The second reading for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Hebrews 4:14-16, continues directly from last week’s second reading and confirms the point I made last week: that the fact that Jesus Christ knows our innermost thoughts and all of our deeds is a warning to amend our ways, surely, but also a comfort, not a threat, that the one who knows us most intimately judges with a full knowledge of our struggles and weaknesses and our desire to know him. Jesus, states Hebrews, is not “unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.” Try to take that in: Jesus was tested in every way, just as we are, and yet because he is free of sin, we have a model of what the human life can be, and the model, to my mind, of the true counselor. Here is one who can sympathize, but also guide us perfectly in the direction we must go, how we must amend our ways, how we must grow for the Kingdom of God. The last line of this reading guides us to the counselor, gently but firmly. “So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” Mercy in our minds can seem so distant when we consider our own failings and weaknesses, and when we reflect on the lack of mercy often shown in our own world, perhaps even by ourselves on occasion, but the author of Hebrews asks us to “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy.” We should do it. Over and over.

For the mercy Jesus offers us as Lord is borne not just of his divinity, but this true humanity which was tested due to our transgressions and crushed for our sins, as Isaiah 53:10-11 attests. The first reading, a short portion of the “Suffering Servant Song” in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, speaks of Jesus’ humanity offered for the sins of the world. If we take Jesus’ humanity seriously, not as a sort of addendum to his divinity, we understand both the pain of his suffering on our behalf, but also of the mercy which he feels for all of his brothers and sisters who sway under the weight of sin, who groan with the burdens of lost hope. He wants to offer us mercy.

Even the Twelve, hand-picked by Jesus, constantly stumbled under the weight of their humanity, thinking not in terms of God’s mercy, but of their glory. In Mark 10:35-45, James and John come to ask Jesus for a share of his glory, a precise share for that matter, namely, to sit at his right and at his left hand in glory. Keep in mind that in Mark’s structure this passage follows right after the third Passion Prediction – the other two occurring in chapters 8 and 9 – when Jesus has told his followers that he must suffer and die before being raised up. James and John, having been witnesses to Jesus’ Transfiguration described in Mark 9:2-8, seem to want to skip the suffering and move straight to the glory. It is an attractive option, but one Jesus eschews.His suffering will be a “ransom for many,” his life offered on behalf of a world ensnared in sin. Yet, he also counsels the Apostles to be prepared to accept suffering and servanthood as a part of their life of leadership. This is why mercy is not just offered by God to us, but must be offered by his followers, by us, both through the institutional Church and by individual Christians to all those in need. We share in God’s mercy, we struggle to walk the path which Jesus walked, and so we are prepared to offer Christ’s mercy to all those in need, encouraging all to “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy.”

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.