For the tempted who need a priest who has been there.

The writer of Hebrews shows us a high priest who did not stay in the sanctuary's clean air. He was obligated to be made like his brothers, which means he walked the same corridor of testing we walk. The dust of that wilderness is still on his vestments, and that is precisely what makes his mercy credible. He is not a priest who inspects our wounds from a polished distance; he is a brother who has felt the same heat.

The logic runs: likeness precedes mercy. He had to be made like us before he could become our high priest, and the atonement he made is the ground of every help he gives. I confess that I often want a savior who stands above my temptations rather than one who has stood inside them. But the verse will not let me keep that distant savior. Because he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. The ability is born of the suffering, not in spite of it.

And the help is not a vague mood of sympathy. It is the help of one who has atoned, who carried the full weight of testing to the cross and through it into resurrection. His temptation was real, and so is the help he brings to yours. The high priest who was tempted is the high priest who can help.