In the past month, I have been meditating on the idea of awe and reverence. A spiritual audit I took in early November asked the question, “Have I maintained a genuine awe of God?” I realized that this was a weak area of mine, and I decided to take a month to reflect on different Bible verses that spoke about awe of God. One of my last meditations was on the passage from Hebrews 5:7-10 which speaks of Jesus’ reverence for his Heavenly Father. Yes, Jesus, though he was God Himself, had a deep reverence for his Father in heaven, a reverence that enabled him to be a great student.
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
In an earlier post on the value of crucible experiences, I noted how the suffering that Jesus endured, probably referring to his crucible experience in the Garden of Gethsemane, was used by God to perfect him (Heb 2:10). Although Jesus was not disobedient before his suffering, he learned about the cost of obedience from his suffering. In a later chapter, the writer of Hebrews goes on to talk about “the joy set before him” that motivated Jesus to persevere through his suffering (Heb 12:1-2). Jesus learned that submitting to the Father’s will and pleasing Him is worth it all, even to the point of suffering excruciating pain and rejection.