Sweat Suits

Luke 22:41-46

This passage does not directly mention cloth, but it can be infered quite easily. Jesus is in Gethsemane praying...He is stressed, his disciples have never seen him like this and they are sorrowful that He is so upset. Jesus was so done-in that the angels had to come and strengthen Him. Even with all of this...he sweat so profusely that it was like blood drops pouring out of open wounds, pouring out on the ground, and by default, being absorbed by His clothing.

We see the movies of Jesus...He always appears clean, happy, calm, cool, and collected. I think that since the scriptures say that He was tested and tempted in every way like we are, yet was without sin, that He was not this halo-shadowed figure that we are often shown. He scolded His disciples, called Pharasees snakes, and overturned tables like a mad-man. He wept at the grave of Lazarus. This man showed emotion and physically bore burdens of stress like we do. He sweated. He got dirty...otherwise people wouldn't have washed Him! He agonized over things...like the idea of having to bear the sins of every man and woman in the world, even if it was for 3 hours...those would be hell on earth hours.

This has been a hard time in the lives of so many people I know. My friend lost her husband. A lot of good has come out of it, but there is still the nagging question...did he, she, her family, and the rest of us have to suffer such loss to get these results? Couldn't there be a different way? An easier way?

Another friend found out she will be a grandma...and her son is not married. The pain is real and though she loves the Lord with all of her heart, wants her son to repent, wants God to be glorified, she is struggling...asking if it had to be this way...

My dear 103 year old friend is slowing deteriorating after all these years of really good health. She is finally ready to go to her eternal home, but it is not happening and she is showing signs of the battle to trust God and to fight staying here. Her loving daughter looks on in sorrow. Does it have to be this way? Can't God take her without her having to suffer?

And when we have these thoughts we want to run and hide from God, thinking that it is a sin to ask that question, “Does it have to be this way...isn't there another way to do this and still get the same results...the salvation of friends and family, repentance of a wayward son without life-long consequences involving innocent children, and getting to heaven without having to wear out first?

The clothes of Jesus tells us that He understands this better than we can ever know. He begged His Father to find another way to save the souls of man. He was talking directly to God in prayer when He was sweating those drops, which poured off of Him. It says He was in agony...we think of the agony of the crucifixion, but we do not really see the agony BEFORE the event. He was torn, broken, wrenched, and pleading. Begging. Mark 14 says He asked that God remove this cup of suffering from Him. He said...Daddy, please, You are able to do anything. Don't let me have to suffer this...but not what I want, but what You will to happen in my life.” (My paraphrase) He understood that the cup of suffering had to be drunk by Him for God's plan to work, and though He really resisted the idea, He accepted it, but not without great inner turmoil.The fight was internal and intense. He wrestled with God and no wrestler comes out of the battle without sweat...without pain...without knowing that they were in a battle. There was no condemnation for the wrestling match...quite the contrary...God sent angels to comfort. He sent an angel to Jacob for him to fight with...while Jacob insisted that he be blessed.He walked with a limp for the rest of his life due to the struggle, but he was blessed, not rebuked, for struggling with God in faith. That is the issue...faith. We know as Christ did that God knows what He is doing, and He knows that our spirits are willing to see God's will done, but our flesh fights that it has to be so hard. And so often someone has to die or suffer greatly for that will to come to pass. Does it mean our God is mean? No. But we are fighting a fight that is so much greater than we imagine. It is a fight against sin and its consequences, and against our own self-interest. And God understands that for those who trust Him, it will still be hard. We will still plead and beg that if it doesn't have to be this way, that God would find another way. If Jesus could ask it knowing the outcome, we can, too, knowing only that God is good and His mercies endure forever. I LOVE Hebrews 4: 15 more every day...Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses, not because He is so much better, has everything in perspective, and can be calm about it, but because HE HAS BEEN THERE and come through the other side.

Whatever you are wrestling with God over, just make sure that when you end the struggle, you humbly conclude as Jesus did, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Then go change your clothes...for they will be sweaty.