Perfected Through Suffering

This week, I’ve been puzzling over two passages in the book of Hebrews which teach that Jesus became perfect through suffering:

We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Hebrews 2:9-10

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Hebrews 5:8-9

We need some context to understand how Jesus could be “made perfect.” First, let’s clarify what it does not mean:

It does not mean that He was somehow lacking before His mortal life. King Benjamin calls the premortal Christ “the Lord Omnipotent” and “the Creator of all things from the beginning” (Mosiah 3:5, 8). And the book of Hebrews opens with the affirmation that Jesus “made the worlds” and is “the brightness of [God’s] glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:2-3). Jesus was God before He was born. His mortal experience did not make Him divine.

It also doesn’t mean that He made mistakes during His mortal life. The second passage above says that He learned obedience through suffering, but we also read in the book of Hebrews that He faced the same temptations we face, “yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). He is the only person who ever lived a flawless life, and He is the perfect example for us.

So if He was already God, and if He lived a perfect life, how could His sufferings make Him perfect?

One answer comes from the Greek word translated “perfect” in these passages. Teleios (τέλειος) means “complete.” Jesus was already flawless, but perhaps His mortal experience made Him more than He was before. He hinted at this idea in the Sermon on the Mount. During His mortal ministry, He ended the first section of that sermon with the admonition, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). But after His death and resurrection, when He visited the American continent, He modified that admonition slightly: “I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Nephi 12:48). For some reason, He did not refer to Himself as “perfect” until he had completed His earthly mission.

Another possible answer relates to His ability to empathize with us. “In that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18), and “we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 5:15). In spite of the double negative in that last passage, the meaning is clear: Jesus understands us because He has experienced what we are going through. The Book of Mormon prophet Alma taught the same principle:

He will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Alma 7:12

I don’t fully understand how God, who “knoweth all things” (2 Nephi 9:20) could learn something new through His mortal experience, but I do think there is an important message in these passages for us: Suffering is an integral part of our process of becoming complete.

In Hebrews 11, we read that our ancestors cannot be made perfect without us, which we often apply to temple work. (See Doctrine and Covenants 128:15-18.) But Joseph Smith modified this verse in his revision of the Bible to say the following: “God having provided some better things for them through their sufferings, for without sufferings they could not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40, footnote a).

Elder Matthew S. Holland taught:

The very nature of God and aim of our earthly existence is happiness, but we cannot become perfect beings of divine joy without experiences that test us, sometimes to our very core. Paul says even the Savior Himself was made eternally “perfect [or complete] through sufferings.” So guard against the satanic whispering that if you were a better person, you would avoid such trials….

Brothers and sisters, suffering in righteousness helps qualify you for, rather than distinguishes you from, God’s elect. And it makes their promises your promises.

“The Exquisite Gift of the Son,” General Conference, October 2020

Today, I will remember that my earthly experiences are helping me become complete. I will strive to appreciate my unique challenges and struggles, with the understanding that my suffering will help me become complete.