Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 280

October 6;   Luke 22:44;   66/260(II);   ‘Intensity’

Luke 22:44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  

The time had come for the Lord Jesus to be betrayed and crucified.  He went with His disciples to a garden called Gethsemane located on the Mount of Olives.  It must have been a place of refuge for the Lord, because the Bible tells us that Jesus went there often with His disciples.  The word Gethsemane means the olive press, where olives were crushed to release the olive oil.  Here in Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus was about to crush Himself as He radically dealt with His mind, which recoiled from what was ahead for Him.  Jesus never sinned and was about to become every sin, of every type, that ever was and would ever be.  How His holy character must have been horrified at what He was about to become.  Additionally, the Lord Jesus, who was never sick, was about to take upon Himself every sickness, disease and pain, legally opening the door for those who would accept His finished work to be healed if they were sick or to remain in good health.  Jesus had never been separated from His Father.  Even while He ministered on earth, He was in constant fellowship with His Father by prayer.  Since God the Father is perfect, sin cannot be near Him, therefore, the Father would temporarily turn His back on His Son, Jesus.  The physical agony of the crucifixion was not what caused the intense mental anguish for Jesus, countless men had been crucified.  It was the becoming sin and sickness and the separation from His Father that He had to discipline His mind to, making His soul calm down.  The ordeal was so intense, that Jesus sweat blood.  Finally, rising from prayer, Jesus was victorious, His mind quiet.