Was Jesus Suffering from Anxiety in the Garden?

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Christ Alone and the Wrath of God

But doom and despair on the radio. The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone, and any who reject Christ therefore forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin, and the wrath of Almighty God is hanging over our heads.

They will hear his words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath come, they will be consumed, and they will perish. God wrapped.

Himself in flesh, condescended, and became a man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he sits now to make intercession.

For us. Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear his words, they will act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment come in that final day, their house will stand.

Whether Jesus Experienced Anxiety in Gethsemane

All right, Tim, the question for today's episode is, was Jesus suffering from anxiety in the garden?

Yeah, this is one of those mind-numbing observations that people make.

That really is frustrating. Yeah, it is very frustrating. I have to agree with you there. Absolutely, and it's very annoying when people, but Jesus was suffering from anxiety?

I picture them sounding just like that, too. So, you know, I try not to be characterized by frustration, but then I really do think this frustration is a righteous frustration on my part.

It's like the most biblical eye roll that you could ever.

This is like if Paul were here, Paul would eye roll, too, you know, and so it's that kind of thing. But no, I mean, generally when you're talking about any of the psychological disorders for anxiety, particularly like general anxiety disorder, you're talking about something like that.

General anxiety disorder is six months of persistent worry. So it's six months of persistent anxiety and worry, more days than not, right? So more days than not that affect a person in a statistically significant way.

With sleep loss, sleep gain, weight loss, weight gain, all that kind of stuff affects your performance and job. But you're talking about six months of persistent, more days than not, characterized by excessive, excessive anxiety and worry.

And so when you're saying something like that is sinful, like six months, six months, you know, of persistent, like life-dominating anxiety and worry, more days than not, like this excessive, like when you say something like that is sinful, people will go, well, anxiety is not a sin.

Jesus was, you know, He was anxious in the garden, you know, like, what's wrong with you? Didn't you know that, you know? And so I think it is one of those.

Very frustrating things that people will say. Well, I mean, to be fair, you know, to be fair, Tim, I mean, God is outside of time. Okay. A day with, you know, a few minutes with Jesus.

In His human nature. And a few hours with Jesus in His human nature in the garden.

It's like six months. It's like six months.

For normal human beings. And so, yeah, well.

You know, so I got you there.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's obviously a very dumb thing to say, obviously.

Yeah. No, I mean, these things are very, like what you're talking about is like very different kinds of phenomenon that are happening. And, you know, it's obviously frustrating, but it's just like two, it's like very different kinds of things.

Worry, Anxiety, and the Christian Life

So, I mean, over and over again, Jesus says, you know, why do you worry about your life? You know, what you eat and what you wear and what you put on? Is the body not more than food and clothing and all that?

And consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and, you know, all that. So, I mean, Jesus tells us, like, worry is like, it's pointless. It's, you know, it's unnecessary. It's, you know, worthless.

Like we shouldn't, we shouldn't be worried. And Paul will tell the same thing, be anxious for nothing. Because everything with prayer and thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So, over and over again, when you read the Bible, you're going to read that, like, the Christian should be characterized by love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, kindness, faithfulness, self-control.

Not, you know, anxiety, persistent anxiety over, you know, just normal, you know, difficulties handling normal life problems. And so, you know, Jesus obviously experienced an intense period of stress in the garden.

Like, he certainly had, like, intense stress in the garden. But whatever you're describing that, that's not sinful worry. Like, it's not the same thing that Paul is talking about or Jesus is talking about.

This is not sinful worry that's resulting from a distrust in, like, God's sovereignty or, like, you know, just a pervasive general sense of, like, guilt and shame and condemnation that comes, like, destabilizing guilt and shame that are coming from, you know, unconfessed sin and things like this.

And so, there's just

Petey. Or fearing man.

Jared. Yeah, it's fear of man. So, like, whatever Jesus was doing in the garden, he wasn't, you know, violating what he tells us. Like, he wasn't fearing him who destroys a body in that moment, right?

Like, so, this wasn't the fear of man. Like, Jesus, like, in the garden, he obviously, like, had, you know, underwent a trial that I think most, like, no one could not most, but no human being, you know, has gone through a comparable trial like that.

He is going to, you know, have the entire weight of all of the sin of every human being throughout the history of the world. He's going to bear that on the cross, and then he's going to, you know, cry out in anguish to God, like, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

So, the kind of, you know, experience he's having is, you know, looking at that, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And, you know, basically, like, the trial there is to, you know, you basically have two impulses.

One to save humanity, and one is to not have, like, a relational break of fellowship with, like, the Father in that way, right? In terms of, like, his humanity to not, like, bear the weight of sin, you know, for the whole entire world, and to have to cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

So, like, that was the nature of his, you know, stress. That was the nature of his trial that he was experiencing. And, you know, the end of the matter, though, was, yet not my will, but thine, right?

So, when you think about, like, the nature of his trial, he was successful in that trial. And if there's any kind of correspondence that we're ever going to find, like, relating with Jesus, it's not by giving in to anxiety and worry for a six-month period of time, more days than not, and be absolutely and totally characterized by a sinful distrust of God in those moments.

I mean, Hebrews 12, 4 tells us, in your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And I think that is a reference to Jesus in the garden. Like, he's resisting, like, you know, like, for him, it wasn't, like, resisting his own personal sinful temptations that are arising from a sinful heart, but he did, you know, face, like, this decision that, you know, that, like, going forward is going to mean, like, that he's going to bear the weight of sin for all of humanity in that moment.

And that was a trial for him, and he did, like, he did experience the fear of the Lord in that moment, and not wanting to displease, you know, the Father in that way. And so, from that point, he'd done everything according to the will of God, and then he's facing a point where now he's going to have to bear all the sin for humanity.

And the only way that we can even relate to that in a small way is to stand firm against temptation of our own, right? It's like, and you're never going to stand firm in the way that Jesus did, okay? But, you know, like, what you don't want to do is, like, find some kind of parallel in your own experience in saying that I gave in to sin and waved the white flag of surrender for a six-month period of time, so me and Jesus went through the same thing.

It's like, no, he stood firm, and he went to the cross, and he did so completely obedient, both internally and externally to the will of the Father. And, you know, if you want to feel a small measure of that, you fight your own temptation in your own life and see what it's like to actually stand firm, you know, in the midst of trial instead of rolling over the moment you feel slightly tempted.

And then that maybe, you know, give you some small measure of being able to identify with him, not by just rolling over the slightest sign of temptation and be characterized by your sin for.

Months at a time. Well, and doesn't it seem, I mean, like, you know, in the most charitable way you can put it, doesn't it seem extremely disrespectful to look at what Jesus was going through, you know, facing the fact that he's going to be punished by the Father for the sins of the whole world?

Looking at that and then saying, and that is why it's okay for me to feel anxious, you know, about being in spaces with a lot of other people.

Jared. I mean, and that's what's absurd about it. So, like, you have one picture is a picture of resisting in victory, right? So, Jesus is a picture of resisting in victory, right? And then, you know, our, like, what we're supposed to do is say, hey, he can identify with us and our weakness by pointing to examples of absolute surrender on our part, right?

Like, absolute surrender, comprehensive, like, surrender that we take no responsibility for whatsoever. These are just, you know, yeah, it's an insult to God. It's an insult to the garden. It's an insult to Christ.

And I mean, it's an insult to God's grace, just to, you know, to take, you know, some sort of passage like that and try to draw any kind of parallel in those lines. You're just talking about two completely different things.

Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. If you would like to be Bible Bashed personally, then please know that we also offer free Biblical Counseling which you can take advantage of by emailing us. Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.