ANGUISH

Isaiah 53, but first I’d like to read in Luke 22:44,
“And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” 

There is a song which reads...
    "May I be willing Lord, to bear daily my cross for Thee;
     even Thy cup of grief to share; Thou hast borne all for me.
     Lest I forget Gethsemane;
     Lest I forget Thine agony;
     Lest I forget Thy love for me;
     Lead me to Calvary."

And Psalm 22:14-17, which prophesy Jesus was so aware of, says...
I am poured out like water; all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaw; You have brought Me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.

Can you imagine ... how you would feel if what was done to Jesus was done to one of your dear family members... your husband, your son, your brother, your grandson, your father? How would I feel if this was done to my dear natural brother who is also my brother in the Lord?
Well, this was done to the Son of God... in our stead.

Isaiah 53:3-10 says in the AMPLIFIED version...
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and pain and acquainted with grief; and like One from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or esteem Him.
4 But [in fact] He has borne our griefs, and He has carried our sorrows and pains; yet we assumed that He was stricken, struck down by God and degraded and humiliated [by Him].
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wickedness; the [required] punishment for our well-being fell on Him, and by His (wounds) we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep had gone astray, we had turned, each one, to his own way; but the Lord has caused the wickedness of us all [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing] to fall on Him [instead of us].
7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth [to complain or defend Himself]. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before her shearers, so He did not open His mouth.
8 After oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who [among them] concerned himself with the fact that He was cut off from the land of the living [by His death] for the transgression of the people, to whom the stroke [of death] was due?
9 His grave was assigned with the wicked, but He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet the Lord was willing to crush Him, causing Him to suffer;

When His soul was made an offering for sin.
Matthew 26:38 says,
“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”

This was the reason for the anguish in the garden and the sweat of blood. Jesus was about to experience what scripture says about, “The soul that sins...it shall die.” And even though Jesus never sinned, He was about to submit His soul to death.

Hematidrosis, or Hematohidrosis, is a rare, but very real, medical condition, which I’m sure brother Rob could attest to.
The sweat glands are surrounded by tiny blood vessels that can constrict and then dilate to the point of rupture, causing blood to pour into the sweat glands. The cause of Hematidrosis is extreme anguish.

In the other gospel accounts, we see that Jesus, being God, knew “all that was going to happen to Him” (John 18:4). He knew in painstaking detail the events that were to follow soon after He was betrayed. He knew He would be severely scourged with the Roman flagrum, nearly to the point of death before they pounded the metal spikes into His flesh. He knew the prophetic words that He would be beaten so badly that He would be “disfigured beyond recognition as of a man.”  Certainly, this was part of His great anguish and sorrow.

Yet there was more.

Crucifixion is considered to be a most painful and torturous method of execution, at least up to that point in time. In fact, the word “excruciating” literally means “pain as from the cross.” As our sinless Savior bore the weight of the world’s sins in His body and His soul, the Father had to look away, as He cannot look upon sin nor could He cohabitate with Jesus any longer, causing the suffering Savior to cry out “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). The spiritual pain of this abandonment, no doubt, greatly exceeded the intense physical pain the Lord endured on our behalf. And this extreme anguish and stress is what caused the sweating of blood.

Oh Lord, You endured an unimaginable punishment for me, physically and Spiritually. Only You could bear the agonizing torture of the crucifixion, ...until it was finished, because of Your love for us. It seems to me so small a thing for me to say “thank you.” But I am not the only one saying thank you. WE, our bodies, our hearts, our souls, our minds, are declaring to You OUR humble and sincere gratitude in spirit and in truth. We worship You today.
Lord, we lift up our loving hearts--to You. Our own ways had led us farther and farther from You; but Your forgiving, healing love drew us so close to You, that we can never again be among those "who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness." Proverbs 2:13 ...In Your Holy Name, Amen.

                                                                            Shared August 13, 2023, Breaking of Bread service, Wellspring Bible Fellowship