There’s an account of Jesus praying in Gethsemane described in multiple Gospels in the Bible that has always made me take pause. Here’s Mark’s version:
And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”
And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
-Mark 14:32-36
If we think purely of Jesus as God here, we miss the point entirely. However, if we read this passage in context, we realize that it is Jesus’ humanity on full display. If it weren’t, being co-equal with God and therefore omniscient (able to see God’s decree entirely even before it plays out), He wouldn’t have bothered to suggest such a thing. In fact, what we see here is the tender side of Jesus’ humanity and His very real, understandable response to a pressure we cannot fathom. In Luke’s account of this event, he describes Jesus as suffering hematohidrosis. In other words, the blood vessels feeding His sweat glands ruptured, causing them to exude blood, due to the extreme pressure He was experiencing.
And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
-Luke 22:43-44
God doesn’t bleed. Jesus did.
The reason I’m writing this blog isn’t to highlight the immense pressure Jesus experienced – that’s the backstory – I want to draw your attention to His words inMark 14:36, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” The cold, analytical, theologian side of me screams, “Hold on just a second!” The idea that the perfect man, the God-man Jesus Christ, my Lord, my everything, showed any sign of human frailty whatsoever is unsettling. I’m not being naïve here, just transparent and honest. Might you relate? A part of me doesn’t want Him to be anything but the “Rock” (ala 1 Corinthians 10:4) as the easiest interpretation might imply. Dare I concede that He revealed a human weakness? I struggle to bring myself to go that far because if we interpret plenary Holy Scripture, we know that He was tempted in every way and yet never sinned, not even once! If anything, He was unflappable! It’s too visceral for me to think of Him having any of my own kinds of weaknesses.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
-Hebrews 4:15
So, the humanity of Jesus walked right up to the line that was drawn by His Father in Heaven (our Father) and asked a question that we’d all likely ask in similar circumstances. He asked if there was any other way in which sinners could be saved than by His death, burial, and resurrection. He knew, technically speaking, that His Father had the ability to architect another way if He so desired, being God. However,…
The heavens were silent.
Now to the beautiful part of this passage! Please focus on my words…
The heavens were silent. Jesus received His answer from His Father. There was no other way by which God’s children could be redeemed. The blood of Jesus, His Father’s “only begotten Son” (John 3:16), was the necessary sacrifice. (I’m compelled to keep writing about this, but the Spirit’s telling me “no” and to stay focused, even though I’m crying now as I often do whenever I think about what Jesus went through for me.)
Here’s what I want to leave you with. Please don’t forget that Jesus was a human being. God wants you to relate to Him this way, as a man. He wants you to love Him even more whenever you think about the pressure He endured, knowing He was the only way for us to ever be saved.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
-John 14:6
Jesus knew that ultimately it was His Father’s salvific plan, not His own. He asked, as we all would, for a potential alternative and He got His answer. It needed to be Him. All Him. For all of us. So, He obeyed. I’m so grateful He did and so thankful to our Father in Heaven for providing a way at all.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
-Philippians 2:1-11
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins