“He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed”—Matthew 26:37
Sorrow and deep distress marked the inner spirit of Jesus as He entered into prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. This moment marked a time of intense agony for Him. He was nearing the climax of His Great Passion. The Great Passion of Jesus was the focal point of His divine vocation. No one was ever called by God to greater suffering than that suffering to which God called His only begotten Son.
Our Savior was a suffering Savior. He went before us into the uncharted land of agony and death. He went where no man is called to go. His Father gave Him a cup to drink that will never touch our lips. We will not ever be asked of God to endure anything comparable to the distress Christ took upon Himself. Wherever God calls us to go, whatever He summons us to endure will fall far short of what Jesus experienced.
From the beginning of His ministry Jesus was conscious of His mission. From the start He was under a death sentence. His “disease” was terminal. The Father afflicted Him on the cross, not with one terminal disease, but with every terminal disease. Of course, this does not mean that Jesus received a positive biopsy report or that a physician diagnosed Him with advanced leprosy. He went to His death with no outward evidence of any known disease. But the cumulative pain of every disease was laid upon Him. He bore in His body the ravages of every evil, every sickness, every pain known to the human race.
The suffering of Jesus was multiple because the extent of evil in the world is a vast complex. Every effect of every sin was placed upon Him. To carry this dreadful burden was His vocation. To bear all pain and disease was His mission. The magnitude of this horror is beyond our understanding. But He understood it because it was His to bear.
—R.C. Sproul, (1996, c1988). Surprised by Suffering. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
Read more of “Surprised by Suffering” here, or purchase the book here.
Human pride and ego never fails to affect many, if not all, parts of the human psyche. Even in our most dire and pressed moments, almost invariably does pride always have a say in it. “Why me?”, “Why now?”, “What ever did I do to deserve this?”, these are some of the questions we ask in times of trouble. In so doing we greatly discount the greatest trouble that we will never have to endure, the trouble and pain of the Cross, the fierceness of the wrath of God.
In the words of Arthur W. Pink, “Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us.”
