Category Archives: The Love of Christ

Did Jesus actually sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane?

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Today is obviously the day before Good Friday, the crucifixion. But today there is also The Cup, the agony in the Garden, and I just cannot get away from it. You can catch up on posts you may have missed this week: Hosanna, Hanging on His Every Word, What will you give me? and Because He Lives.

Most of us are aware of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prays to be spared the suffering that is to come. He knows the agony He must endure and He prays, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39, NIV.

When the mother of James and John approached Jesus with the request for her sons to sit on His right and left in the Kingdom, Jesus asked them, “Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?” “Oh yes, we are able!” they replied.  But they didn’t understand what they were saying.

It was a cup filled with Old Testament and New Testament sins and judgment from the past and the present and it was filled with our sins too. Mine, yours, the ugly, the whispered, the hushed, the secret, all of them from the beginning of time were in the cup.

Jesus then leaves the disciples in the garden to go and pray. But it isn’t just, “Now, I lay me down to sleep” prayers. The Bible says, “…being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Luke 22:44, NKJV.  

Luke is the only Gospel writer to mention this. Luke is also the only one to refer to Jesus as being in agony. Jesus was in such a state of physical and spiritual agony that he could have produced what is known as hematohidrosis, or hemohidrosis, a rare medical condition where a person may actually sweat blood! Acute fear and intense mental contemplation were found to be the most frequent inciting causes.

While the extent of blood loss generally is minimal, hematidrosis also results in the skin becoming extremely tender and fragile. Around the sweat glands, there are blood vessels that when under pressure and great stress they constrict. Then, when the anxiety passes, they dilate to the point of rupture and the blood then goes into the sweat glands. When the sweat glands are producing a lot of sweat, it pushes the blood to the surface, coming out as drops of blood mixed with sweat. (Barbet, 1953, pp. 74-75; Lumpkin, 1978).

True, we do not know if our Savior actually sweated blood, but it is interesting that it is mentioned and the scientific, medical facts make it even more interesting! We know that the agony of what He was about to endure caused Jesus to pray so earnestly that He did sweat, so intensely that it was dripping on the ground and the Bible says it was like drops of blood.

Sweat is introduced in Genesis 3:19, introduced with Sin. Matthew Henry says it like this: “And therefore, when Christ was made sin and a curse for us, he underwent a grievous sweat, that in the sweat of his face we might eat bread, and that he might sanctify and sweeten all our trials to us.”

Surely Jesus was aware of the suffering that was to come. We get our word excruciating from the word crucifixion. It was one of the most painful torture methods ever invented; perfected by the Romans and reserved for the most vicious of criminals. It was a hideously slow and painful death. “I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint.” Psalm 22:14. (Click here if you want to read an extensive medical breakdown of the crucifixion.)

It wasn’t just the agony of the crucifixion; it wasn’t just the taunting of the Roman soldiers, the beatings he would endure or the humiliation. The real stress and fear was the knowledge that He would bear the sins of the world and would be forsaken by the Father. He could have easily avoided all of this if He wanted to and called ten thousand angels to His side at any moment! “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.” Isaiah 53:5-7, NKJV.

But He faced the fear so we wouldn’t have to and kept praying, “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:39,NIV.

John Piper says it so beautifully, “If we were to look at Jesus’ death merely as a result of a betrayer’s deceit and the Sanhedrin’s envy and Pilate’s spinelessness and the soldier’s nails and spear, it might seem very involuntary. And the benefit of salvation that comes to us who believe might be viewed as God’s way of making a virtue out of a necessity. But once you read Luke 9:51, all such thoughts vanish. “As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

He planned it all and He appointed a time, for you, for me. “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” 1 Peter 1:18, 19

“From these factors, it is evident that even before Jesus endured the torture of the cross, He suffered far beyond what most of us will ever suffer. His penetrating awareness of the heinous nature of sin, its destructive and deadly effects, the sorrow and heartache that it inflicts, and the extreme measure necessary to deal with it, make the passion of Christ beyond comprehension.” -Dave Miller Ph.D. Apologetics Press

Even in the midst of this difficult week leading up to Calvary, there is hope and there is comfort in the fact that Jesus CHOSE to go, for you and for me. He chose the pain and suffering.

Be encouraged in this dark time for our nation and our world, Jesus paid the price so we wouldn’t have to!

For the kingdomS

Barbet. P. (1953), A Doctor at Calvary: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ as Described by a Surgeon (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image Books).

When God is Silent

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Surely there have been times in your life that you have asked the question of the ages:

Why is God silent?

Does He not hear me? My prayers are not being answered, maybe He doesn’t love me. Have I done something wrong?

  • I don’t feel Him.
  • I don’t hear Him.
  • I definitely don’t see Him.

I am surely all alone in this world!

when God is silent

Haven’t we all been there? Maybe we have even lived there for a time? It isn’t easy.

Can we say it can be just plain difficult?

I am not one of those that is fortunate enough to hear the Lord speak in an audible voice to me every morning and say, “Good morning Nannette, time to get up, Sweet Daughter of Mine! Here is what I have planned for you today…”

But He does speak to us, in a variety of ways, mostly through His Word and prayer. And the two of them together? Even better chance you will hear that still, small voice of the Lord.

But sometimes, there is silence; and He is teaching us to trust Him.

Do you remember Thomas? Poor Thomas is still getting picked on as The Doubter. He said he wouldn’t believe that Jesus was alive unless he could see the nail marks in his hands and put his hand in his side. But Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29 NIV.

Compare it to a marriage relationship. If your spouse is away on a trip, are you panicked that they don’t love you anymore?

  • You can’t feel them next to you.
  • You can’t see them.
  • You can’t talk to them if they are busy or in meetings.
  • You can’t hear them.

Does that mean that just because there is silence that their love means nothing any longer? Of course not.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Would it not be wonderful to think that the Lord is preparing us in the silence, to teach us to long for Him?

Of course, we want to be sure that there is not something keeping us from hearing from the Lord.

  • If there is sin, repent.
  • If there is anger, get rid of it.
  • If there is someone you need to forgive, go do it.

Clean up the heart. Draw nigh to Him and He will draw nigh to you. His Word promises that.

Can we trust God even when we don’t hear from Him? When we don’t feel Him every day? He promised to never leave us or forsake us, when there is silence we lean on His promises!

Can we keep on loving Him, serving Him, telling others about Him, just because we love Him, and not because He owes us anything in return?

C.S. Lewis said, “Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.”

He never changes, He is always the same. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. And in an ever-changing world that is full to the brim of uncertainty, we can encourage one another by reminding ourselves of His faithfulness and remembering prayers that He has answered in the past.

You can trust Him, even in the silence.

No Room – When the hustle and bustle replace the joy

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Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because it was decreed by Caesar, but when they arrived, there was no room for them in the inn, so Mary delivered her firstborn son in a stable filled with animals, basically, the barn.

Or did she?

The picture I have had most of my life is of the two of them standing at an ancient bed and breakfast and a kindly elder gentlemen shaking his head telling them he was sorry he could not accommodate them. Everything was full because of the census. Even though Mary was with child they still could not find a place to stay, but this innkeeper did offer his stable and a clean bed of hay where she could give birth. Yikes!

But a little deeper look at the Greek wording might give us some insight and a better understanding of that holy night.

The Greek term translated inn (kataluma) had more than one meaning. It could be a small inn, or a group of people traveling together, a caravansary. This word is used only one other time in the New Testament… “And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.” Luke 22:11.

This is the place where Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples! What kind of room does Luke say this was? “A large furnished upper room…” 

So the last night of Jesus’ ministry on this earth was spent in an upper room in an inn or kataluma. Sort of a guest room.

Now let us look at His entrance into this world…when they discovered the inn was full, it was no doubt filled with others, possibly even relatives, who had also traveled to the city for the same reasons. Older members of the family would be accommodated first so they could have possibly taken the rooms.

In this culture and time period, the animals were brought inside at night for several reasons. Mangers (animal feeding troughs) were also found inside the house, tools were stored and the animals were safe from harm. Their being inside also added warmth with their body heat, milk supply and dung for fuel.

So when it is said that Joseph and Mary could find no room in the inn and Jesus was born in the manger, in reality they were likely in a house of humble stature. The stable was on the ground floor, where they brought the animals in at night, the sleeping quarters were on the second floor.

True, it was never the best of conditions; it was still a very humble birth! And if all the rooms in the sleeping quarters were full, and they were, then Mary and Joseph did sleep with the animals on the first floor…the sounds, the smells, the shedding! Everyone was busy getting to the city of their birth to pay their taxes and be counted. There was plenty of hustle and bustle and no one had room for the King of Kings.

No fanfare, nothing flashy or royal by the world’s standards. But all of heaven took notice that day and the heavenly hosts sang, “Glory to God in the highest!”

Hustle and Bustle

Sadly, ever since then, our world has never had room for Jesus. Isaiah prophesied it would be so, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” Isaiah 53:3.

We  have continued to push Him out of our government and our schools. Many now call it Winter Break instead of Christmas Break. It is no longer politically correct to say, Merry Christmas; that has been replaced with Happy Holidays, which they says covers everything and makes everyone happy.

I have even heard of a school on the east coast that gave a performance where the 5th grade sang Silent Night and the teacher had removed all of the references to Jesus in the presentation. What would be the point?!

There was a song back in the 1970’s that we used in a Christmas play titled No Room. The lyrics went like this:

No room,–no room for Him.
No room to let Him in.–
No room for Jesus in the world He made, no room.
No room for the King of Kings;
Room for others, and for other things.
No room for Jesus in the world He made, no room

No room,–no room for Him.
No room to let Him in.–
No room for Jesus in the heart He made just for Him.
No room–for the King of Kings
Room for others, and for other things.
No room for Jesus in the heart He made, no room.

Room for houses, lands and pleasures,
Room for things that pass away;
But for the One who reigns forever,
There’s no room today. 

Have you made room for Him? Are you taking time to remember the Reason for the Season? Is the hustle and bustle distracting you from the meaning and purpose of that first Christmas?

Take time each day this week to pause, pray and thank God for His entrance into this world. His birth made all the difference in our lives and is the Hope that will take us to be with Him forever one day soon.

When we make room for Jesus, our silent nights become holy nights. Let Him in today…make plenty of room!