Fallen Emotions? What Did Jesus Experience?
This is my third post jumping off of a term I heard someone use, fallen emotions. I am using my response to help readers understand emotions more clearly. I am convinced that the individual who used the term fallen emotions was doing so out of a reaction to something else he has been talking about. He has been responding a lot to an advertising campaign that claims to be trying to reach unchurched people with the gospel. I don’t desire to get into deep weeds on that campaign here, other than to say that in an effort to make unbelievers find Jesus more acceptable, they are, in my mind, making Jesus out to be profane and common rather than holy God. Jesus is truly man and truly God, and we must not strip Him of His Deity to make Him more relatable to the culture.
Having said that, though, we also must not strip Jesus of His true humanity out of a reaction to any movement in our culture. Jesus is who He is, who He reveals Himself to be in the Word of God. Often times we can be found reacting to something in the culture that we clearly see as dangerous and overcorrect and move into the ditch on the other side of the road which is equally as dangerous. The key in all of this is to be Biblical in all of our thinking, interpreting the Scriptures correctly. This is the reason I have been writing these last few posts.
The question before us about what has been termed fallen emotions by this other pastor, is whether Jesus experienced the emotions of fear and anxiety. We already made the case that God created these emotions. We also made the case that these commands are not so much how we are to feel in our gut, but more about how we are going to act in response to those feelings of fear and anxiety. God is not condemning a feeling we have in response to a stimulus, a feeling that we really cannot control.
If Jesus did not feel these emotions, then these words really ring hollow, since some of our biggest battles against sin is battling against the temptation to sin out of our fear and anxiety.
To begin with, let’s look what the writer of Hebrews had to say about Jesus, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:14-15, Legacy Standard Bible). The writer here is clearly helping us to understand what Jesus endured while He was here on earth while remaining sinless. The fact is that He experienced all the temptation we did, to the maximum level since at no point did He give in to the temptation. The feeling of fear or anxiety is not sin but rather an emotion that can become a temptation to sin, therefore Jesus must have experienced these emotions, and experienced them to the maximum level. If Jesus did not feel these emotions, then these words really ring hollow, since some of our biggest battles against sin is battling against the temptation to sin out of our fear and anxiety.
More importantly, however, is to look at Jesus Himself in the time of His life where He would have experienced the worst temptation, just prior to His arrest and crucifixion. “And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me, yet not My will, but Yours be done.’ Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:41-44). The request of Jesus tells us clearly what is on Jesus’ mind, the future that awaited Him in drinking the cup of the wrath of God for those who would believe. It was so intense, that an angel came to give Him strength.
Luke is also clear, though, that Jesus is undeterred in what He is going to do, which is whatever the Father wills Him to do.
The word Luke uses in verse 44 is translated “agony”, which means great distress, great terror, great anxiety. The drops of blood He sweated out are known today as a rare medical condition induced by great anxiety, stress, and terror. Luke is clearly conveying what Jesus is feeling here, and there can be no doubt He is experiencing a feeling inside His gut that we could only interpret as fear and/or anxiety of what is coming next. Luke is also clear, though, that Jesus is undeterred in what He is going to do, which is whatever the Father wills Him to do. Despite the feelings that were stirred up in Jesus, He was completely committed in doing what God has called Him to do, which is the response we are to have when these feelings rise up in us too.
The Scriptures do not teach anything along the lines of fallen emotions, unless what one means by that term is that fallen men misuse the God given emotions they possess. Rather, we are to understand and utilize these emotions for the purposes in which God gave them. I plan on one more blog post that will help illustrate how our emotions work as a blessing from God.
