Jesus Learned Obedience Through Suffering.

I'm all moved in to my new apartment and finally feel rested enough to write. I love our new place - it is so roomy and bright with the sun. 

I read this article on Jesus' suffering that helped explain this Bible verse to me: "Though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered." Hebrews 5:8

Charles Spurgeon writes: "We are told the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, therefore we who are sinful, and who are far from being perfect, must not wonder if we are called to pass through suffering too. Shall the head be crowned with thorns, and shall the other members of the body be rocked upon the dainty lap of ease? Must Christ pass through the seas of his own blood to win the crown, and are we to walk to heaven dry shod in silver slippers? No, our Master's experience teaches us the suffering is necessary, and the true born child of God must not, would not, escape it if he might.

But there is one very comforting thought in the fact of Christ's suffering - it is that he can have complete sympathy with us. "He is not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities."

One of the early martyrs said, "I can bear it all, for Jesus suffered, and he suffers in me now; he sympathizes with me, and this makes me strong." Lay hold of this thought in all times of agony."

Spurgeon says, "Suffering is necessary," even for Jesus, which got me to wondering why? Why would Jesus need to learn from suffering? Doesn't he already know all things?

"He learned obedience." Why would Jesus need to learn obedience? Wasn't he already perfect?

The commentaries at the site below add some insight: http://biblehub.com/hebrews/5-8.htm

Barnes' Notes on the Bible
 "Though he were a Son - though the Son of God, though he sustained this exalted rank, and was conscious of it, yet he was willing to learn experimentally what is meant by obedience in the midst of sufferings."

People's New Testament

5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience. He claimed no special exemptions because he was the Son, but learned and taught obedience in the supremest test that the world ever saw.

By the things which he suffered. He learned obedience experimentally.

Geneva Study Bible

Though he were a Son, yet  learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
He learned in deed what it is to have a Father, whom a man must obey.

Wesley's Notes

 He learned obedience, when be began to suffer; when he applied himself to drink that cup: obedience in suffering and dying.

I sometimes forget Jesus was God and a man. He is called the "second Adam" who came to restore this world. So, perhaps it was as a man he had to accept and feel this great suffering; not as God. It is all hard for me to understand, but I do appreciate what he went through for us. He came into this world he created as one of us; to experience all we experience and of course, not only that, but to take the guilt of the sins of the world on his shoulders. That is something I will only understand when I am in heaven.