No Matter What ... Christ!

Jesus did not come as a military leader to conquer Rome. He did not come as a Grim Reaper to kill and harvest the souls of those whose time was up. He did not come to take the Jews home while the wicked Gentiles were judged and smite before their eyes. He came as the Savior of the world and became the living incarnation of God himself. Both fully man and fully God, He came in human form, cloaked in the full sinless and pure character of God. He came to live among the people as a sacrificial example of how we should live, as well as the literal sacrificial lamb that would die to pay the penalty for all our sins. This, in and of itself, is utterly amazing to me. Imagine if you will, you are the Son of God himself. You live in Heaven with your father. There is no sorrow. There is no hunger. There is no pain or suffering of any kind. Then God says, “I want you, my son, to go down to earth. Your soul will be placed in the body of a newborn baby. You will live and grow and experience all that the people of this world experience. You will hunger! You will thirst! You will experience pain, sadness, embarrassment, and fear. You will be tempted in all sorts of sins just as they are. But you will not sin. You will live as a perfect example of how they are to live. Then, after over thirty years of living among our people, having never sinned yourself, having never hurt or wronged anyone, you will be betrayed, beaten, whipped, publicly humiliated, and your body will be pierced and nailed to a cross. Your body will hang on that cross in public till you die. You will die a very painful death in the place of all these sinful people, taking their sins upon yourself, so that their sins will be forgiven, because you paid their penalty, for all the wrong they have ever done or will do in the future.” Just imagine being asked to do such a thing. What would you say? This is what Jesus willingly came to do. But this is not what the spiritual leaders of the day had expected. Jesus truly came and experienced our lives. The physical pain He experienced as He was beaten and suffered the death of crucifixion on the cross was excruciating. The anxiety of being fully human and frail and knowing what He was going to soon face was no less extreme. On the evening of his betrayal, before He was handed over to the Romans for Crucifixion, He went with his disciples to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. Fortunately, once again, the Bible documents and paints a picture for us of these hours and moments before Christ’s death. "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" {Luke 22:44 NIV}. And here in Luke chapter 22, we are provided with another glimpse into the sacrificial suffering our Savior chose to endure on our behalf. The description of Christ literally sweating His own blood is a condition known as hematidrosis. It is brought on by extreme stress and anxiety. It is essentially described as the rupture of the tiny capillary blood vessels around the sweat glands. And on that very night, as Jesus had hours to contemplate all that would soon happen to Him. He was in great distress, and He humbly bowed and prayed to His father in heaven. And while he experienced the full emotional impact of human fear, anxiety, and suffering, He prayed… "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" {Luke 22:42 NIV}. This is a beautiful picture of how even at the precipice, as our Savior was overwhelmed with anxiety, even to the point of sweating his own blood, Christ willingly chose to offer his body as a sacrifice for you and me.