Quarantine Quick Read: Christ our Brother - The 18 Hour Shift

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Jesus is a spiritual big brother for every Christian. Having suffered in every way like us He is able to sympathetically come alongside us with grace to help (Hebrews 2:17, 4:15-16).



You have just spent all day with sick people. You can’t remember what time you got up or whether you stopped for lunch. You are so tired you will probably fall into bed without speaking to anyone. When you wake tomorrow it will all start again! Jesus knows how you feel. Mark’s gospel records a day in Jesus’ life when he went to the synagogue to teach. A man who was under a terrible evil influence came seeking help. No doubt this was deeply troubling for Jesus to see and ministering to the man must have been exhausting. Jesus retreats to a friend’s house and is immediately called on to heal a sick woman. As the sun was going down the whole town gathered in the doorstep looking to Jesus to heal the sick and deliver the possessed. Yet early the next morning Jesus got up to pray... and the whole thing started again. He was a man. He felt exhausted and robbed of rest. Yet He was constrained by love to keep giving out of His weakness, in response to the needs of the physically and spiritually sick. He knows how you feel.

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