Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Luke 22:42 Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death."
OVERWHELMED
Even when we consider the fact that the destruction meant for sinful flesh was bearing down on Jesus' sinless humanity we still might question why our Lord should be so overwhelmed at the prospect of dying. Haven't numerous martyrs faced excruciating torture and a shameful death without sigh or shudder-- through faith in Jesus' name? Was Christ less courageous than they?
Hardly. Jesus' death was far different than that of brave believers martyred for their faith. Christ's crucifixion took the sting out of the martyrs' deaths. With sin's curse gone they knew death had been transformed from a wall into a door-- a door opening into eternal joy at Jesus' side. But in Gethsemane Christ looks forward to dying under sin's full curse, its sting not diminished but multiplied countless times over. He was to taste the bitter dregs of sin's curse not once, but thousands upon thousands of times. He was going to the cross in the place of every sinner ever. The sin and the guilt, the punishment, due the whole world was bearing down on Him.
In the darkness of Gethsemane Jesus was not in agony for fear of mental or physical suffering to come but because of the spiritual suffering that awaited Him and the spiritual death. The horror of hell-- that was what caused Jesus' agony of soul in the Garden. It was not dread of dying but of Death itself. Death as separation from God. Death, the final penalty for all of the accumulated guilt of humanity from Adam to the last person yet to be born.
Christ, the Life of all the living, Christ, the Death of death, our foe,
Who, Thyself for me once giving To the darkest depths of woe,
Through thy sufferings, death, and merit I eternal life inherit:
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 151:1)
