Crazy Love

What I am going to talk about comes from a comment I made on FB on a group called "Crazy Love". The comment: “Jesus, knowing the Father's wrath, agonized not over what man was going to do to Him, but rather what the sacrifice would require of Him. He did this for you. - Luke 22:44 "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

What I have to share with you is something I did not know until later in my Christian walk. I have been saved by God’s Crazy Love for 20 years almost to the day and yet, I have only learned of this in the past 5 years. I had studied it over and over again, and I can’t help but tremble at these thoughts. In fact, I recently taught on this subject and got really nervous, more nervous than I usually get.

In Matt 26:36-46 we see a familiar scene that has been taught more from the point of the Disciples sleeping than the agony of Christ. This passage, though very familiar, has a lot of misunderstanding surrounding what Jesus is agonizing over. The main question is, what did Jesus fear in the garden? Jesus tells the Disciples of His great sorrow – “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” Then He staggers off about a stone’s throw away from where the Disciples are and prays three agonizing prayers. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” After this prayer, He returns to the Disciples only to find them fast asleep. He wakes them and tells them to watch and pray. This time He went a little further and fell on His face and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” Though the Disciples could see and feel the intense fear in Jesus, they were yet found asleep again. The third prayer was the same as the second, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

I like Luke’s account of this passage. Luke 22:41-44 - “And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Dr. Luke adequately captures the immense agony and emotional trauma of Christ when he records that His sweat became like great drops of blood. There is a condition known as Hematidrosis where extreme anguish or physical strain causes one’s blood vessels to dilate and burst, mixing sweat and blood. This is the picture here. Dr. Luke uses the word Agonia for agony and it is fitting that this word is only used here in all of the New Testament. It adequately describes the intensity of the struggle. The word Agonia means a struggle for victory. That definition by itself doesn’t do much, however, what the word meant in Luke’s time does. One definition renders this word as a contest in reference to the many gladiator events in which a person would fight to the death and the agony involved in the great test of survival. It is not a light word by any means. This is why Jesus said to His Disciples, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death”. There are times in the life of Jesus that we witness His full humanity. This is the most vivid and intense example. I’ll ask again, what did He fear here? Most people say that He feared the cross, some say He feared what the Roman garrison would do to Him. Some say He saw in the future the cat of nine tails that they used to rip His flesh from His body. Is that what He feared; really?

The answer lies in His prayer to the Father, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Often, in Scripture, a cup symbolizes a person’s divinely determined destiny. There are two destinies in Scripture symbolized by a cup. One destiny is of Salvation or blessing: Psalm 116:13 “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD” or wrath: Isaiah 51:17 “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.” Here the cup represents a destiny of wrath. This is Jesus in His humanity anguishing over this cup He was about to drink.

I like what John Flavel writes when contemplating the Covenant of Redemption in his book Fountain of Life Opened Up: “Here you may suppose the Father to say, when driving his bargain with Christ for you:

Father: My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls And thus Christ returns.
Son: O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shalt thou require it. I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.
Father: But, my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare thee.
Son: Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it.”

The Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son was that Jesus would take on human flesh and live a life that pleased God; a life that fully exemplified, in human form, the Love of God. God would be pleased in the sacrifice of Jesus because it would fully drink up every drop of wrath in the cup. The promise of the Son is that He, only He, is able to overcome and meet the very harsh terms; pour His soul out unto death. This covenant took place before we existed. Jesus took the Cup of God’s Wrath, drank every last drop and then handed us the Cup of God’s Salvation.

The love and justice of God is only found in the person of Jesus Christ. The person that rejects Jesus is rejecting the only acceptable appeasement of God’s wrath. Therefore, God does not send the sinner to Hell; the sinner sends himself. God in His great love and mercy provided a way to escape this wrath. If God is to be just, He must punish sin. The sinner that is not covered by the blood of Jesus WILL suffer the same wrath that was poured out on Jesus.