The night before Jesus Christ was crucified, He prayed in
the garden of Gethsemane. It is in Luke’s gospel where we see that His sweat
was like drops of blood: “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then
His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke22:44). “Hematidrosis” is a rare, but very real, medical condition where one’s
sweat will contain blood. The sweat glands are surrounded by tiny blood
vessels. These vessels can constrict and then dilate to the point of rupture
where the blood will then effuse into the sweat glands. It’s cause – extreme
anguish. In the other Gospel accounts, we see Jesus’ level of anguish: “My soul
is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34).
The intense anguish and sorrow Jesus felt was certainly
understandable. Being God, Christ knew “all that was going to happen to Him”
(John 18:4). He knew in painstaking detail the events that were to follow soon
after He was betrayed by one of His very own disciples. Although our Savior
never lied (1 Peter 2:22; Isaiah 53:9), He knew was about to undergo several
trials where all of the witnesses against Him would do nothing but lie. He knew
that many who hailed Him as the Messiah only days earlier would now be screaming
for His crucifixion (Luke 23:23). He knew He would be flogged nearly to the
point of death before they pounded the metal spikes into His flesh. He knew the
prophetic words of Isaiah spoken seven centuries earlier that He would be
beaten so badly that He would be “disfigured beyond that of any man” and
“beyond human likeness” (Isaiah 52:14). Certainly these things factored into
His great anguish and sorrow, causing Him to sweat drops of blood.
too much
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