Expert: Messianic Rabbi Yochanan Levine - 9/12/2007

Question
I have been thinking and can't figure this out because I believe the Bible is silent on it. When Jesus was so anxious about his impending doom that he sweat great drops of blood, what did he say to himself? We are instructed to rely on the scripture directly or Biblical principles to guide us and I am wondering what thoughts or principles Jesus took comfort in during this awful time for him...or did he just suffer? I find it hard to believe he just suffered with anxiety because that would have been doing nothing and I can't see Jesus just sitting there rocking back and forth in fear and letting it paralyze him. Thank you.

Answer
Hi James,

A very good question!

1. While he was on the cross Jesus cried out, "My God! Why have you forsaken me?"

2. While in the Garden he prayed that God would allow the cup of his coming death to pass him by.

3. The Bible says that Jesus was in all ways tempted as are we.

4. As he hung there we know that he prayed, "Father forgive them..."

Based on these four things I believe we can conclude that:

1 above. Jesus was not "consciously divine" as he hung there (as God it would be nothing, but as Man it would be everything). He died that gruesome death as a fully human being.

2 above. That he realized that even though he knew he could call a legion of angels and leave the cross, he chose to remain because it was God's will for him. This would have provided some comfort and strength.

3 above. However he would still have been afraid and in severe pain like any other man. He would have been tempted to call those angels, to reject God's desire for him, perhaps to lie and deny he was the Son of Mary... So many possible temptations... and yet he held firm and sinned not.

4 above. We can therefore assume that even in his misery, fear and pain he was praying for his disciples, both those present and those yet to come, for his killers and for those who mocked him. He would have been quite busy. Understand also how crucifixion worked. The victim didn't die from the crucification itself but from asphyxiation. The whole time he was hanging there he would have been pulling his weight up onto the nails in his wrist (the paintings are wrong, the nails had to go into his wrists not his palms) to gasp for air. That alone would have taken much of his concentration and left little time for anything else. Crucifixion is one of the most torturous methods of death ever devised. For information on how crucifixion was performed you might be interested in this web site: http://www.konnections.com/kcundick/crucifix.html  

Paul tells us that Jesus acts as our High Priest, making intercession for us with God. That ministry was going on as he hung there.

Hope this helps,
~John of AllFaith