I. The text expresses a deep mystery, of which we should try to give some account. It is a mystery; for what reason can be assigned for this intensity of suffering? Was the anticipation of that which awaited Him desertion, ignominy, a death of torture enough to cause all the agony which He felt? Do we not degrade our conception of the Lord Jesus Christ by admitting even the sufficiency, to say nothing of the truth, of such an explanation? Many an ancient stoic, many a Christian martyr would have met has met such a fate with a smile on his face. Shall we place Christ below them in the moral scale? It is, I believe, for the purpose of avoiding this difficulty that theories have been invented, in which some new and mysterious element in the suffering of Christ has been introduced. Thus, for example, we are told that the bitterness of Christ's suffering in the garden of Gethsemane consisted in this: That "in some mysterious way" he had to endure the wrath of God. Of this theory I have no hesitation in saying that it is distinctly immoral, for it represents God, the Judge of all the earth, as so far from doing right, that He is angry with an innocent being.
II. While we may not presume to dogmatise on the feelings which passed through His mind then, it is a fair subject for inquiry. Is there any unsurmountable difficulty in ascribing the agony in the garden to a feeling that must have passed through His mind. Anticipation of that which, as we know now, and He knew then, awaited Him. Insensibility does, to some extent, the work of fortitude. But fortitude cannot do the work of insensibility. Insensibility may make action easier. Fortitude cannot make suffering less. Pain or sorrow cannot turn a brave man from his course; but unless he is insensible as well as brave, feel them he must. It is to the sensitive, imaginative nature that suffering, felt or anticipated, is most bitter. Such a man needs more fortitude than one less finely organised. But to say that because he is more finely organised he is less brave, is to assume that for which neither reason nor fact give the slightest warrant. That it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to understand fully the connection between the suffering of Christ and the fulfilment of sin is undeniable; but if this connection be once admitted, I cannot see that there is any difficulty in understanding why anticipated suffering should have caused a sharper pang to Him than it would have done to many an ordinary man. It is a mistake to confound this sensitiveness with a deficiency in fortitude, but the conclusion arrived at is quite independent of the relative esteem in which you may choose to hold the stoical and the sensitive nature. You may call the former the higher nature, if you like, but it would not have been suited to the mission of Christ.
J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son and Other Sermons,p. 153.
References: Luke 22:44. H. Wace, Expositor,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 203; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ix., No. 493; Ibid,vol. xx., No. 1199; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 83; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines of Sermons,p. 82.Luke 22:45; Luke 22:46. J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,p 46. Luke 22:46. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 299. Luke 22:46-48. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 224.Luke 22:47; Luke 22:48. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ix., No. 494.Luke 22:48. Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 85; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines of Sermons,p. 304; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 81.Luke 22:50; Luke 22:51. G. Macdonald, Miracles of Our Lord,p. 70.