PREPARING FOR THE CROSS
Matthew 26:36-46
#Easter2022
SCRIPTURE READING: MATTHEW 26:36-46 [Person from Congregation]
INTRODUCTION… verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-types-of-emotions-4163976 [adapted]
A human being can experience many different types of emotions. Depending on what article you read and what type of expert you consult, there are from 6 to 27 to 32,000 emotions. For the sake of brevity and our purposes today, we are going to stick with 6. This morning, we are concerned with 2 of these 6 basic emotions.
First, sadness is defined as an emotional state characterized by feelings of disappointment, grief, hopelessness, disinterest, and dampened mood. Like other emotions, sadness is something that all people experience from time to time. Sadness can be expressed in a number of ways including: Crying, Dampened mood, Lethargy, Quietness, and Being withdrawn from others. The type and severity of sadness can vary depending upon the root cause, and how people cope with such feelings can also differ.
Second, fear is a powerful emotion. For most people, it plays an important role in survival. When you and I face some sort of danger and experience fear, we go through what is known as the fight or flight response. Our muscles become tense, our heart rate and respiration increase, and our mind becomes more alert, priming your body to either run from the danger or stand and fight. This response helps ensure that you are prepared to effectively deal with threats in our environment. Expressions of this type of emotion can include things like widening the eyes and pulling back the chin or actual running or even rapid breathing and a rapid heartbeat. Of course, not everyone experiences fear in the same way. Some people may be more sensitive to fear and certain situations or objects may be more likely to trigger this emotion. This is the idea behind exposure therapy, in which people are gradually exposed to the things that frighten them in a controlled and safe manner. Eventually, feelings of fear begin to decrease.
INTRODUCTION…quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-emotional-situations-in-anyones-life
[adapted]
The other aspect of emotions we need to consider is that we can be put in situations and circumstances with ourselves and with other people that generate emotions. Sometimes the situation is overwhelming and creates overwhelming emotions. Perhaps you achieve success and seeing the pride in your parents’ eyes makes you happy. The person you have went on one date with leaves the date by saying “I love you” and the awkwardness and fear crashes in. You have had a dog since they were a puppy and the vet says they are dying and you can’t stop crying. Family gathers for a holiday and arguments are all that is served and you are disappointed and beyond angry. You get a bill in the mail that has many 0s and you are fearful.
All kinds of situations bring about emotions in us. People also illicit emotions in us good and bad. Some people just know how to push our emotional buttons and we go from 0 to 100 no matter what the emotion. Thinking about the past and considering the future both also have strong emotions that are carried with it.
I mention all of this because the 2 emotions of sadness and fear are present and combine in Jesus of Nazareth as He prepares for the Cross. We see both of these emotions pretty clearly in Jesus as He gathers with His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane just before He is betrayed, arrested, and heads to His execution. I’d like us to take a closer look at Jesus’ experience in the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26.
EMOTIONS OF THE GARDEN
Jesus had just had an experience with His disciples where He shared a meal with them and washed their feet and was able to focus their attention on the sacrifice He was about to make. He told them to remember His body by eating bread. He told them to remember His blood by drinking fruit of the vine. Her set up that spiritual memorial that focuses all believers on Jesus Christ. They sang a song and then they all made their way to the garden right outside the city of Jerusalem.
RE-READ Matthew 26:36-39 (ESV)
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with Me.” 39 And going a little farther He fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
Verse 37 tells us about Jesus’ sorrow. Sorrow is an emotion that begins with grief and is mixed with sadness and combines to form sorrow. Sorrow is deep sadness that weighs heavy on a person’s heart and impacts them physically as well.
Verse 37 also tells us about Jesus’ trouble. The Greek word that is used here is one that means “to be seated in loathing.” It is the strongest word in the New Testament used for the emotion of depression and despair. Just as a side note, there is a difference here between the emotion Jesus was experiencing and the mental illness we today call ‘depression.’ They are related, but different, but also equally intense.
We see this deep emotion impacting Jesus physically in that Luke 22:44 tells us Jesus sweat drops of blood which medically is called ‘hematohidrosis’ which is when stress causes blood vessels in the head to burst and the blood mixes with sweat. We also know these feelings of sorrow and trouble were deep for Jesus because in verse 38 He tells the disciples that these feelings go deep into His soul and He literally feels like this deep sadness might kill Him. The sorrow and trouble impacted Jesus physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. What was going on was serious!
What is Jesus sorrowful and troubled about? Where was all this pain coming from? We find out in verse 39 what is causing the issues. The issue that is causing Jesus heavy sorrow and has Him sitting in despair is everything that is about to happen to Him. Jesus knows exactly what is about to happen to Him in the very near future:
Judas betrays Jesus (Matthew 26:49-50)
People intentionally lied about Him (Matthew 26:59-63)
He was spit on, punched, and slapped (Matthew 26:67)
People mocked Him that He was the Messiah (Matthew 26:68)
Peter, one of Jesus closest companions denied Him on purpose three times (Matthew 26:69-75)
Crowds released a known prisoner instead of Him (Matthew 27:15-23)
He was whipped almost to death (Matthew 27:26)
He was stripped naked and had to put on a costume (Matthew 27:27-31)
Thorns were jammed into His head (Matthew 27:27-31)
He was spit on and knocked in the head with the thorns digging in more (Matthew 27:27-31)
He had to carry half the cross all the way to where they would kill Him (Matthew 27:32)
He was nailed with spikes in His hands and feet to the wood (Matthew 27:33)
He was naked on the cross (27:35)
People passed by and made fun of Him while He died (Matthew 27:37-47)
The entire time He is on the cross He is taking on the sin of the world which caused the Holy Father of the Universe to not be able to look on His own Son because He literally became sin (Matthew 27:45-46, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 9:28)
He died (Matthew 27:50)
That is quite a lot for One Person.
Jesus knows all of that is about to happen to Him.
The passage continues to describe Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
RE-READ MATTHEW 26-40-43 (ESV)
And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, He went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.
In this passage we see Jesus doing battle with His emotions about everything that is about to happen to Him. He knows what is to come and He has great sadness and trouble in Him. Not only that, I will throw in a side of frustration and mild disappointment with His disciples who cannot stay awake and pray with Him. They were willing, but their bodies took over and they slept away while Jesus was emotionally and spiritually and physically suffering.
Jesus asked them to pray with Him. That is how Jesus is dealing with His emotions by the way… Jesus is praying. Jesus is facing this physical, emotional, and spiritual battle by falling on His face before God and praying His heart out.
Falling on His face shows He is humble and reverent. Falling on His face shows He is serious. He is genuinely full of fear and sadness about what is to come. I have often wondered about what scared Jesus the most. What do you think? I just listed everything that the Gospel of Matthew shares with us that happens to Jesus. What scared Him the most? I have an opinion.
My opinion is that it is not the betrayal or spitting or being whipped that was His ultimate fear. Those things are humiliating and fear inducing to be sure! It don’t think it was lugging His cross through the streets of Jerusalem to His execution site. I cannot imagine being nailed to a cross and having to lift myself up on the spikes in my feet just to breathe… I don’t think that was it either. I don’t even think it was physically dying that pressed on His heart the most.
I think it was sin.
I think it was taking in all I’ve thought and done and said that I need forgiveness for… and that is a lot. I happen to know and believe Jesus did not just die for my sin, but for the sin of every person in the world who has lived and ever will live. I literally cannot imagine what it would feel like to take on all sin all the while slowly dying by suffocation because I am nailed to a tree. As Jesus prayed, that is the cup He wanted passed from Him!
The entire time He is on the cross Jesus is taking on the sin of the world. I imagine Him soaking it up in every pore and every ounce of Who He was. Jesus of Nazareth had never sinned even once in His life and now all at once He will be taking unto Himself every sin that has ever been committed. All sin in one place and one time.
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 (ESV)
For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
READ HEBREWS 9:26b (ESV)
But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
I can understand, in a limited way, why Jesus is feeling sadness and fear and any other emotion as He ponders what He will endure the next day. I don’t know what I would have felt. I probably would have just left. I would have stuck around for awhile to make it look good, but then about when the arresting band was to show up I think I would have hopped a taxi camel to Joppa.
Jesus stayed. The rest of the passage tells us so.
RE-READ MATTHEW 26:44-46 (ESV)
So, leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, My betrayer is at hand.”
Jesus did not back down or give into the severe despair and heart-wrenching fear pressing on His mind and heart and body and spirit. Jesus humbly prayed and committed Himself to the will of God which was for Him to die for sinners.
He stayed.
SIDE-STEP IN THE SCRIPTURES
Why did He stay?
Why didn’t He just smite the lot of them and do a victory dance?
Why didn’t He just ascend back into Heaven right then?
The answer of course to some of the ‘why’ questions is love, but it is not so simple as that. Love is great and all, but there is more to His motivation because pressing on Jesus are emotions that could easily wipe out love. Jesus is human so He deals with emotions, but He is not only an emotional being. There is more than just love for you and me going on to keep Jesus on target with God’s will in the midst of dealing with devastating sadness and sorrow and soul-bending fear.
What was His motivation to get to the goal?
How would Jesus fulfill His purpose and be faithful?
To discover that, we need to side-step over a few books in the New Testament to a book called Hebrews. Hebrews is a book all about how Jesus is literally and figuratively better and more supreme than anything or anyone.
The Book of Hebrews, in chapter 5, reflects on Jesus as He is in the Garden of Gethsemane which is the passage we have read and been thinking about in Matthew 26. What does Hebrews 5 say? What does Hebrews add for us about Jesus in the garden?
READ HEBREWS 5:7-9 (ESV)
In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. 9 And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
The writer of Hebrews shares with us that flesh and blood Jesus prayed with cries and tears as He waited in the Garden of Gethsemane to be betrayed. Jesus had finished the Last Supper with His disciples and now was waiting for His willing demise. Despair and fear washed over Him.
Hebrews points out that Jesus prayed to God, His Father, and did so with reverence and obedience. Even in the midst of all His emotions, Jesus over and over allowed the will of God the Father to direct Him. In addition to love, Jesus of Nazareth was motivated by obedience in His suffering. Jesus the Son submitted Himself to the will of the Father and in doing so became the perfected source of eternal salvation for us. Jesus died and rose again as the only source of salvation for us because He was absolutely willing to submit to God’s will. He did it. We benefit from His obedience and suffering.
The rest of the Bible agrees:
READ John 3:36 ESV
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
READ John 8:24 ESV
“I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.”
READ John 14:6 ESV
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
READ Acts 4:12 ESV
“And there is salvation in No One else, for there is no other Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
READ Romans 6:23 ESV
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
SUMMARY AND THE POINT
What is my point today? Jesus obediently suffered for you.
Easter is in three weeks. Easter is the annual celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are so very thankful that Jesus not only died for us, but that He rose from the dead victorious over sin and death. Easter is about the offer of salvation through Jesus that His death and resurrection makes possible. Jesus obediently suffered for you.
My point today is that we must remember the suffering of Jesus Christ because in His obedience to suffer Jesus became the perfect offering for our salvation. Jesus obediently suffered for you.
Praise Him!
PRAYER
INVITATION
Our invitation comes by way of a passage I have already mentioned. I mentioned 2 Corinthians 5:21 earlier. The context of that verse is our invitation. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul:
READ 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-21 (ESV)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. [I] We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Do you need Jesus today to reconcile you to God? Come forward.
