Word of Salvation – August 2018

 

Jesus’ Emotions

 

Sermon by Rev. Steve Voorwinde on John 1:14

Scripture Readings: Exodus 33:12-23; John 1:1-18

 

Opening Exercise (Optional)

Do you mind if I begin this sermon by doing a little experiment? I want to start by asking you how well you know Jesus. Just raise your hand when you think I am making a statement that is true:

• Jesus loved – he was a loving person. (18)
• Jesus showed compassion. (9)
• He could get angry. (5)
• He was sorrowful or grieved. (5)
• He experienced joy. (4)
• Sometimes he was amazed. (3)
• At times he was troubled. (3)
• He was distressed. (3)
• He wept. (2)
• He sighed (deeply). (2)
• He was indignant. (1)
• He had zeal. (1)
• He was in agony. (1)
• He felt forsaken by God. (2)

Give yourself full marks if you put your hand up for all of these statements. You obviously know Jesus very well. This, in a nutshell, is the emotional life of Jesus as it is presented in the four Gospels. There were fourteen statements all together. If you put up your hand for ten or more, I’d say you know Jesus pretty well. If you put your hand up for less than ten, you’re probably just a modest and shy person, or maybe an introvert who doesn’t want to show off.

 

Introduction

The sixty or so references to Jesus’ emotions in the Gospels give us deep insights into who he is. But today I don’t want to do anything too profound. I just want to give you an overview, a bird’s eye view of Jesus’ emotions in the Gospels.

Even so, I don’t just want to give you a rundown of Jesus’ emotions. That would be all very mechanical. I’d like us to look at Jesus’ emotions in a certain light, through a particular window, and it’s a window that is given by the Bible itself. And what is that window through which we are to look at the emotions of Jesus? And what kind of a window is it? Is it just a tiny peep-hole? Or is it a stained-glass window? Or is it a huge picture window like you have in the Swiss Alps through which you see a glorious snow-capped mountain right in front of you?

Before I answer those questions, let me just take you back a step and ask you another question. Have you ever wanted to see God? Have you ever faced such a challenge in life that you thought you could not go on unless God showed himself to you? You might have said, “Lord, unless you are with me, I cannot do this.” That was Moses’ predicament. He was God’s man to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. But they had just worshipped a golden calf. How hard can it get for poor old Moses! No wonder he cries out, “Show me your glory, I pray.” (Exod 33:18). But did he get to see God’s glory? Well, sort of. He saw it the way we might see the final rays of the setting sun. One day there would be a much better way of seeing God’s glory.

And that’s what we have in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” That is the great paradox of the gospel. We have seen the glory of the Word, the glory of God, in the frailty of human flesh. How has God shown us his glory? By becoming human? Yes, but even more, by becoming frail, vulnerable and mortal.

So have you ever wanted to see God’s glory? Then look no further than Jesus! In him we see God’s glory in ways that we can all understand. We see it in the Word become flesh, in the divine become human, in God become man. Jesus is not just a peep-hole. He is not even a stained-glass window. He is a giant picture window through which we see the glory of God.

And that’s also how we are to understand the emotions of Jesus in the Gospels. Yes, they show how human he is, how frail he is, how vulnerable he is, how mortal he is. They are the emotions of the flesh, not of sinful flesh, but of ordinary finite human beings. But they are also the emotions of the Word, the emotions of God, and through them we see the glory of God. His emotions not only show how human he is, but also how divine he is. Can you please remember that! Jesus’ emotions not only show that he is completely human but also that he is gloriously divine. And isn’t that precisely the great paradox of the gospel – we see the glory of God in the weakness of human flesh. We see God’s glory in the person and the emotions of Jesus.

1. Let’s begin by looking at Jesus’ love. Of all the references to Jesus’ emotions in the Gospels nearly a third are to his love. I’m sure that’s what you would expect. There are about sixty references to Jesus’ emotions all up and eighteen are to his love. So that’s a good place to begin.
2. But now guess where most of these references are to be found? Of course, they are found in John, the great Gospel of love. Outside of John there is only one reference to the love of Jesus, and that in itself is rather remarkable. When Jesus saw the rich young ruler, it says in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus “looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21). And that’s it. All the other references to Jesus’ love are in John.

Now let me tell you something about John’s Gospel. This helps to explain a lot. John’s Gospel since very early in church history has been compared to an eagle. I used to explain it to my students like this: “I am John’s Gospel. I am an eagle.” [To illustrate this point stretch out your arms wide, parallel to the ground.]

• My hands are the wing-tips. Chapter 1 is the introduction and chapter 21 is the conclusion.
• My arms are like the eagle’s mighty wings. The left wing is chapters 2-11 which are called “The Book of Signs.” It records seven signs or miracles of Jesus. It begins with his turning water into wine in chapter 2 and ends with the raising of Lazarus in chapter 11. Then the eagle’s huge right wing is chapters 13-20. Some scholars have called this “The Book of Suffering” and others have called it “The Book of Glory.” And do you know what? Both groups are right. Jesus’ glory was shown supremely in his suffering.
• And then finally we have the eagle’s slender body. (This body is not as slender as it used to be!) That’s chapter 12, the chapter of transition. It is the transition from the Book of Signs to the Book of Suffering and Glory.
• Now can you take a guess as to where most of the references to Jesus’ love are in John’s Gospel? Are they in the introduction or in the conclusion or in the transition or in the Book of Signs or in the Book of Suffering and Glory? Yes, you are right. They are mainly in the Book of Suffering and Glory. His love is revealed in his suffering and it demonstrates his glory.

2. But who does Jesus love in John’s Gospel?

• First and foremost, he loves the Father. As Jesus says to his disciples at the end of chapter 14, “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (John 14:31). So how does the world know that Jesus loves the Father? Because he does what the Father commands. And what does the Father command? He commands Jesus to lay down his life! As Jesus said back in chapter 10, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father” (v. 18). So how does Jesus show his love for the Father? By laying down his life and taking it up again, by his crucifixion and resurrection. He loved his Father so much that he was prepared to obey his command to die and rise again.
• Secondly, he loved his own. At the beginning of chapter 13 it says, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Now think of where this verse sits in John’s Gospel. It is the very first verse in the Book of Suffering and Glory. It is a hinge verse. Without that hinge, without that joint the eagle couldn’t fly. This verse looks back to the Book of Signs, “having loved those who were in the world.” And that love is shown most brilliantly in the raising of Lazarus. There it says specifically that Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and he showed them his love by raising Lazarus from the dead. But then it also says that Jesus loved his own to the end. And when was the end? It was when Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). When he died on the cross he showed not only his great love for the Father, but also his great love for his own. Aren’t we beginning to see something of the glory of the Father’s only Son (1:14)?
• Then there’s a special group of “his own” that Jesus loves, and that of course is the disciples. It is to them that he says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). It is of such an obedient disciple that Jesus says, “I will love him and will disclose myself to him” (John 14:21). And how does Jesus love him? Listen to how he explains it to his disciples: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Do you see how we are coming back to the same theme again and again? Jesus shows his disciples his love by laying down his life for them.
• Then in John’s Gospel this love of Jesus is narrowed down even further. It goes from “his own” to his disciples to “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” This is the disciple who wrote the Gospel and he has a very close relation to Jesus. He is first referred to as reclining at the bosom of Jesus at the Last Supper (John 13:23), just as one of the early references to Jesus is being in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18). Because of that intimate relationship Jesus has explained the Father (John 1:18) and the Beloved Disciple bears witness to Jesus (John 21:24). And what is it that he especially bears witness to? He was the only disciple to be there at the cross together with Mary, the mother of Jesus (John 19:26). He was the first disciple to enter the empty tomb and believe (John 20:8). And later when the disciples went fishing on the lake, he was the first to recognise Jesus standing on the shore (John 21:7). Very few knew Jesus the way the Beloved Disciple knew Jesus. Small wonder then that John’s Gospel has almost as many references to Jesus’ emotions as the other three Gospels put together.

1. But while John focuses on the love of Jesus, the other Gospels focus on the compassion of Jesus. It is the second most common emotion of Jesus to be recorded and it is found nine times.
2. The key verse to understanding Jesus’ compassion is the summary statement we find in Matthew 9:36, “And when he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.” So how did Jesus show compassion to the crowds? He did it by preaching the gospel and healing the sick. As it says in the previous verse, “Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness” (Matt 9:35). That’s how Jesus showed compassion. And surely there is a lesson here for us. How is the Church to show compassion today? The way Jesus did – in word and deed. In compassion we are to take care of both the spiritual and physical needs of people.
3. We see this again in two specific examples of Jesus showing compassion to the crowds. On two occasions Jesus fed huge crowds with loaves and fish – first the 5,000 and then the 4,000 (Matt 14:13-21; 15:29-39; Mark 6:30-44; 8:1-10). Now of course Jesus showed his compassion by feeding them. And he did so abundantly; there was enough food and plenty to spare. But there are some further details here that we should not miss. His compassion was not only motivated by their hunger. It also says, “he felt compassion for them and healed their sick” (Matt 14:14). Again it says, “He saw a great multitude, and he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). So, yes, he showed compassion by feeding the hungry, but also by healing the sick and by teaching the crowd many things. He taught them and then he fed them. Word and deed went together. Again there is a lesson here for us. When the Church shows compassion, ideally word and deed should go together. Not the word without the deed, and not the deed without the word.
4. But Jesus not only showed compassion to the crowds but to individuals as well:

• He had compassion on a leper and made him clean (Mark 1:41-42).
• He had compassion on a grieving widow and raised her son from the dead (Luke 7:11-17).
• He had compassion on an epileptic boy by performing an exorcism (Mark 9:22-27).
• He had compassion on two blind men, so he touched their eyes and restored their sight ((Matt 20:34).

4. Now I wonder whether you have noticed anything special about Jesus’ compassion. It is mostly expressed in the context of a miracle – the feeding of a crowd, the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead. So let me ask you: Does Jesus’ compassion show how human he is or does show how divine he is? Before you answer that question, let me give you some more details to work with. In the Old Testament there are 100 references to compassion. 85 of them refer to the compassion of God. God has almost a complete monopoly on compassion in the OT. And there’s more. In the OT who is the great Healer? Who is it that feeds the hungry? Who opens the eyes of the blind? To answer these questions let me quote from a couple of the Psalms:

• Psalm 103:2-3:

“Bless the LORD, O my soul,

And forget none of his benefits;

Who pardons all your iniquities;

Who heals all your diseases.”

• Psalm 146:7-8:

“The LORD gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets the prisoners free;

The LORD opens up the eyes of the blind.”

• So when Jesus shows compassion he is doing the kinds of miracles that God performs in the OT. When he shows compassion, he is not only expressing deep emotion, he is showing how divine he is. He is doing the kinds of things that only God can do. He is once again displaying the glory of God – the glory of God in all its noonday splendour. And the crowds kind of caught on. They glorified God for all the miracles they had seen (Luke 7:16; cf. 19:37). If you want to see the glory of God, consider the miracles of Jesus.

1. Now we turn to a very different emotion and that is Jesus’ anger. Yes, there were times that Jesus could get mighty angry, but who was he angry with? Some of the answers may surprise you.
2. When Jesus had healed two blind men in a house he sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about this!” (Matt 9:30). There is a note of anger in his voice. But why? Why be angry with two men whose sight he has just restored? Because he knew they were going to blab it around everywhere. Their speaking out of turn would make his mission more dangerous and his ministry more difficult.
3. It was the same with a leper he had healed. Again, in an angry tone he warned him, “See that you say nothing to anyone” (Mark 1:43-44). But he too disobeyed. He ignored Jesus’ clear instructions, so much so that Jesus had to leave the towns and withdraw into the country. This cleansed leper had drawn the unwanted attention of the authorities.
4. On another occasion Jesus was angry with the Pharisees. But this time it was more than anger. One Sabbath he was in the synagogue at Capernaum. The Pharisees were there watching his every move so that they could accuse him. Now here’s the catch. There was a man there with a withered hand. What is Jesus going to do in this tense situation? He tells the man to get up and come forward. When he does, Jesus looks around at the Pharisees “with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart” (Mark 3:5). Have you ever said to someone, “Why are you so angry?” and they say, “I’m not angry, I’m hurt”? Well, both are true. Anger always has pain as its root. Usually we are angry because of a wounded ego. Jesus was angered and hurt by the Pharisees’ hardness of heart.
5. Just once we are told that Jesus got mad with his disciples. When you remember how thick and misguided the disciples could be sometimes, this shows remarkable restraint! But this time it was too much. The disciples were telling off people – presumably Mums and Dads – for trying to bring their little children to Jesus. This made him indignant (Mark 10:14). They were getting in the way of God’s grace. They were getting in the way of the very kind of people that make up God’s kingdom.
6. The next instance is more difficult to figure out. Just two weeks or so out from his crucifixion Jesus approaches the tomb of Lazarus. As he does so, it says twice that he “was deeply moved” (John 11:33, 38). But how was he deeply moved? You will recall that there was grief. Jesus wept. But he was not just moved with grief. There was also anger. Anger at death. Anger at the last enemy, the enemy he had come to destroy.
7. The example I have left till last is the one that most quickly comes to mind when people think about Jesus being angry. And of course I am thinking of the cleansing of the temple. But the surprising thing is that even though all four Gospels record the event, none of them say that Jesus was angry. John comes closest when he quotes a Psalm to explain what was happening, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:17; cf. Psalm 69:9). Zeal is more than anger. It is the ardour of red-hot passion. What Jesus sees happening in the temple at Passover is enough to make his blood boil. His zeal is all-consuming. It just eats him up. But there is more. His zeal will consume him (future tense). His cleansing of the temple will ultimately lead to his death. He is the Lamb of God who dies at the Passover.

 

1. So far we have looked at Jesus’ love, compassion and anger. The next emotion may surprise you, and that is that Jesus could be surprised or amazed! In some ways this adds a very human touch. But how was Jesus amazed?
2. Only twice do the Gospels tell us that Jesus was surprised. One of those times is when he was back at his hometown of Nazareth. On the Sabbath he was given the chance to teach in the local synagogue. At first the people were very impressed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given to him?” But then the tone of their questions changed. “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son? Aren’t his brothers and sisters here with us?” He was just an ordinary bloke, a carpenter. He was the guy next door. Very quickly they went from being impressed to being dismissive. Then at the end of the story it says that “he was amazed at their unbelief” (Mark 6:6). Their sudden change of heart had taken even Jesus by surprise.
3. There’s one other example of surprise that may also surprise you. It could not have been more opposite to the situation in Nazareth. In Nazareth he was surprised by unbelief. This time he is surprised by great faith. In Nazareth he was surprised by his own people. Here he was surprised by a Gentile. I am thinking of course of the centurion who pleaded with Jesus for his servant to be healed. But what was it about this man that so surprised Jesus? I think the answer lies in the man’s words when he said, “I too am a man under authority” (Matt 9:9; Luke 7:8). In other words, when he gave an order he had the might of the Roman Empire behind him. He had imperial authority; Jesus had divine authority. When Jesus commanded someone to be healed, he did it in the power of God. It was a remarkable spiritual insight. Jesus was amazed and he commended the man for his great faith.

 

1. The next major emotion is the joy of Jesus. What was it that made Jesus really, really happy?
2. After the mission of the seventy the disciples returned to Jesus. It was one of their first mission experiences. Have you ever seen people who have just come back from their first short-term mission trip? They are such a glum lot, aren’t they? Not at all. They may be exhausted, but boy are they excited! I remember once talking to a guy who had been on a mission with Aboriginal kids in Moree in NSW. When I asked him how it went, he talked for twenty minutes without taking a breath. He was overjoyed with the experience. So were the disciples when they came back to Jesus. And Jesus shared in that joy. Luke tells us that Jesus was “full of joy through the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21). He had been anointed with the Holy Spirit for his mission and now that mission was being fulfilled.
3. But there were also other ways in which Jesus’ mission was fulfilled. When Lazarus died, Jesus said to his disciples, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe” (John 11:14-15). This really softens what it says in the original, which actually sounds pretty harsh, “Lazarus is dead and I rejoice.” Why would Jesus rejoice because his friend is dead? He doesn’t rejoice because Lazarus is dead but because the disciples will believe. So far in John they had witnessed healings. Now they will see a man raised from the dead. As a result, their faith will take on new dimensions. Again, Jesus’ mission is being fulfilled.
4. But Jesus’ joy is experienced at a deeper level still. His mission is not yet complete. In the Upper Room Jesus says to his disciples, “I have told you this that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Then a little later he prays to the Father, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them” (John 17:13). But what is his joy and how can the disciples share it? In answering this question let me share with you one of the great secrets of the Christian life. The key to joy is obedience. The disciples experienced joy when they obeyed Jesus. Jesus experienced joy when he obeyed the Father. Jesus commanded the disciples to love one another. The Father commanded Jesus to lay down his life. Some people have called this a case of cosmic child abuse. But that’s not how Jesus saw it. At the prospect of laying down his life Jesus experiences fulness of joy. This is what you might call “the sublime gladness of whole-hearted obedience” (Don Carson). Jesus was no masochist when he went to the cross. Obeying the Father was his supreme delight.

1. But the picture of Jesus’ emotions in the Gospels is also complex. There are times when he can experience deep sorrow. And this sorrow comes in many forms.
2. Early in his ministry the only sorrow we can detect in Jesus is in his sighing. When Jesus healed a deaf-mute, “he looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, ‘Ephphatha! . . . ‘Be opened’” (Mark 7:34). His sigh expresses Jesus’ empathy for the man’s plight as he enters into his distress. A little later he sighs again when the Pharisees ask him for a sign from heaven (Mark 8:12). This time his sigh is one of dismay.
3. Not long after Jesus had been so delighted after the mission of the seventy, he says something about his own mission, “I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” (Luke 12:50). He was on his way to Jerusalem and the cross cast a long shadow over his journey. He knew he was going to die. His ministry had begun with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and it would end with the baptism of death.
4. The closer Jesus gets to his destination the more intense his emotions become. At the tomb of Lazarus in Bethany, which was just three kilometres from Jerusalem, Jesus was troubled (John 11:33). He was troubled by Lazarus’ death, but also by his own death which now was just days away. Just after he enters Jerusalem, he utters a prayer to God, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27-28). But before that hour of death there is one more thing that troubles him, something that breaks his heart. Troubled in spirit, he says to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me” (John 13:21). He knew it had to happen, but it still hurts him deeply.
5. And then we have Jesus’ tears. On two occasions we see him weeping. I’m sure we all know the shortest verse in the Bible – “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). At the tomb of Lazarus Jesus bursts into tears. He shares the sorrow of the mourners around him. Then, a few days later, “as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it” (Luke 19:41). But this time he doesn’t just burst into tears. He wails and says, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what brings you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:41). A doomed city lies before him and he wails. The city where he is about to die will itself be destroyed. Forty years later Jerusalem was devastated by the Romans. Its temple was torn down and its streets ran red with blood. No wonder Jesus wailed and wept.
6. Jesus’ sorrows become even more intense in the Garden of Gethsemane. Going deeper into the Garden he took Peter, James and John with him. It was then that “he began to be sorrowful, deeply distressed and troubled” (Matt 26:37; Mark 14:33). Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matt 26:38; Mark 14:34). It’s as though he is saying, “I am so overwhelmed with sorrow that it’s killing me.” His heart is about to break with grief. His deep distress is a shuddering horror at what is about to transpire. But what do his grief and distress actually look like? In another passage we read that “in his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). In his agony he didn’t just sweat. And it doesn’t even say that he sweat profusely. He sweat blood! It’s a rare medical condition that is produced by extreme stress. In Gethsemane he knew exactly what lay ahead and it almost killed him.
7. Then finally all his sorrows culminate on the cross, when Jesus cries out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:39). Jesus has now suffered six hours of excruciating pain on the cross, almost three of them in utter darkness. Jesus understandably has the feeling of being abandoned and deserted by God. He experiences a sense of total desolation. This is what he has been dreading the most. Now his earlier anguish, sorrow, tears and distress all make sense. He had seen the storm clouds building and now the storm has been unleashed on him in all its fury. Mystery of mysteries, the beloved Son of God now experiences the full wrath of God. The one who had always lived in the bosom of the Father is now forsaken by the Father.

Conclusion

            So there you have a bird’s eye view of the emotional life of Jesus:

• His deep love
• His warm compassion
• His burning anger
• His amazing surprise
• His profound joy
• His overwhelming sorrow

What is there not to love about our Saviour? What is there not to fill us with wonder at the greatness of our salvation?

In all of human history there has never been anyone quite like Jesus. He is

• Our compassionate King
• The Man of sorrows
• The sympathetic Saviour
• Our loving Lord

In him we see the glory of God!