His Name is Jesus – Part 3
March 17, 2002
Big Idea: An authentic biblical community relates to the humanity of Jesus.
INTRODUCTION
Well, it’s official. I have been diagnosed with March Madness. It’s the illness that comes upon all true basketball fans this time of year. I would guess some of you have caught it too.
Last Sunday, I was watching the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament championship game between Ohio State and Iowa. Jim Nantz and Billy Packer were calling the game for CBS.
One of Ohio State’s players, Boban Savovic, was having a great second half. It just seemed like he had found his shooting touch and he couldn’t miss. At one point Packer and Nantz were going on and on, “He’s on fire! There is yet another three-point basket. Boban Savovic has absolutely taken over this game. The Buckeyes are looking to Savovic for points every trip down the court. What a performance! Here he is with the ball again…”
Savovic spotted up for a 20 foot jumper on the left baseline and shot an airball that missed the rim by about a yard and a half.
My comment was, “Well, at least the kid is still human.”
“To err is human,” or so the old proverb goes.
But truthfully we do tend to affirm a person’s humanity precisely when he or she makes a mistake. Mistakes and blunders bring us back down to earth - to the realm of mere mortals.
But what do we do with Jesus?
He didn’t make any mistakes.
The Bible says that everyone has sinned and has fallen short of God’s glorious perfection. Everyone that is, except for Jesus. Jesus never sinned. What do we do with that?
Throughout history, the temptation has been to view Jesus as either too human or not human enough.
Some ancient church leaders couldn’t fully accept his humanity. Because of his miracles, his sinlessness and his resurrection, it was difficult for them to view him as being fully human.
Today many in the general public can’t accept his divinity. If he existed, some might say, he was just a man. They have difficulty seeing that he was fully God.
The Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451 came up with the wording fully God and fully man.
G. Campbell Morgan summed it up when he said, “He was the God-man. Not God indwelling a man. Of such there have been many. Not a man deified. Of such there have been none save in the myths of pagan systems of thought; but God and man, combining in one personality the two natures, a perpetual enigma and mystery, baffling the possibility of explanation.” (G. Campbell Morgan, The Crises of the Christ)
The Garden of Gethsemane is an intimate look at the God who willingly became human.
This was late Thursday night.
Immediately after the Passover meal with his disciples in the upper room…
Read Luke 22:39-46
39Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
45When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46“Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
Two weeks ago we learned that an authentic biblical community submits to Jesus’ authority because He is God.
This morning we need to learn that an authentic biblical community relates to Jesus humanity. And when we do there will be an even greater appreciation for Him in our hearts.
TRANSITION: When we relate to Jesus’ humanity…
I. WE RELATE TO HIS EXPERIENCE WITH PAIN
A. There is something very human about pain.
One Christian writer refers to pain as the “gift nobody wants.” Perhaps no one wants it, but it is certainly part of life down here on earth. Daffy Duck used to say, “I can’t stand pain. It hurts me!” But within moments of exiting our mother’s womb, the umbilical cord is cut and we begin to know what it is to hurt.
A few years ago Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage starred in the movie “City of Angels,” the story of a heavenly creature who wants to try an earthly existence – After watching the film, the lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls wrote a moving song that included this lyric: “You bleed just to know you’re alive.” (written for City of Angels)
Pain.
B. Jesus knew pain
In fact He hurt deeply.
Matthew 26 and Mark 14 also tell the story of the Garden of Gethsemane and use the words “sorrowful, deeply distressed and troubled” to describe how Jesus was feeling.
Jesus says in those Gospels, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34)
Here in Luke 22, verse 44 says Jesus was “in anguish… his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground”
It was here that Jesus was wrestling with the greatest decision of his earthly journey. He was deciding to go to the cross. Every aspect of his humanity was crying out against submitting to this awful ordeal.
Luke was a doctor. He would be very interested in the physical condition of Jesus at this time. He alone, out of all the Gospel writers, mentions the sweat like drops of blood.
In science, there is a condition known as “hematidrosis.” Most of us know it is not unusual for people to sweat when they experience stress. Doctors have learned that during times when a person is under extreme amounts of intense stress, the tiny blood vessels known as capillaries can hemorrhage. When they do, they release small amounts of blood into nearby sweat glands that also are imbedded in the skin. Then, when the sweat is released from the sweat glands, it has blood mixed in with it. And so a person really can have sweat that becomes “like great drops of blood,” just like Jesus experienced.
I called Bill Van de Graaf, a doctor whose family is part of CCCH – he said, according to his books that the condition is very rare, but whether Jesus had this hematidrosis or not, the wording in the Bible certainly indicates that He was under a great deal of stress.
C. It was what Jesus referred to as “the cup” that brought the pain.
Jesus prayed to the Father (v. 42), “Take this cup from me.”
What was this cup?
Physical agony?
Pain of the cross?
Mental agony?
Humiliation?
In the Old Testament the wrath of God is sometimes referred to by employing the metaphor of a cup.
The imagery is most vivid in Jeremiah 25 where Jeremiah is instructed by God to go and preach judgment. God says, “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I send among them.” (v. 15-16)
Then referring to this same cup of wrath: “Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword I will send among you.’” (Jer. 25:27)
So the cup was a symbol of God’s righteous judgment and wrath against sin and wickedness.
When Jesus wants the cup to pass, perhaps He is speaking out of a vivid memory of the terrible wrath of God against sin and everything that rebels against God’s holiness.
1 Corinthians 5:21 says: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.” He knows in becoming sin that he will have to drink from the cup of God’s wrath.
ILLUS – Imagine the most vile, most disgusting, most foul smelling fluids sitting in a huge vat in front of you. The fluids have been infected with Mad Cow disease, the HIV virus, Cancer, and other awful diseases, bacteria and decayed flesh. Picture yourself being submerged in it, drinking it, tasting it, breathing it, having it get in your eyes, nose mouth and your ears. That wouldn’t even come close to imagining what it was like for the Holy Son of God to be submerged into the filth and death of sin.
1 Peter 2:24 says…
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
Drinking from the cup of God’s wrath would also mean that for a time Jesus would be separated from the Father. Sin cannot stand in God’s presence. And when Jesus carried the sins of the world, God turned his back. Maybe that is why from the cross Jesus cried out, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Jesus had always lived in perfect oneness with the Father. But in bearing our sins, that would all change as he hung on the cross.
Perhaps you’ve never sweat blood. Perhaps we’ll never come close to the anguish Jesus experienced in the Garden. Never approach the torture of the cross.
But we’ve all felt pain.
And we relate to Jesus’ humanity because he felt pain too.
TRANSITION: Another way we relate to the humanity of Jesus is through his experience with prayer.
II. WE RELATE TO HIS EXPERIENCE WITH PRAYER
In verse 42 of Luke 22 Jesus prays, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
This one verse gives us a glimpse into how Jesus prayed. He prayed…
A. Like a child to a loving Father
Jesus prayed, “Father.”
In Mark 14 it we are given the Aramaic word Jesus used. There it says he prayed, “Abba, Father” (v. 36) which means, “Daddy,” or “Papa.”
The word conveys tenderness, love, goodness, closeness. He was praying to someone He could trust.
Jesus prayed…
B. Like a child to a powerful Father
Jesus said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.” He knew God could do anything.
Again, in Mark 14, we see that Jesus also said, “everything is possible for you.” (v. 36)
He prayed with a belief that God can do anything.
Jesus prayed…
C. Like an obedient child to an all-wise Father
He said, “Yet not my will, but yours be done.”
He was ready to submit to whatever God wanted. Jesus lived that way His whole life.
In John 6:38 he talked about his mission saying… “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”
He submitted himself to the will of God no matter the cost. Even if it meant going the way of the cross.
Do you realize that Jesus’ human desire wasn’t met in his prayer? The cup didn’t pass.
Sometimes that is our experience too. We don’t always receive what WE want in prayer. Our knowledge is limited – we don’t always know what is best. Yet God always does.
So, like Jesus, when up against some obstacle we pray – “Dear Father – Daddy – This is too big for me – you can do anything. However, not my will, But your will be done.”
At our small group Bible study a couple of weeks ago we were going around the room sharing prayer requests. My sister has cancer – Another person’s Mom has cancer too. Still another has a grandmother who is quite ill. Another is looking for a job. Another needs a roommate to cover the rent. On and on we added things to the list.
And that night we had a study on prayer where we learned that God just wants us to ask. We fully realize that sometimes our human desires don’t always get met the way we think they should. But God’s will is always best.
So we pray for God’s will to be done. And strength to accept that will. Just like Jesus. We relate to His experience with prayer.
TRANSITION: When we relate to Jesus’ humanity, also…
III. WE RELATE TO HIS EXPERIENCE WITH PEOPLE
Matthew 26 and Mark 14 say he took Peter, James and John with Him to the inner part of the Garden and withdrew just a short distance from them.
Jesus needed companionship.
Interesting that God in the flesh would desire the nearness of His created beings. But Jesus was facing the reality of his aloneness.
Often Jesus had gone off by himself to pray, sometimes sending the disciples away in a boat so he could spend the night alone with the Father. This night, though, he needed their presence.
Philip Yancey writes, “By instinct, we humans want someone by our side in the hospital the night before surgery, in the nursing home as death looms near, in any great moment of crisis. We need the reassuring touch of human presence – solitary confinement is the worst punishment our species has devised. I detect in the Gospels’ account of Gethsemane a profound depth of loneliness that Jesus had never before encountered.” (The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 194-195)
I can very vividly remember sitting in the hospital waiting room during surgery for my sister last year after we learned she had lung cancer. Even though some of us in the family may not have wanted to talk the whole time, we still didn’t want to be alone. There really is something to this spiritual aspect of community.
Jesus asks his disciples to pray: “Pray that you will not fall into temptation” (Luke 22:40). He knew the hard road that was ahead of them too.
Jesus needed companionship, but he was…
A. Disappointed (v. 45) – “When he rose from prayer and went back to his disciples, he found them asleep…”
Matthew and Mark show us that Jesus returned three times. First time said, “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?”
His companions let him down.
It was at this point that Jesus must have reached the lowest point of his earthly life. He had taken these trusted disciples into the inner part of the Garden because he needed to have human companionship as he wrestled with the decision to go to the cross.
Not only was Jesus disappointed by people, he was also
B. Betrayed –
Read Luke 22:47-53
47While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, 48but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”
49When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” 50And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
51But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
52Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? 53Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”
In addition to being disappointed and betrayed, Jesus was also…
C. Left alone –
Matthew 26:56 records these sad words: “Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.”
People let us down too. We can relate to this. Maybe not at this same level, but we know what it is to be disappointed by people, perhaps be stabbed in the back by someone we trusted, or even abandoned when we really could have used some help. We know what these things feel like too.
TRANSITION: An authentic biblical community is able to relate to Jesus humanity.
CONCLUSION
But what difference does this make?
Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian, told a story about a certain kingdom wherein there was a handsome prince, searching for a woman worthy enough to be his wife and become queen of the land. One day while running an errand for his father he passed through a poor village. As he glanced out the window of his carriage, his eyes fell on a beautiful peasant maiden. During ensuing days, he often passed by the young lady and soon fell in love with her by sight. But he had a problem. How could he seek her hand?
He could command her to marry him, but the prince wanted someone who would marry him out of love, not coercion. He could show up at her door in his splendid uniform in a gold carriage drawn by six horses, attendants in tow, and bearing a chest of jewels and gold coins. But then how would he know if she really love him or if she was just overawed and overwhelmed with his splendor? Finally he came up with another solution.
He stripped off his royal robes, put on common dress, moved into the village, and got to know her without revealing his identity. As he lived among the people, the prince and the maiden became friends, shared each other’s interests, and talked about their concerns. By and by the young lady grew to love him for who he was and because he first loved her.
That’s the Gospel. The Prince of Peace Himself, Jesus Christ, laid aside the robes of his glory, garbed himself as a peasant, became a human being, and moved into our village, onto our planet, to woo us to himself. Both the one who makes us holy and those who are being made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers. (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations and Quotes, p. 483)
When Christ became a human through the incarnation, he voluntarily limited what to him was the most precious thing in the world: unhampered, unhindered communion with the Father.
Chuck Swindoll wrote:
“If our greatest need had been information,
God would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology,
God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money,
God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure,
God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness,
So God sent us a Savior!
(From The Grace Awakening)
The difference this makes: You are never alone. Jesus experienced Gethsemane and he’ll walk through every time of trial and crisis with you.
Jesus knew pain and he can sympathize with yours.
Jesus prayed intensely and He’s sent His Spirit to be our Advocate.
At times we may look up to heaven and say, “God, it’s tough down here! You know that?”
The Bible tells us that in the supreme act of mercy…
God chose to live this life. He knows what it is like!
Pastor D. James Kennedy said in a sermon, “I remember years ago talking to a man in his home about Christ and asking him who he thought Jesus was. He said, ‘Oh, He’s a wonderful man. He was the greatest man who ever lived, the most loving and gracious person who ever walked upon this earth.’
“I said, ‘Let me tell you something I believe will startle you. According to the Scriptures, and the historic Christian faith, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter of Galilee was and is the eternal Creator of the universe, the omnipotent, omniscient, and Almighty God.’
“Instantly his eyes filled with tears and this man of about fifty-five or sixty said, ‘I have been in church all my life and I never heard that before. But I have always thought that is the way it ought to be – that God ought to be like Jesus.’” (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations and Quotes, p. 486-487)
We appreciate Jesus even more when we see that he is God, yet He became human. I’m hoping today that you’ll be able to say, "Now that’s a God I can relate to!"
