From His Brow Series

Series: Jesus’ Blood for Me

“From Jesus’ Brow”

Luke 22:39-44

Pastor John Bright

Luke 22 “39 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. 40 When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

So far, we have discovered five of the seven ways Jesus bled for you and me. Today is number six. Of course, I am leaving out the first time Jesus bled for us – His circumcision when He was eight days old. That blood fulfilled the law of Moses.

Today, we look at what is the first in a sequence of events that begin in the Garden of Gethsemane on Maundy (Holy) Thursday and end at Calvary on Good Friday. In the reading, we hear, “His sweat became like great drops of blood.”

This scripture gives us a glimpse of the struggle of Jesus – His very human struggle to do the will of God. It’s here that we see the weakness of His fully human side.

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Fully God & Fully Human

This is a matter of Christian Orthodoxy. What is that? Orthodoxy is the truth we all agree on within Christianity. This truth is found in the creeds of the Church. The Nicene Creed, composed in 325 AD, calls Jesus “true God from true God” and says He “became truly human.” We believe Jesus is the only person who ever lived who was fully God and fully human. The real question is HOW? Lots of folks have tried to answer that one. Here’s one explanation: Hypostatic Union.

"Hypostatic union" sounds fancy in English, but it's actually a simple term. Hypostatic means personal. The hypostatic union is the personal union of Jesus's two natures: one fully human and one fully divine. What the doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches is that these two natures are united in one person in the God-man. Jesus is not two persons. He is one person. The hypostatic union is the joining (mysterious though it be) of the divine and the human in the one person of Jesus.”

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-the-hypostatic-union

This is vitally important if the shed blood of Jesus was to be effective in taking away the sins of the world. The only way Jesus could be without sin is to be fully God. The only way Jesus could die for our sin is to be fully human.

We need to return to Isaiah 53:4-6 again:

“Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

If Jesus has “He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows,” then He understands what we are going through. Jesus understands our times of weakness.

Jesus understands our times of fear.

Jesus understands our times of worry.

Jesus understands our times of doubt.

Jesus understands our times of questioning God’s will.

He did more than just understand. Jesus bled from His brow for all these times.

Hematidrosis

The Gospel of Luke gives us an accurate description of a very real and yet uncommon medical condition: hematidrosis. It occurs during times of great mental and emotional stress. There are tiny blood vessels that surround all our sweat glands, especially on our brows. When a person is experiencing emotional trauma, the body reacts with a sudden rise in blood pressure. This can cause those tiny blood vessels, which we call capillaries, to burst. The blood then mixes with the sweat.

Like I said, it’s rare. This is most often seen or recorded during times of war as soldiers prepare to go into battle. This makes sense. In battle, they face the real possibility of death. For Jesus, it was not the possibility of death facing Him that night. It was a sure thing. It was a done deal. Jesus had to die for all our sins, transgressions, and iniquities.

He knew this had to happen– that’s the fully God part of Jesus.

He prayed, “take this cup away from Me;” – that’s the human desire of Jesus.