I have often found today's passage somewhat intriguing as it speaks of Jesus learning something. We might first think that such a thing would be impossible until we remember that God have never partook of flesh and blood as He did in the person of Jesus. In Hebrews 5:8 we read, "Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered."
This verse does not suggest that Jesus was ever disobedient but that there was a process whereby He learned obedience. In His humanity, He was born an infant and matured through adolescence, His young adult years, and eventually grew to be a man. When He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, physically weak from eating nothing for forty days, He looked to what had been written, the Holy scriptures, as He learned obedience. As He dwelt amongst men, seeing first hand the effects of sin in the lives of those He loved, He spent much time in prayer, learning obedience. As He suffered great agony in the garden on that night preceding His crucifixion, He repeatedly sought the Father's strength to do His will as He learned obedience.
Are we learning the lesson of obedience through the things which we suffer? We suffer much in the "body of this death", our own struggles and the effect of sin on a world we live in. He calls us to walk as "children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation". I am not suggesting an obedience to a set of rules and regulations. Ours is a higher calling than that. The obedience that Jesus "learned" was His life of faith. It was marked by His trust in His heavenly Father and His desire to do His will. Time and again He showed us that we must go to the Father and the never faltering truth of His word. May He help each one of us to learn obedience. Trusting in Him is a wonderful joy!
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