Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 213 · August 1
Learned Obedience
“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;”
If Jesus never once disobeyed, what was left for Him to learn about obedience?
Hebrews answers in the verse just before: "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared." That sounds like Gethsemane. Jesus had always obeyed His Father; what was new was obeying while all of that was happening to Him.
The same letter explains why. It was fitting for God "to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Then it says what this was for: "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." Succour is an old word for help. What Jesus learned through suffering, He learned for His work as our high priest.
So the question at the start has an answer. Jesus had nothing to learn about right and wrong. What He had not yet done was obey inside a human body under strain, at night, in tears, while He asked His Father to let the cup pass. Now He has done it, and He is the One who listens when you pray.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 213 is Better Than Life (Psalm 63:3).