Eventually, He was betrayed by one of the people closest to Him. He was abandoned, disowned and rejected by those whom He had loved and nurtured. Ultimately, His body was tortured, humiliated, savagely beaten and He was dragged like a despised common criminal to endure a prolonged, cruel, painful death.

Because He was fully man as well and fully God, Jesus knew all the pain, distress and discomfort of these experiences. He can sustain us in our trials - because He has been there.

His glorified body
Jesus' glorified body is different from His earthly body. It still bears the marks of some of His human sufferings (John 20 v 27), but it is no longer constrained by the limitations of a human form. In His revelations to the apostle John on Patmos, Jesus appeared in the form of the Son of Man, a glorious, shining, awesome figure (Rev. 1 v 12-18). He was so transformed that even John, the beloved disciple, did not recognise Him immediately. Jesus also appeared to John in the form of a Lamb, as a Rider on a white horse and ultimately as the Bridegroom of the sanctified Church. In His risen body, there is no limitation now to the ways in which Jesus can reveal Himself and no limit to what He can do anywhere, anytime.

Partakers of His body
Jesus wants us to have as our main source of nourishment and nurture not the rewards valued by our society, not the goodies and gadgets with which we gratify and sustain ourselves, not the esteem and reputation we crave from people - but His body. He wants us to value and to strive for closer dependence on Him. He wants us to trust Him to supply all our needs - spiritual, physical, emotional, material.