June 30 2025

Monday June 30

Luke 22:40-46

The Sweat and the Blood

40 When He came to the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." 41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45 When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. 46 Then He said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation."

Today, we're continuing to look at Luke chapter 22:40-46, where Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's with eight of His disciples who have been left somewhere, and took three of them, Peter, James and John a little further with Him. Then Jesus, a stone's throw away from them, is praying while they're sleeping, as we've been talking about.

I can't help but tell you that the Garden of Gethsemane is one of my favorite places to visit when we go to the Holy Land. I've been there some 30 times over the last 50 years. The Garden of Gethsemane is a beautiful, awe-inspiring place, a place of holy ground, we believe. There, our tour group will gather around an old olive tree that I'm sure does not date back to the time of Christ 2,000 years ago. The Romans probably destroyed the Garden when they destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70 when Titus invaded the city and no doubt destroyed all the trees around it. But this tree could have grown from the roots of the trees that were in the garden when Jesus was there.

Today the Garden of Gethsemane is next to the Church of the Nations. It is still a very special and holy place. We might not be able to go to Jerusalem today and physically enter the Garden of Gethsemane, but by going into the Word of God and looking at these scriptures that we're studying now we can still experience the reality of a loving and courageous Savior and enjoy His presence wherever we are.

As we've gone through this passage, and also read the other Gospel accounts of this scene, so many things stand out that grab my attention, but one that's stands out is from Dr. Luke. Remember, Luke was a physician writing the Gospel of Luke. His is the only gospel that mentions an angel strengthening the Lord, but he's also the only gospel that mentions what we read in verse 44, "And being in agony, Jesus prayed more earnestly." 

I'm believing this is probably the third time that Jesus, after being strengthened by the angel, goes back to that place, that rock where He's praying, kneeling before the Father, and He's praying more earnestly in great agony. Then Luke points out, "Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground." When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, God put a curse on the ground and told him, By the sweat of your brow, you will have to work the ground to bear any fruit, to eat (Genesis 3:17-19). Now Jesus, the second Adam, is in the garden, and He is submitting to the will of God, where the first Adam was disobedient and brought sin and death into the world. Jesus is obedient, and He's bringing life and the Holy Spirit into the world. So, what we see here in verse 44 is this mention of sweat and blood falling to the ground from Jesus.

Some tell us that there's a rare physical phenomenon known as hematidrosis, under great emotional distress, tiny blood vessels can rupture in the sweat glands and produce a mixture of blood and sweat. We're not sure exactly if this is symbolically written here or if it's literal. I tend to believe it was literal because the blood of Jesus testifies to who He is, and the blood of Jesus had to be shed. There's a verse in Hebrews 9:14, that says, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

The blood of bulls and goats could only cover sin temporarily in the Old Testament as a sacrifice, showing that we're looking forward to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Hebrews says that through the eternal Spirit, and by His Spirit, oh my friend, you and I need to grasp the meaning of the Holy Spirit being a part of Jesus giving Himself, yielding Himself and shedding His blood. If we are to live a life that honors God, we need the anointing, the moving, the fullness, and the filling of the Holy Spirit upon us to do what we need to do every day.

We either live after the flesh or we live after the Spirit (Romans 8:1-11; Galatians 6:8). The flesh is weak, the Spirit is willing. God's Holy Spirit empowers our spirit to do the will of God. Jesus, through the eternal Spirit, gave and shed His blood that you and I might be cleansed by His blood.  We need to have cleansing of sin every day (1 John 1:7-9). I trust you'll trust Him for that today.

These are wonderful lessons from the mysteries of Gethsemane. I trust you'll apply them to your life today.

God bless!