Do you remember the stories of clumsiness
that surrounded former President Ford. He got off a plane in Salzburg, Austria and stumbled once down the steps of Air Force One and later fell down the steps of Residenz Palace.
He had the same problem at the Brussels airport when Mr. Ford slipped and fell as he came down the ramp from the plane. At another airport he hit his head on the door of
the plane as he left. And then playing golf, he lost control of a shot and hit another man in the head who was in a different game. So President Ford endured a lot of humor at his expense.
So when former President Gerald Ford visited Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, one of the students stepped out of an elevator, caught her heel on the carpet and crashed into Ford. She repeatedly apologized as he helped her to her feet, but the former president’s response, “Don’t worry, young lady,” he said. “I understand perfectly.”
There are times when I don’t feel like a lot of people understand me. Do you ever feel that way? Aren’t there moments -- some good, and mostly bad, when you feel small and fragile and wish that there was someone who could hear all you have to say. John Powell says that we’re scared at times like that because we’re vulnerable. If I tell you who I am and you don’t accept who I am, it’s all that I have.
The desire for understanding is one of the most common feelings that we know. It often starts in the teen years as people start to deal with those parts of life that they want changed. I never met a teen who had a perfect family and even the natural process of getting a child ready to leave the nest is hard on the spirit. And then there are all those moments over the years as we work on friendships, marriage, and work that try our spirit.
Even people who appear to be popular will write in their journals that others aren’t aware of many feelings inside a laughing face and envy a happiness that isn’t there. I dare say that even in the few minutes that this service has journeyed, someone has had a lonely moment where they wished that they could tell their story to someone who really could hear it.
God has a Lifesaving story about this need that we’re going to experience today. Friends, you are going to hear a wonder of Christian faith today – why we believe God understands. And I’ll invite you later in this hour to trust and receive comfort from this understanding God.
Jess Lair has written such a wonderful definition of empathy. Empathy—your pain in my heart. It is so hard to be empathetic because we have to really identify with the other person, not just offer some words of comfort. Cecil Rhodes was a British statesman and banker, and his fortune endowed the Rhodes Scholarships. He was known for very formal dress. People went to the Rhodes dinners in their best tuxedo. One night, a young man invited to dine with Rhodes arrived by train in his travel-stained clothes with smoke and cinders. Once there he was appalled to find the other guests already assembled, wearing full evening dress. Rhodes was uncharacteristically late that evening, but when he appeared, he was in a shabby old blue suit. Later the young man learned that his host had been dressed in evening clothes, but put on the old suit when he heard of his young guest’s dilemma. Do you see the difficulties of empathy?
The only problem with an all powerful God who can conjure up the cattle on a thousand hills is what does that God know about the stress of friends pulling at you in school? What does that God know about real people who struggle with the rent? That’s exactly why God the Father sends the only Son to be fully human as well as fully divine. Heaven knows about our trials through Jesus’ eyes and that makes all the difference in our message.
God sent the only son to be born in a stable. The old hymn goes, “God traded sapphire paved courts for stable floor.” Within months, the holy family was refugees being chased by Herod’s guard to kill the rumored new king of Israel. Jesus spent his early days in a land where his parents did not speak the language. In addition to Hebrew and Aramaic, I am sure that he knew some Arabic from time in Egypt.
He grew up in a carpenter’s shop and lived as an adult among the fisher folk. He walked in the fields hungry with the disciples when they picked corn on the Sabbath. Luke tells us that he did not have a grand home or even a cottage. "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
Friends, I was thinking of the lottery the other day and how trustworthy I would be if
I won. Let me assure you that I would hold to the highest standards of generosity and 
ethical spending if I got ten million. And so I
asked God why the Lord doesn’t trust me. And there was no answer out of heaven – until I was working on this sermon.
God sure trusted Jesus and yet Jesus never touched a fortune on earth, never got to more than a couple of nice dinners with publicans and sinners, never traveled much beyond the borders of Israel. It was because Jesus was sent to empathize with the day to day life and challenges that you and I know. When I go to Cambodia, I greet old friends and pray with people and enjoy some worship and talk together. But I carry with me a shield. The clean water to stay healthy that is too expensive for most. The hotel protection in a city at night away from the bands of lawless who prey on the poor. I carry a passport that will get me out of almost any situation. And so I cannot empathize. I sympathize. I encourage. I pray. But my shield is so strong that I cannot totally lay it down.
Jesus laid down the shield totally. Philippians says that he emptied himself of all the prerogatives that God could provide. And that is empathy. Have you ever had a bill you couldn’t handle? Dealt with status and immigration pressures? God doesn’t just sympathize. God sent Jesus to know those feelings and experience that anxiety,
And there was tension in his home. His mother and brothers came to seize him while he was preaching. He refused to go and said to the disciples, ‘those who do my will are my mother and brothers.’ Have you fought with your parents or children this week? God understands the crucible of family life. Jesus was there.
Isaiah says that he was sent with no particular beauty that we should envy him. Are you dealing with health and sickness and a desire for healing? Jesus knows what you are going through. Isaiah tells us that [Isa 53:4] Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases;”
Christianity is not a philosophy. Its not a code of ethics or a golden rule. It’s a God who is alive, but who desires to know your name. You wonder how long you can deal with your issues. Friends, you and I can’t give up. Our Lord loved us so much that he took on mortality to know what we know, experience what we feel, and hurt when we are ill.
Jesus sign of identity with us was his
baptism in River Jordan. [Mark 1:9] In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. This was not a baptism for sin because Jesus never sinned. This was a baptism of
identity with us as sinners in need of a Savior.
We were speaking the other night about remembering our baptism. It’s a good morning to remember that we are united with the God who was here as a human, who touched the stones, smelled the flowers, suffered with the heat, and tasted good food. I’m going to invite you to come to the baptismal font and reaffirm your baptism.
