5:7 He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear,
The “he” here obviously refers to Christ, who has been the subject of the preceding paragraphs. The writer makes it clear that he is talking about Christ’s time on earth (“in the days of His flesh”), not something that happened before His incarnation or after His ascension. Back in verse 2 he had laid the foundation that earthly priests, who shared the humanity of those to whom they ministered, needed to be able to have compassion on their fellow men; and that compassion was based on their own weakness. Here he sets out to demonstrate that Christ, even though He was God in the flesh, also experienced weakness, and was able to have compassion on others because he shared their experience.
He presents an increasing intensity of prayer. First, he says, Christ offered up prayers. It is interesting that He who had perfect communion with the Father still found it necessary to pray. I have heard people who, in their arrogance, say that they have such a close walk with the Lord that they no longer need to pray. Yet the One whose walk was closer than that of any other person who has ever lived, felt the need to take time for prayer. Prayer is basic communication with God, bringing our requests before Him and trusting Him for the answers.
Next the writer mentions supplications. This is much stronger than normal prayer. There is the sense of the condemned man crying out to the judge for mercy: an urgent, desperate pleading to be spared.
Then it gets even more intense – strong crying and tears. This was not the temper tantrum of an unruly child who is not getting his own way, but the anguish of One who desperately seeks release from the fate that awaits him.
We need to ask ourselves: what was it that brought such an intense, passionate plea from Christ to the Father? Most people think that it was the thought of the physical suffering that He was to endure the next day. But when He sweat blood as He cried out “let this cup pass”, I believe He was thinking of much more than physical pain, as dreadful as that was to be. I believe He was battling with the thought of the spiritual agony He would endure as the garbage of mankind’s sins was piled on Him, the sinless One.
Yet there was even more to it than that, and the key is in the last part of this verse: “having been heard for his godly fear” Now if we see the first part of the verse only in terms of Christ praying to be delivered from the necessity of dying on the Cross – whether because of the physical pain or the spiritual agony – then this part of the verse does not make sense. Jesus was not delivered from the Cross. He had to endure it’s agony to the full. He had to drink the cup.
So how can the Word of God say that He was heard? Did the Father, as one commentator suggests, hear but not answer His prayers? Such a “hearing” certainly does not offer the satisfaction that this verse implies. So how was He heard?
We know that, as He hung on the Cross, Christ was there not as Himself but as us: our substitute, bearing our sins and paying the penalty for them. We know, too, that even before He reached the Cross, as He stood in the judgment hall of Pilate, He stood not as Himself but as us: that is why He remained silent. As Himself, He could have defended His innocence. As us, He stood guilty.
In the same way, I would like to suggest that, at least in part, His prayers and supplications in the Garden were not as Himself but as us. He was looking, not just to the next day and the agony of the Cross, but to eternity and the agony of hell that was the just sentence for every person. He cried out for deliverance not just from the physical death that He was about to endure, but from the eternal death that awaited mankind. In that, He was heard. From that, He – as us – was delivered.
… for his godly fear
Probably better rendered “because of His fear (of God)”. Man’s lack of the fear of God lies at the root of all sin. If man had a healthy fear of God, sin would not be a problem. Christ alone had no need to fear God – as God the Son, His relationship was perfect; and as the Son of God his life was sinless. But as man – as us – He could fear, for more than any other He knew the power of God’s justice and righteousness. He could not hide under the imagination that God is just some kind of benevolent grandfather who, in the end, will just pat everyone on the head and say, “There, there, it’s ok. Your intentions were good so you don’t have to worry.” He knew the truth of what God’s judgment would bring to man, and He feared for man.
A perfect representative for us, He not only suffered Himself, but He suffered for us, as us, in our place. He truly fulfilled the requirement of priesthood.