Total Anguish

"Being in anguish, He prayed more fervently and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground."  v44   of   Luke 22:39-65    Christian Standard Bible 

Anguish can be described as, 'agonising physical or mental pain and torment'. We can only imagine the anguish that Jesus was going through as He knelt and prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what He would have to face and being in human form the prospect would have been quite daunting.

He asked His Father, 'If You are willing take this cup away from Me - nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done' V42. It was a lonely, frightening night for Jesus; He was so full of anxiety, that an angel came from heaven to strengthen Him V43. His disciples couldn't stay awake and slept soundly, therefore He had no back up or prayer support, no wonder He was so anxious.

Many question whether Jesus did actually sweat blood and I would say that He did. There is a medical condition called Hematidrosis, which is very rare. This condition causes one's sweat to contain blood. The sweat glands are surrounded by tiny blood vessels that can restrict and then dilate to the point of rupture, causing blood to effuse into the sweat glands. The cause of this is extreme anguish. Sourced from WebMD.com

It really would have been an anxious time for Jesus; He was facing the cross and the pain and humiliation of this. Then one of His team - Judas betrayed Him to the authorities V47-48. Judas used an act of love - a kiss, to do this and received thirty pieces of silver for doing so. This was short lived however, because later Judas returned the silver to the Chief Priests and  hung himself because, he was so full of remorse. Some ask, if he had gone to Jesus and repented, would he have been forgiven? We don't know the answer to this but, it may have been possible. Then there was Peter, who despite disagreeing with Jesus' claim that he would deny Him three times, went ahead and did this.

All of this led to Jesus' anguish. In His humanity, He must have felt very let down and hurt, even alone, after all, He had been with these people for over three years. Following all of this, He was mocked and beaten after seeing Pilate. However, there was much more suffering ahead.

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