^44b…and being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.

We naturally worship God when contemplating His outward manifestation of majesty or when He performs incredible miracles for us, like healing. Add some “worship” music, and then we can feel inspired to worship. For some, taking up a reverent bodily posture of raising hands or bowing the head is worshipful, or, in the case of the OT patriarch Jacob, leaning on his staff (Heb. 11:21). We are inspired by what God has done for us, but what He has done for us leads us to more excellent knowledge of His character. And the more we know Him, the more we worship Him.

We continue our thoughts about worship by thinking deeply about the price He paid for our sin. In His pre-cross experience, we see His feelings as He considered the sacrifice required of Him, which He voluntarily embraced (Heb. 12:2). We catch a profound glimpse of the cost of His dying on the cross by examining His reaction as He contemplated it. Make no mistake, Jesus felt the weight of the cross beginning to press down on Him as it got closer.

In the garden of Gethsemane, on the night before He died, we see Jesus falling to the ground, overcome with anxiety. Sweating is a sign of extreme emotional distress. The writer, Luke, being a medical doctor (Col. 4:14), with his keen eye for medical details, was alone among the gospel writers in noting that “His sweat became like drops of blood.” We should likewise be careful in our observation. Contrary to some interpreters, Jesus did not sweat drops of blood, but He sweated “like” drops of blood. Whether Luke observed Jesus’ sweat turning red in color or not, He was sweating so profusely that Luke chose the metaphor of blood (technically, he was using a figure of speech called a “simile,” which employs the word “like” to illustrate something by comparison). Jesus’ anticipation of the cross was so great that His sweat could best be described as blood.

This blood-like sweating anticipated the blood Jesus shed on the cross for our sins. In addition to the blood from His beading and the nails in His flesh, a soldier speared His side and literal blood and water came out (John 19:34). But that did not just prove He was dead; it was His blood that bought our redemption, the forgiveness of our sin (Matt. 26:28, Eph 1:7, Heb. 9:22).

Jesus, as recorded in John 13:1, “knowing that His hour had come,” was laser-focused on that task set before Him, taking on the wrath of God that we deserved. With the three-fold temptation to turn away fully resolved, He turned to embrace fully His obedience to the Father. What our Lord was about to experience was so profoundly challenging that anxiety filled Him to the point of profusely sweating. We hesitate to use synonyms of His emotional response for fear of downplaying the eternal weight of God’s judgment He was about to bear for us.

Arduous, grueling, strenuous, excruciating, terrible, severe, horrifying; to be sure, these words would describe anyone facing crucifixion, the worst, most painful punishment the Roman authorities could inflict on anyone. But the physical suffering was nothing to the One who was God in the flesh, who could raise people from the dead and heal any kind of illness and, with a single word, banish Satan from His presence. No, Jesus did not fear the physical torture; He was anxious in He anticipation of the weight, the guilt, and the judgment of the sin of every human being who ever lived. He was about to die for us.

How great is that! He paid it all by going to the cross. He did it all for me, for you! He must undoubtedly love me so greatly to pay such a high price and not turn back.

Lord, the more I contemplate what You went through to procure my salvation, the more I stand in awe of You, and the more I bow down in complete surrender of all of me before all of You. You are so very worthy of all worship and praise!