“Being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the dirt.”

Luke 22:44

On Thursday of Holy Week, there are many significant events in Jesus’ life to remember. His last supper with His disciples, washing their feet, being betrayed, arrested, abandoned, beaten and humiliated. Because of what the world is enduring this year, I’ve been focusing on Jesus’ time of prayer that night in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are experiencing a mystery on our planet that has revealed to us our human fragility and our incapacity to save ourselves. This has always been true, but we manage to live in delusion in our modern world, believing that “we’ve got this.” These days, we’re experiencing what’s actually true of us. 

“The Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows what we are made of; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

Psalm 103:13-14

God knows exactly what is true of us because He became one of us. Through the Incarnation, God the Son joined Himself with human nature and with our desperate predicament so that He can recreate, renew and restore everyone. He is our Rescuer, our Salvation and our reconciliation to God. Our hope began when Jesus was conceived. Now, here in this Garden, He is willingly bearing all that you’re carrying. His suffering starts here on His way to the Cross. It is in this moment that God the Son freely chose to take into His very essence all the brokenness of creation– including ravaging disease.

Jesus Himself is a mystery that is so grand that in Him, all that staggers us, that sickens and kills us, is taken into Himself and defeated. He bears our griefs within His Being. That is what is happening as Jesus is praying. He is interceding; that means bearing our sinfulness and diseases.  This was so crushing that He sweat blood into the dust.

God does not save us from a distance. Today, we are doing all we can to distance ourselves from this virus and from others to survive. But Jesus radically enters right into our brokenness and disease. He brings the death-producing condition – our willful separation from our Creator, our agonies, perversions, illnesses and heart-wrenching griefs not only on Himself but right into Himself. 

“Surely He Himself bears our griefs and carries our sorrows.”

Isaiah 53:4

I want you to know that Jesus is your Bearer. You likely are facing unbearable things. I know I am. You are loved by Jesus, who can bear and so deeply desires for you to hurl your sin, fears, sorrows – all your unbearables upon Him. He knows that we are but dust because He Himself became what we are so that He could rescue us. He bears our predicament and lifts us out of despair and carries us. Come to Him, exchange all that burdens you for His Love and Life.

O Man of Sorrows, praying in the garden,
Thy sweat as blood falls down upon the ground.
In that dark agony my sins are pardoned;
My solace in Thy grief is found.
I bring Thee all my tears,
None can console like Thee.
I bring Thee all, I bring Thee all;
O give Thyself to me, I bring Thee all.

Evangeline Booth – #419 SASB