Sorrowful, even unto death.
Mat 26:38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
What did it mean?
Three times He asked His Father to remove the cup of wrath He was about to drink, but each time He submitted to the Father’s will.
Jesus was “exceedingly sorrowful unto death,” but God sent an angel from heaven to strengthen Him.
Luk 22:43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Adam Clarke in his commentary says:
My soul is so dissolved in sorrow, my spirit is filled with such agony and anguish, that, if speedy succour be not given to my body, death must be the speedy consequence.
It was this that caused a condition called HEM ATID ROSIS.
Luk 22:44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were (Greek: Hosei) great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Greek-Hosei – Like).
Jesus wasn’t sweating full blood but sweat mingled with blood. (As it were)
His sweat became Bloodied.
Hematidrosis is a condition in which capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood, occurring under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress. ... It has been suggested that acute fear and extreme stress can cause hematidrosis.
What was it that caused this?
We must remember that Jesus was fully human and fully God.
Heb 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
He suffered in all ways, just like us. He felt pain, He experienced love, joy, grief, sorrow. He was tempted. He hungered, He thirsted.
John Gill in his commentary says:
That Christ had an human soul, as well as an human body, is clear from hence; and which was possessed of the same passions as ours are, but without sin, such as joy, love, grief, sorrow, and at this time its sorrows were exceeding great: his soul was beset all around with the sins of his people; these took hold on him, and encompassed him.
So, what was it that caused this sorrow even unto death.
What was it that caused this Hematridosis.
Was it the physical suffering?
Jesus knew the scriptures, Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, bruised.
It couldn’t be this because many others had suffered the agony of crucifixion. Hematridosis is a very rare event.
Crucifixion in itself was not the cause.
Was it the shame of the cross?,
The Bible says, Cursed is he that hangs on a tree. Well all who hang on a tree suffered shame.
Was it the ridicule?
Scorned, reject. This was common to all who were crucified.
Was it the betrayal by Judas or the false arrest.
He knew all this beforehand. Again many had suffered this.
No, These were not the cause of His agony.
No, it must have been the separation from the Father.
He became sin for us. The Father turned His face away.
Here is a war raging in the soul of the Son of God. It is a battle with the wrath of God headed straight at Him.
His sorrow rose to a place that He had never experienced before. The cup of wrath from the Father was going to be handed to Him, and He was to drink it all. In so doing, He would receive the curse of God. He would be struck with the sword of the Lord’s vengeance, penal desertion by His Father at the cross. He would be made a curse for us. “Eli, Eli Lama Sabachthani. My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me”.
Remember sin cannot go unpunished.
No human being has ever had this kind of sorrow.
For no human being could ever experience what Jesus was about to experience.
Matt 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
We don’t have that kind of sorrow. Our sorrow is over our sinfulness. His sorrow was over His sinlessness.
The fact that He was to become sin for us.
What was this cup?
Isaiah 51:17 speaks of the cup of God’s anger. Jeremiah 25:15 speaks of the cup of God’s wrath.
Holiness can’t be comfortable with guilt and condemnation and divine wrath.
To have, as He did, the perfect knowledge of His Father’s wrath, the perfect knowledge of His own sinless purity, and not to be filled with a desire to escape the coming judgement would bring His holiness into question.
He knew there was no other way and it filled Him with sorrow.
Any man who was going to be crucified would have felt fear, shame and rejection.
But the sinless Lamb of God was to be separated from His Father. He who knew no sin was to become sin for us.
He knew He was to be raised on the third day. He knew He was to conquer death but to gain that, He had to pay the price of sin.
His sorrow was the separation that was to be the Wrath of God.
