Hebrews 5:7, “He offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue Him from death.”
Luke 22:44, “And being in anguish, He prayed more fervently, and His sweat was like drops of blood, falling to the ground.”
Hebrews 2:9, “But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
Pain – no one likes it. We often hear the phrase ‘No pain, no gain’ in reference to any kind of advancement in life. But in this case, only Jesus’ pain was of any significance to our eternity. If Jesus had not suffered pain, we would have no gain.
Of course, long before we get to the cross, Jesus suffered a lot of pain. He was betrayed by a friend, denied by His followers, and abandoned by them as well. He was tried before a sham court of jealous men who feared His popularity more than His doctrine, and eventually, He was sentenced to die in the place of a known dissenter who was guilty of the real crime of murder.
In Luke, we see Jesus in the garden sweating drops of blood. This was the result of a medical condition called hematidrosis or hematohidrosis, which is a very rare medical condition that causes you to ooze or sweat blood from your skin when you’re not cut or injured. This illness is a reaction to severe stress and emotional pain.
One of the hardest things to get into our heads (well, my head) is that Jesus, as a human, experienced things that God could not and did not experience. He became hungry, He got tired, He had to relieve himself as we do, He got thirsty, and He could feel pain. Up to this point, Jesus had never felt pain in a physical sense. He was spiritually perfect, and as such, His body did not suffer the breakdowns that we experience as we get older. Jesus had been pain-free for His entire life. He was never sick; remember, He could touch people with leprosy and not have to worry about them getting Him sick; rather, He got them well. So, this journey to the cross was about to be an experience that Jesus had never experienced.
Jesus’ pain began in the form of being hit in the face and slapped. He went from there to being beaten, had His beard ripped from His face, and had the famous crown of thorns placed on His head. In Isaiah, we see this prophecy about His face (Isaiah 52:14). But many were amazed when they saw Him. His face was so disfigured, He seemed hardly human, and from His appearance, one would scarcely know He was a man. The beautiful Son of God disfigured by His creation. The very men that He had fearfully and wonderfully made disfigured Him with their fists. His love for them kept Him there, submissive to the will of His Father and to the plan to offer redemption to the world. Yes, even to the men who abused Him.
But the pain was just beginning; once this beating was finished, He would be placed on a cross and nails driven into His hands and feet. I cannot imagine the sheer fear in His eyes as He sees the spike placed on His flesh and the hammer raised; the first hit and the pain that came must have drowned out the noise in Heaven for a while. I can see God the Father restraining Michael the Archangel from killing everybody (added by me). Jesus screamed in pain, and then the hitting went on and on, then the other hand and the feet. Once He was secured to the wood, the post was raised and dropped into a hole; it was here that this Psalm could have been fulfilled: Ps 22:14, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.”
The drop had the potential to dislocate His already extended arms and cause even more pain. Jesus stayed on the cross because He wanted to. In Hebrews 12:2, we see this awesome verse about His love and attitude, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
For the next 6 hours, from 9 am to 3 pm, Jesus would experience pain with every breath as He struggled to breathe. Death came slowly on the cross; it took forever to die, and that was the point. Your brain forced you to pull up to breathe, and it hurt, and then the drop-down after each breath hurt as well. There were no breaks as well; every time He pushed up to breathe, His raw back scraped against the wood of the cross and thus added another layer of pain. Those few hours must have felt like an eternity to someone who had never been in pain.
You and I live in pain from the time we are born. We hunger, we get too cold, too hot, we get sick, colds, the flu, fevers, and the like. We fall and scrape our knees, break bones, split a lip, etc. As we get older, the pain of getting older, like heart disease, cancer, and other things that happen to our bodies, get us accustomed to pain. It is simply a part of life. Jesus had no such experiences. His perfect, sinless body simply had not suffered up until now. Jesus went from no pain to the most excruciating pain ever experienced in a matter of hours.
Jesus stayed there to be obedient to God the Father. John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” And because He knew this was the only way to redeem us from sin and Hell. In Ephesians 1:4-5, we see this: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
Jesus’ pain is our gain. As we approach the end of the age and the world around us turns more and more hostile to the Lord Jesus and us, His people, it may be that we will have to suffer some pains before He comes to get us. I think about this: how will I react? What will I do? Will I be a Peter or a Daniel? Will I sing in prison like Paul and Silas or cower in the shadows like Nicodemus? We in North America have not had to suffer much for the cause of the Cross. What happens when we are called upon to suffer the pain for Him?
One day soon, we will see the scars on His hands and feet; we will see the scar on His side from the spear that a soldier thrust into Him, and one day, we will see the One who suffered pain so that one day He could take away pain forever. What a day that will be…
God bless you,
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
How to Connect with Us
In-person: every Sunday (10:30 am) at Bethany Baptist Church 70 Victoria Street, Elora, ON
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca
Join us on Zoom every Sunday (10:30 am) for Sunday Service AND every Tuesday at 8:00 pm for Bible Study: Meeting ID: 700 794 460 Passcode: 032661; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/700794460?pwd=M3NFRG91ZW5Sa2Z3amVyWkFnYXd6QT09