Jesus, God and man?

I have recently begun working with 9th graders...160 of them. What a great day that is! The insight, the crazy questions, the interesting dialogue. We are just getting going with the Old Testament, but came across an interesting discussion today.

So, Jesus was fully God and fully man, right? Then why was He led around by the Holy Spirit?

ESV Luke 4:1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness

Jesus, as we are told in Philippians 2, had "emptied Himself" of all His power, glory, might, etc. It's like the clothes I am wearing today. They are mine. I could take my shirt off and set it aside. It is still mine, but I am not using it right now. The same is true for Jesus' divine powers. So He waited upon the leading of the Holy Spirit through the direction of the Father. In this way, Jesus did not have any supernatural powers of Himself so that He could, as Hebrews makes clear, bear every bit of suffering known to man.

NIV Hebrews 2:17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

NIV Hebrews 4:15 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.

And He did know suffering...

NIV Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

I haven't had that many sorrows, but I have had some. I have read of many others who lived sorrow-filled lives, yet still maintained a joy from the Lord. But I have trouble imagining how and why the Almighty, Holy, Perfect Creator of the universe ["uni" = one, "verse" spoken sentence..."And God said, "Let there be..."] would give of His power to suffer, worse than I or anyone else, just to save us. It just doesn't make sense. I guess that is what it was going to take to help us understand how much He loves us.

I hope you know. I hope you have not only 'heard' about Him, but I pray that you will come to "know" Him like never before. He is just, grace-filled, merciful and always loving towards you.

Loving...and waiting for you to respond and not reject.