who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! ~ Romans 8:31-39