You are never really sure what a two year old will find interesting. Their likes and dislikes change with every mood. I picked up blueberries and chicken nuggets, two of his favorite things, at least the last time I was with him. That doesn’t mean he will like them this time. At least I know that about toddlers. It would have been more helpful to have been able to remember well my own preschool days. Then I might have stood a better chance of pleasing him. All of that is entirely normal.
In fact, that is normal in every case. If you could climb into the mind of the person you are trying to relate to, wouldn’t it be much easier to understand them and get along? A long time ago, Job said the same thing about man and God. There was no one who could “lay his hand on both” God and man, 9:33.
Which is precisely why the Word “became flesh and dwelt among us,” John 1:14. The Hebrew writer says, “He had to be made like his brothers in every respect” so that he could become our high priest, our intercessor, the one who stands between us and God, laying his hand on both because he understands both worlds, 2:17. Paul makes it plain in 1 Tim 2:5 that Jesus is the only one of the Godhead who fulfills that requirement--There is one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus.
So now we cannot say, “No one understands.” Jesus went through a lot of pain and sorrow and injustice and indignity just so he could understand. Any time we excuse ourselves with something like, “Well of course he could overcome sin, he was the Son of God!” we are demeaning the sacrifice he made for us, and the things he bore on our behalf so he could be “the missing link” between our Father and his children. We are saying that he doesn’t, and can never understand what it is like to be human.
The Son of God is also the Son of Man. He knows how we think, he knows how we feel, and he knows what we can and cannot endure. He sits at the right hand of God even now, making intercession for us, Rom 8:34, because he searches our hearts and knows what is in them (v 27 with Rev 2:23).
I may make a mistake about what will pique the interest of my two year old grandson. Christ will never make the same mistake about us.
This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them, Heb 7:22-25.
Dene Ward