I started a workout series on my bike the other day that is led by a new trainer. Now, I know that in order to get into shape or lose weight or whatever the goal is, it requires hard work, but this lady just bothers me so much. Her workouts are really, really tough and she doesn’t give us a heads up of how long the interval is or how many seconds we will be pushing 110 RPM with a steep incline. But the thing that bothers me the most is that she will stop pedaling in the middle of a push and just start talking to the riders. What she says is encouraging most of the time, but she stops pedaling. She stops doing the workout with us. For me, it is very difficult to feel motivated to continue the workout, when the person telling to keep going has stopped. I don’t like it.

This frustration I have with the bike lady got me thinking. All the other workouts I have done with other trainers have been great because they did the whole workout with me. It felt like we were in it together. They knew how hard I worked because they had worked just as hard. These trainers created workouts to push me and themselves. It feels more relatable when they know just how tough the workout was.

Then I realized that is what makes Jesus so relatable. He came to save this world from sin. Being the Son of God, He could have done that in a much easier way that didn’t cause Him to leave His throne in heaven. But He came to earth. To the place where His people dwelled. He lived the same life we do. He faced the same temptations we do. He was fully human. He lived a human life (free of sin of course) up until He died for us.

When I think about the life of Jesus, it is kind of crazy that He started His ministry only 3 years before He died. It is crazy but also comforting to me. Jesus lived most of His human life like you and I. Well less like you and I but more like the people of His time. You get what I mean. He was always the Messiah, but before he started His ministry, people didn’t really know of Him. He was just living a simple life. Experiencing the same things we experience in life.

Hebrews 4:15 says “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just was we are- yet he did not sin” (NIV).

Jesus walked on this very same earth we live on. He knows what it is like to live a human life. The temptations, the struggles, the brokenness of this world is not unfamiliar to Him. So, we can trust Him. We can trust in His words and His promises. He is relatable to us because He lived the life we live and He did it perfectly.

All I’m trying to say is that if Jesus was my trainer, He would do the whole workout with me. And He would do it perfectly.