The Emotional Life of Jesus: Let’s Be Good Bereans Out There!
I’ve often noted that in Christian circles we sometimes make “emotions the black sheep of the image bearing family.”
While we understand that our longings can be pure or impure, that our thoughts can be wise or foolish, and that our choices can be courageously sacrificial and Christlike or self-centered and self-protective, we sometimes assume that every experience of emotion is automatically sinful.
That’s odd, since the Father designed us with emotions. In fact, in the classic passage on being fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14), it is the emotions (kidneys, reins) that the psalmist highlights as being wonderfully fashioned by God. It’s also odd that we would get anxious about emotions, since the Father rejoices, the Son weeps, the Spirit grieves, and all Three express righteous anger.
We need to think biblically and theologically about emotions. Every emotion itself is not automatically sinful. It is what motivates our feelings and what we do with and how we respond to our immediate felt experiences that are crucial in identifying the nature (health/holiness) of our emotional life.
Jesus and Emotions
We seem to be especially nervous about Jesus and emotions.
Recently, at the Biblical Counseling Coalition’s blog site, Pastor Pat Quinn blogged about the emotional life of Jesus. You can read Pastor Quinn’s post at The Gospel of the Prince of Peace.
Later, Donn Arms responded to Pastor Quinn’s post with Let’s Be Careful Out There. Among other concerns, Mr. Arms stated, “The author began by asserting, in spite of the clear teaching of Philippians 4:6, that anxiety is “not necessarily” sinful. He made his case by quoting a bizarre translation of Mark 14:33 (the Amplified Bible)…”
Let’s Be Good Bereans Out There
Because I respect both Pastor Quinn and Mr. Arms, I decided to be a good Berean (see Acts 17:11 about the Bereans’ searching the Scriptures daily to see whether what they were being taught was true).
So, I did some historical (church history), exegetical (biblical study of the text), and lexical (biblical word studies) examination of the passages that Pastor Quinn highlighted: Mark 14 and Matthew 26. I also studied the “Berean work” of Pastor Mark Tanious whose Th.M. thesis examined the emotional life of Christ: The Agony of Gethsemane: Understanding and Applying Matthew 26:36-46.
Jesus Bears His Soul to His Disciples
In Matthew 26:37-39, we learn that after Jesus took the three disciples into Gethsemane, He began to be sorrowful and troubled (h;rxato lupei/sqai kai. avdhmonei/n). Up until this point in Matthew’s gospel, there is virtually no reference to Jesus’ emotions.[1] This absence makes the emotions present in Gethsemane stand out even more.[2]
Studying these Greek words, Tanious explains that “In Gethsemane, Jesus is visibly shaken and disturbed.”[3] The first word used to describe Jesus’ emotional state (lupei/sqai) means to be sad, distressed, or grieved.[4] The word is used in Matthew to describe deep sadness and awful distress.[5] The word could also denote a sense of feeling depressed or dejected.[6]
The second word used (avdhmonei/n) means to be in anxiety, to be distressed or troubled.[7] The word’s root means “not at home” (a-demos), “bewildered,” “stunned,” and “at a loss.”[8] The word may stem from the root, avde,w, which means to be sated or to loathe.[9] Alan McNeile explains that if this root is in mind, it “implies a restless, distracted, shrinking from some trouble, or thought of trouble, which nevertheless cannot be escaped.”[10]
John Calvin on Jesus’ Emotional Life
While it might seem inappropriate to describe Jesus as being emotionally troubled, Reformer and theologian, John Calvin, offers this caution about minimizing the emotional life of Christ:
“Thus, though God had already tried his Son by certain preparatory exercises, he now wounds him more sharply by a nearer prospect of death, and strikes his mind with a terror to which he had not been accustomed. But as it appears to be inconsistent with the divine glory of Christ, that he was seized with trembling and sadness, many commentators have laboured with toil and anxiety to find some way of evading the difficulty. But their labour has been ill-judged and of no use; for if we are ashamed that Christ should experience fear and sorrow, our redemption will perish and be lost.”[11]
The Even Stronger Wording in Mark 14:33
It should also be noted that Matthew actually softens the wording used in Mark’s account of Gethsemane. Mark 14:33 describes Jesus’ emotional state as “greatly distressed” (evkqambei/sqai). This word means to be moved to an intense emotional state because of something causing great surprise or perplexity.[12] The verb carries an element of shock and fear.[13] Pierre Benoit says the word used by Mark means “to be stupefied,” or “struck with amazement.” He goes on to say that it is:
“As though Jesus felt himself suddenly face to face with death; he had, of course, been expecting it for a long time, but, as with all of us, it had not yet become an immediate event. Now death is imminent; the fear which he experiences is a kind of stupefaction of human nature…We see Jesus in his human nature, suffering what all men suffer, the anguish of death, but with exceptional sensitivity in face of an exceptional death.”[14]
Pastor Tanious notes that:
“These descriptive words used by the gospel writers do not shame Jesus’ humanity, rather they prove it. Thus, it may be concluded that the gospel writers chose their words in order to definitively portray the depth of suffering and temptation that Jesus endured in Gethsemane.”
Ambrose on Jesus’ Emotional Life
Calvin quotes the church father Ambrose regarding the emotionally charged language of this text:
“I not only do not think that there is any need of excuse, but there is no instance in which I admire more his kindness and his majesty; for he would not have done so much for me, if he had not taken upon him my feelings. He grieved for me, who had no cause of grief for himself; and, laying aside the delights of the eternal Godhead, he experiences the affliction of my weakness. I boldly call it sorrow, because I preach the cross. For he took upon him not the appearance, but the reality, of incarnation. It was therefore necessary that he should experience grief, that he might overcome sorrow, and not shun it out; for the praise of fortitude is not bestowed on those who are rather stupefied than pained by wounds” (emphasis original) (Calvin, Harmony, 226-227).
Deeply Grieved
After He began to be grieved and distressed, Jesus shared with His disciples, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me” (Matthew 26:38). The words of Jesus echo the lament in the Psalms, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?” (Psalm 42:5, 6, 11; 43:5).[15]
Jesus describes His soul (yuch,) as being deeply grieved (peri,lupo,j). France explains that the use of yuch, “emphasizes that this is real, deeply felt emotion, not an outward show.”[16] Jesus experienced agony at the core of his being. The word, peri,lupo,j, carries the idea of being surrounded by sorrow.[17] Jesus sensed His very soul besieged with grief. Tanious explains that, “The use of peri,lupo,j also carries the idea that Jesus was afflicted beyond measure, deeply sorrowful, and stretched to the limit.”[18]
When Jesus said He was deeply grieved “to the point of death,” He did not mean that He would rather die than feel that way. Rather, it was an expression of the intensity of His grief (“it feels like I am dying”) (compare Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:7-11).
Even after his exegetical study of Mark and Matthew that points to the intensity of Jesus’ emotional experience, Pastor Tanious explains that:
“When Christ experienced sorrow and distress, it was not accompanied by sin. Even in the mist of soul-aching pain, Jesus continued to maintain his purity and sinless attributes. Nothing experienced in Gethsemane was apart from the sovereign plan of God and the regulating power of the Holy Spirit, which distinctively sustained Jesus throughout his entire life. There is uniqueness in the Son of God’s experience of pain and suffering precisely because there was no taint of sin involved.[19]
Join the Berean Conversation
You don’t have to listen to Donn Arms or Pat Quinn, Bob Kellemen, Mark Tanious, John Calvin, and Ambrose. Study Mark 14 and Matthew 26 on your own.
According to the wording of these passages, did Jesus experience “anxiety?”
What words would you use to describe Jesus’ emotional experience in Mark 14 and Matthew 26?
Here’s another vital theological question to ponder as a Berean from Mark 14, Matthew 26, Philippians 4, and 1 Peter 5:6-11:
Do these passages teach that every feeling of “anxiety” is automatically sinful?
Or, are these passages teaching us how to relate to the Father like Christ, how to think like Christ, and how to respond/choose like Christ when faced with the feeling of anxiety?
And remember, Let’s be good Bereans out there!
RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth
[1]Francis W. Beare, The Gospel According to Matthew (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1981) 512.
[2]Nolland, Matthew, 1097.
[3]Johnson, “The Agony of Christ,” 304.
[4]BDAG, “lupe,w,” 604-605.
[5]See Matthew 14:9; 17:23; 18:31; 19:22; 26:22.
[6]The Analytical Greek Lexicon, “lupe,w,” (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1977) 6.
[7]BDAG, “avdhmone,w,” 19. This word only appears in Matthew 26:37, in Mark’s Gethsemane account (Mark 14:33), and in Philippians 2:26.
[8]J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, “avdhmone,w,” The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1930) 9.
[9]J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1953) 123. Lightfoot describes the word as meaning confused, restless, a half-distracted state produced by mental distress, grief, shame, or disappointment.
[10]Alan Hugh McNeile, The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980) 389.
[11]Calvin, Harmony, 226.
[12]BDAG, “evkqambe,w,” 303.
[13]R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002) 582.
[14]Pierre Benoit, The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (trans. Benet Weatherhead; New York: Herder and Herder, 1969) 10.
[15]Beare, Matthew, 513; Craig Blomberg, “Matthew 26:36-56,” New Testament Use of Old Testament, 93. The word “despair”(peri,lupoj) in Ps 42:5,11; 43:5 (LXX) is the same word used by Jesus in Gethsemane (“deeply grieved”). The phrasing of these passages is nearly identical. The theme of Psalms 42-43 is that of a spiritual struggle to find God in the midst of suffering. The psalmist seeks God’s presence, but does not seem to find him. The tri-fold reiteration of the downcast soul demonstrates the internal struggle occurring in the psalmist. John Goldingay, Psalms (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms; ed. Tremper Longman III; 3 vols.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006) 2:21. The fact that Jesus quoted the words of Psalm 42 proves the depth of sorrow and lament within his soul. Perhaps he cited these psalms because like the psalmist, Jesus was in agony and offered questions to God that reflect his feelings of separation from God. Interestingly, after expressing the turmoil of their souls, both the psalmist and Jesus offer a hope-filled confession of trust (“hope in God, for I shall again praise Him,” and, “not as I will, but as you will.”). Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms: Volume 1 (The NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002) 669.
[16]France, Matthew, 1004.
[17]MacArthur, Matthew 24-28, 172.
[18]G. Bultmann, “peri,lupo,j,” TDNT 4 (1968) 323.
[19]Calvin, Harmony, 227-228.
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