THE AGONY OF CHRIST

KEY VERSE: And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:44)

  First off, the agony of Christ was not in his death, but for the lost. When people think of the agony of Christ, they think of his crucifixion and death. Jesus experienced great pain and loss of virtue when he experienced death. However, Jesus did not die; sinners who did not accept his sacrifice are those who died. That was and is the agony of Christ. In other words, he experienced the pain of his creatures. How so? That most would die when none need not to.
  God experienced death on the cross. Why would he do that? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God loves His children so much that He would die Himself! To do that. He devised a Plan; God required flesh to experience pain like his children would. Jesus knew that he would not perish, but agonized that his children would. He was willing to die on behalf of his rebellious children, and He agonized because most of his children would deny him. Peter’s denial of Jesus typified all those who have not converted. Conversion is a change from unloving to loving God.

Peter, after his Savior died, was finally converted. He came to realize that Jesus’s death was all about his (Peter’s) unbelief. Peter knew that Jesus sweated blood on behalf of him. How is that? Because Jesus loved Peter so much that he was willing to voluntarily die so that Peter need not!
  Jesus and the Father are one. The Father did not want to destroy his sons, so he became a Son to experience what His sons experience. God, the Father, took on flesh to empathize with his children. He did that for two reasons: (1) To have the human experience, and (2) to devise a way that even His wayward children would not perish. His New Covenant was not based on His children’s ability to experience life as a slave to the Law, but as free men who loved their Creator just because they wanted to! Therefore, love is the coinage which paid the entry fee into the gates of Heaven. It was Jesus’s love for his people that paid the price, and His children should love him back for God’s sacrifice of His own flesh.
  What was Jesus’s agony? He was the Passover Lamb (Luke 22:14-15). He knew that only a few would accept his sacrifice, and that death would pass-over only a few. Jesus agonized for those who would perish. He loved all His sons the same, but most He could not save. That was His agony.[1] God’s agony was for His children!  Jesus willed to live just as any other person. However, he was the ultimate sacrifice for mankind’s sins were numerous and great. What was/is the sins of God’s children? They fail(ed) to honor their Father! In the First Word (First Commandment) Jesus wrote to not have other gods in God’s Face. Well, Jesus is the Face of God. (I will leave that to the reader to explore as I have written of that many times.)
  Whose “face” is it who is in God’s Face? All His children. There has never been a created person who did not at least consider themselves equal to or greater than God. Ultimately the Fifth Word is essentially a prescription to honor God in that He is truly our Father and Mother. [2] The problem with God’s children is that they do not honor their Father. Their actions demonstrate that their spiritual “father” is the Devil (John 8:44).
  Those who come to honor the Father and His sacrifice of Himself on their behalf are “converted” as Peter would soon become. “Conversion” is exchanging “fathers.” Rebirth (born again) is the emancipation and adoption process. It is where the old person dies, and the new person shall live forever because they honor their Heavenly Father by cherishing His sacrifice of Himself.
  Jesus did not want his children to die. He wasn’t worried about himself, but the fate of all those who would perish. Jesus was in agony because he was not only Savior but the sacrifice that his own children would reject. Jesus wept for his children (John 11:35), but worse yet, he sweated blood in agony for their eternal lives. God would rather His Good Son die than all His wayward sons.
  Christian fathers weep for their children in like manner. They care not that their performance is lacking, but unless it changes, they will perish. Christian fathers agonize that their children be converted so as not to suffer Hell and eternally dying. Some question my own lack of joy. How can a concerned father be joyous knowing that some that he loves so dearly may perish. Understand that love can and must be demonstrated to be efficacious. God, the Good Father, showed His love by dying for all His rebellious children. Many Christian fathers would elect to suffer pain and death for their children, regardless of their performance, for one reason – because we love our sons and daughters so intensely. That’s why God experienced death for His children, and why His children must honor Him!
  My oldest son stepped on a garden rake when he was a child. The prong went through his foot. He experienced a partial “crucifixion” as the rake’s “nail” pierced his foot. I agonized because my son was in such pain. I would rather have it be me than him. Well, I couldn’t do that on his behalf, but God did it for all of His children. Christian parents agonize over the discomfort and pain of both their good children and those in rebellion. Good parents don’t equate love with performance! Parental love is unconditional, and just as Jesus will judge how “good” of children each of us has been, we must judge the performance of our own children.
  The “estate” which God has for His adopted children is a permanent room in His mansion with all the fixin’s. That is the prosperity that God promised Abraham in return for merely honoring his Lord. That is the “estate” that I have in mind for my own children. Even at the last moment, one expression of love will allow even rebellious children to be heirs to God’s estate as it was with one malefactor on the Cross.
  God knew that one thief would honor him, and that one would not. The one act of respect and a demonstration of love for God saved eternity in Hell for one of the two. The other remained obstinate, and not only received no inheritance, but punishment. It was not the eternal estate which converted the thief, but concern for the agonizing sacrifice that the Father was making instead of him. That empathy for Jesus saved the thief and provided upon his death an eternal estate wherein he would live in bliss.
  Just as the Father has provided His loving children a fancy room in His mansion to live therein free forever, that’s what I wish for my own children, but like the Father, this father considers making his children’s inheritance contingent on their love for him.
  Many children go their entire lives without ever saying, “I love you, Dad.” Even one proclamation of that word would change the entire relationship between the father and his children. God waited that man’s entire life to discern love from him, and most fathers would cherish the same from their children. I became a man when I first said, “I love you, Dad!” I was converted from a disrespectful son to an honorable son. I became honorable when I finally honored my Dad. I was in my thirties when I finally loved my Dad again as I did when a child. His prodigal son had returned, and Dad welcomed me home. He became my best friend and honored father. I kept the Fifth Commandment and have lived a long life in return. I do not take that for granted!
  As a loving son, I received a small inheritance upon Dad’s death. He invested when he could not afford to so that his children could have an inheritance. We all honored him for that! However, all seven of Dad’s children loved their mother as well. Each one of us refused our inheritance so that it would remain in Mom’s estate for her old age. Why did we do that? Because we loved and honored our hard-working and loving mother so intensely. True to God’s promise, each of us have had long lives on Earth, and I believe on Earth when it is as in Heaven.
  Good fathers desire to leave a great inheritance. My will for my estate is much as God’s Will for His; it is contingent on which heirs who love and honor. That was fair for God’s criteria and fair for all fathers. Like God, father’s want that all have a great inheritance, but may need to judge which heirs loved them at all. Even one act of love creates an inheritance. Some children (as my neighbor’s) failed to demonstrate any love ever, and lost out on the inheritance. Many children who dishonor God will lose their inheritance in Heaven, and that’s why Jesus was in agony; he wanted that none should perish, but would because they would not love him back! Is that not fair? Is that not good criteria for us all?
  Sometimes I worry into the night over who will lose their inheritance. To be honest, few deserve it, but a loving father still wants to share it with all his children! All a father really wants is for his children to love him back.

Agony of Christ (pininterest)

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[1] I use the capital letters for the pronouns in reference to Jesus in special cases. That is because God the Father experienced death on the cross. His flesh was of His Creation and was His way of being the Son. His Flesh died, but God in all three His stasis, experienced death. Mankind killed God’s Flesh, but God still lived.

[2] I have written before that assigning gender to God is not any type of dualism, but just a manner of expressing the qualities of God – the Father as the Divine Spiritual Presence and the Mother as the matter from which we are created, the dust of the ground so to speak. God is without  gender but has characteristics which are patriarchal, and created Himself as the Son of Man because of that.