The Sympathy of the Savior

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:15-16 (NIV)

Let us notice that verse 15 does not say: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to have pity...." or "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to have compassion...." Rather, it says that Jesus is able to sympathize with us.

Often times, I think we tend to think of pity, compassion, and sympathy as being more similar than they are. Pity implies tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sorrow for one in misery or distress. Compassion implies tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sorrow for one in misery or distress along with a desire to alleviate it. Sympathy in the Greek means common (syn-) feelings, emotion, or experience (pathos). Sympathy is much more personal than pity or compassion. You can have pity or compassion for someone without suffering the same burden as them; however, you cannot have sympathy without suffering the same burden.

Therefore, verse 15 is saying that Jesus has a tender sorrow for our burdens, but, more than that, He went through the same burdens that we do.

It is pity; but it is something more than pity: it is the pity which a man of kind affections feels towards those who are suffering what he himself suffered....
The Son of God, had He never become incarnate, might have pitied, but He could not have sympathized with His people. To render Him capable of pity, it was necessary that He should become man that He might be susceptible of suffering, and that He should actually be a sufferer that He might be susceptible of sympathy.

Dr. John Brown, An Exposition of Hebrews, p. 231

I suspect, however, that many of us, especially when we are experiencing physical or emotional pain, question whether or not Jesus suffered in the same way we are suffering. After all, He never experienced prolonged unemployment, or had a child die in an auto accident, or endured the debilitating effects of a crippling disease, or watched a spouse die slowly and painfully from cancer.

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, p. 175

While Jesus may not have experienced the exact same burdens as us, He suffered more than any of us will ever know. He was forsaken by God. The creation totally void of involvement from the creator, the sustenance of the creation. None of us have ever been cut off from the Creator, who sustains us. As God's creations, we cannot bare to be removed from the Creator. I believe this to be the biggest pain and sorrow of Hell, total separation from the Creator who is knitted into our very being. Jesus suffered such a burden.

So Jesus does fully understand and sympathize with us in our times of trials. We can be sure, whatever the nature of our hurts, they are not new to Him. Because Jesus can enter into our hurts and does sympathize with us, we can approach God's throne with confidence, without being ashamed to lay our weaknesses before Him. He understands and He cares.

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, pp. 175-176