A Compassionate Savior

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize.…

Hebrews 4:15

I realized the damaging significance of religious narcissists when Jesus chose that topic for His last public teaching before His crucifixion. Jesus warned his disciples and the crowds about the scribes and Pharisees, couching His comments with what many commentators describe as Seven Woes (Matthew 23).

As I read each woe, I felt Jesus’ intense anger toward the hypocrisy and teachings of the religious leaders that kept their students from following Him. The descriptors of these religious leaders mirrored unfortunate stories I continue to hear of religious leaders with similar hypocritical profiles: blind guides; full of greed and self-indulgence; whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean; hypocritical and wicked; snakes, brood of vipers; and neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  

These narcissist characteristics opened the eyes of my heart in a fresh way to Jesus’ compassionate understanding of the wounding from my relationship with someone I now identify as a religious narcissistic.

When I go to Jesus, I envision His compassion and understanding described in Hebrews 4:15-16:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses…. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Father, Christ’s warning and His understanding of the damage caused by my narcissistic relationship empowers me to both entrust and release my confusion into Your sovereign care. I confidently accept, by faith, the abundance of Your mercy and grace to help in my time of need. In the name of Your understanding Son, Jesus, I pray, amen.

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