Sermon Tone Analysis

! The Agony of the Son

When we hear of the suffering of Christ, it is most natural for our thoughts to immediately jump to His physical suffering from the time of His arrest to the Cross.

This association springs from the fact that we are human and can identify, we think, with the physical torment to which Jesus was subjected.

However, when we look closely at the testimony of Scripture, we find that to limit the scope of Christ’s agony to the fear and dread of His physical suffering and death is to grossly misunderstand the infinite suffering, grief, and agony borne by our Savior many hours before He ever reached Calvary.

*The extent of His agony*

1.      Jesus left eight and went further with three

2.      “began to be very distressed and troubled” (v33)

3.      ‘very distressed’ – /to throw into amazement or terror, to alarm thoroughly, to be struck with terror/

4.      ‘very distressed’ also seen in Mark 9:15 and 16:5,6 and is translated there ‘amazed’

5.      note visible manifestation in 9 & 16, compare w~/v33

6.      what caused this reaction in Jesus?

A clear and full understanding of what lay ahead

a.       in His humanity Jesus only knew what the Father revealed to Him (John 5:19-20, Luke 2:52, Mark 13:32);  this may have been His first full glimpse at what was coming 

7.

‘troubled’ - /speaks of an experience of which one is not familiar, in which one does not feel at home and which distresses him/

8.      continues the idea from ‘very distressed’; possibly a result of His alarm; was made extremely uncomfortable at His realization

9.      ‘deeply grieved’ – fully engulfed, completely surrounded, conscience saturated with grief; no part of Him untouched

10.  ‘to the point of death’ – grief was so severe that the weight of it had physical ramifications; one comm.

‘so that I almost die’

11.  Luke’s description of physical result of suffering (22:44), sweat drops of blood (hematidrosis)

12.  though not present in a few early manuscripts, is consistent with Luke’s being a physician

 

To speak of the extent of Christ’s agony in the garden is to speak of that which no finite being can possibly fathom.

In the history of the world, no one has ever suffered to the extent that Jesus suffered.

Even the great agony of Job is not worthy to compare with the agony Jesus bore in Gethsemane.

*The source of His agony*

1.      remember Christ’s dual natures and corresponding wills

2.      Christ’s humanity in full view in Gethsemane, as is it’s subordination to His divine will

3.      Viewing both wills necessary to rightly understand His agony

4.      OT cup represents God’s judgment or wrath; true of Jesus’ cup, for in becoming sin He suffers death and bears the fullness of God’s wrath and judgment against sin

*5.      **A cup of sin*

a.