The word translated in Luke 22:44 as “anguish” is not found anywhere else in the Bible. Luke reaches a point in describing Christ’s ‘Passion’ where no previous word or description will quite fit. So unique is this word, and so terrible is the pain it describes in our Lord, some of the early scribes copying the manuscripts felt it didn’t belong. Perhaps they saw this as saying that Jesus was too human, just as they would have had difficulty with the words in the verse before describing Jesus as being strengthened by an angel.

Was Jesus really so helpless? Is that what Luke writes, as though Jesus were some passive person, awaiting the inevitable end? Quite the opposite! Here we find inner tension and anxiety, true, but this comes out of a conflict. And because it is a conflict, with the two forces locked in struggle, “anguish” indicates that “supreme concentration of powers” which our Lord draws together in the face of this crisis event.

Don’t think that Jesus is afraid of dying; this is His concern for victory as the decisive battle approaches for the fate of the world.

Earlier in this Gospel, in chapter 12, Luke quotes Jesus when He states, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it’s completed!” (v49f.) Our Lord is most anxious to get all this over with; though not before everything is fulfilled which is meant to happen. And so Luke presents us with three parts showing that the fulfilment is happening now.

1. The Passion is Actioned in Pain⤒🔗

One must be clear what is meant here by ‘Passion’. Passion is a word we know usually as referring to a strong emotional response. A less-used meaning for this word, but one more closer to the original meaning is, ‘to suffer’. That’s why we use the expression in describing Lent, the time before Easter, as being Christ’s ‘Passion’. It concerns our Lord’s doing and dying, which is His suffering. There is no scene like this in all history. Here is the very hinge and turning point in Jesus’ life. He could have turned back yet. He could even have refused the Cross. The salvation of the whole world hung in the balance as the Son of God literally sweated it out in Gethsemane.

Klaas Schilder explains that, while Calvary – or, as we also call that place, Golgotha – is seen as the crunch point, already now, in Gethsemane, that’s happening. The second time, at Golgotha, Christ’s blood was forced out by wounds inflicted externally. Then it was what was done against the Lord - those thorns on His brow, the whippings across His shoulders, the nails driven through His hands and feet, and that all culminated in the trust of the centurion’s spear, which caused blood and water to flow from Jesus’ wounded side. Here Christ’s blood was expelled from within; it comes out as sweat. We will come, further on, to the details about that blood – like sweat, in considering the last phrase of verse 44.

But now we’re beginning to see why He is in anguish; this extreme agony which is so unique to Christ here.

You see, the death Jesus Christ was facing wasn’t one He could calmly face as many saints have, for His was the death in which He would be forsaken by God Himself, the death in which God made Him to be sin for us.

If Hebrews 5 notes that “during the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death”, then wouldn’t this time, of all the times of His life, have brought Him to His knees?

Someone once commented: There are three ways that prepare us for life’s trials. One is the Spartan way that says, “I have strength within me to do it, I am the captain of my soul. With the courage and will that is mine, I will be master when the struggle comes.” Another way is the spirit of Socrates, who affirmed that we have minds, reason and judgment to evaluate and help us cope with the enigmas and struggles of life.

Christ’s way is the third way. He doesn’t exclude the other two, but He adds, “You don’t begin with yourself, your will or your reason. You begin with God, who is the beginning and the end.” This is why Jesus prayed in verse 42, “not my will, but yours be done.”

2. The Passion is Addressed in Prayer←⤒🔗

“And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly...” Here Christ is the Great High Priest. For moving beyond and above the Old Testament task of the priests offering up the sacrifices and so praying for the people, He is the sacrifice and He is the prayer. To draw further that comparison between Gethsemane and Golgotha: In Gethsemane Christ offered His soul as a sacrifice; on Golgotha He sacrificed His body.

Allow me to illustrate what happens here in this way: A famous pianist said of Chopin’s Noctune in C sharp minor, “I must tell you about it. Chopin told Liszt, and Liszt told me. In this piece all is sorrow and trouble. Oh such sorrow and trouble! – until he begins to speak to God, to pray; then it is all right.”

That’s the way it is with Jesus. He went into Gethsemane in the dark; He came out in the light – because He had talked with God. He went into Gethsemane in an agony; He came out with the victory won, and with peace in His soul – because He had talked with God.

It makes all the difference in what tone of voice someone says, “Your will be done.” Because you could say these words in the way of helpless submission; like you’re in the grip of a power which you just can’t fight. You could say “Your will be done” as someone already battered into submission; then these words are your admission of complete defeat. Then again, you could say these words as someone who’s been totally frustrated, and you don’t that it could ever come true anyhow! Or you may say it with the accent of perfect trust. That’s how Jesus said it. He was speaking, communing, with His Father; He was with the God whose everlasting arms were underneath and about Him, even on the Cross. He was submitting, but that was submission to the love what would never let Him go. The hardest thing in life to accept what we cannot understand; but we can do even that we if we’re sure enough of the love of God.

Again the word used is unique; this time it’s the word ‘earnestly’. While the root word is found in three other places, this particular compound is only found here. But looking at those other three we note that one of them is also written by Luke, in Acts 12 verse 5. That is the only other time in which it’s connected with prayer as well. And the prayer spoken of there by Luke is the earnest prayer being offered up by the early church when Peter was kept in prison. They knew what fate awaited the apostle, so they were most intense in prayer. This is why it can be helpful to know more precisely what it is we’re praying for.

So the meaning is about an action or will which is certain of its goal. This, of course, was precisely the case with Jesus. He knew what was ahead.

Unlike Isaac who nonchantly climbs the hill of sacrifice. “Father,” he casually asks, “where is the lamb?” He doesn’t sweat one single drop of blood. But Christ knows everything. The abyss into which the Lamb descends doesn’t make Him a naive Isaac. And that’s why He sweats blood.

3. The Passion is Answered in Person←⤒🔗

William Hendriksen shows how Luke, as a doctor, noted here a particular medical condition called ‘hematidrosis’. Taking into account that the human nature of Jesus was sinless, and therefore very sensitive, and while Jesus, suffering intensely, was involved in earnest prayer, the resulting strain cause subcutaneous capillaries, the smaller sub – divided blood arteries, to dilate to such an extent that they burst. So what happens is that, from the sweat glands, blood and sweat come out together. It can happen over much of the body; and it results in thick drops or clots of blood, giving a red colour to the beads of perspiration, as they trickle to the ground.

When someone is nervous or apprehensive, they tend to sweat more freely. What’s happening here is a much more involved and deeply tense expression of this. Again, this time with Luke’s medical eye, we have further proof that this was written by him. But more than that, here is the thing we touched upon earlier; this is Christ’s blood being shed from within. And while that’s still part-and-parcel of the same suffering as Calvary, here there’s no hand of man in it. For no one touches Him now but God alone. It’s His own soul being sacrificed. It’s here He finds His peace with God, as He gives Himself over. Christ said “yes” to the One who demands the blood sacrifice. With all His strength He fills the breach which separated us because of the righteous justice of God. Jesus Christ is here before God alone. The paradox about this is that He’s not the victim of men who is the Saviour of men, but He who was punished by God receives His greatest endorsement from God.

And as we see Christ’s blood forced out at the pores by God Himself, we could think that this must be a silly and offensive Gospel. As long as nails and hammers controlled by human hands are causing Jesus’ blood to flow, we can clench our fists in protest against the men who wield them. Then we can still try copping out with blaming someone.

But when I see God and the Holy Spirit, and all the angels drawing blood out of Jesus in Gethsemane, then I clench my fists in vain. All we can do is believe. If I don’t do that; if I don’t bow in faith then I’ll have to rise in rebellion. Which way is it for you, my friend? Will you keep forever kicking against the goads; will you carry on going your own stupid selfish way? Then you’ll say none of this is your fault at all; it’s got nothing to do with you, and the sooner you can get away from hearing anymore about it, the better!

Or you confess. In the words of a hymn:

Who was the guilty?
Who brought this upon You?
It is my treason, Lord, that has undone you.
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied You;
I crucified you.

For me, dear Jesus, was Your incarnation,
Your mortal sorrow, and Your life’s oblation;
Your death of anguish and
Your bitter passion, for my salvation.

But, dear believer, what a comfort as well. We have the greatest encouragement to have patience. Only Jesus went this far because it was taken from within Him and not by anything pressing from without. He gave it freely. And He still does! The Passion is The Power! The Power unto salvation for all who believe in Jesus Christ! The Power which makes all the difference in your life, now and forevermore!