Of the incarnation, theologian John Murray says, “The thought of the incarnation is stupendous, for it means the conjunction in one person of all that belongs to the Godhead and all that belongs to manhood.” The fullness of the eternal son of God became flesh and dwelt among us. This is a truth we must understand and defend because if Jesus was not both then he would not be able to accomplish his saving work for mankind.
The New Testament continually bears witness to the necessity, legitimacy and validity of both Jesus’ humanity and divinity. One way we see that played out is through Jesus’ experience of emotions. Throughout the accounts of Jesus’ life in the gospels, we see him exhibiting a full range of emotions which reflect his true and complete humanity. He was moved to compassion; he was angry; he felt joy; he experienced wonder; he suffered grief and sorrow. Due to his divinity, Jesus knew how to handle his emotions perfectly and without sin.
A brief exploration of two emotions, anger and fear, will help us understand the completeness of his emotional life and the compatibility of his emotional life with his sinlessness.
Anger
The emotion most confounding when considering Jesus’ sinless emotions is anger. Commonly we view anger as a negative emotion with sinful connotations. However, Jesus’ experience of anger and indignation is the logical outworking of his divinity. As the holy son of God, his holiness stands in opposition to sin and his anger is the only right response toward all that is unholy, ungodly and sinful. For Jesus, his anger comes out of his love for holiness and truth and justice. It is because Jesus passionately loves these things that he reacts angrily toward anything and anyone who defiles them. His anger is not borne out of selfishness or an inability to get his own way, as is often the case for us.
The Gospel of Mark provides several examples of Christ’s anger. He was angry towards the Pharisees with their stubborn hearts as he healed the man with the withered hand. In response to them being more concerned about religious rituals than the suffering of their fellow man Jesus’ anger rose. The hardness of their hearts hurt Jesus and he was angry at such a display of indifference.
Later, we encounter Jesus’ anger towards his disciples. When Jesus discovered that the disciples were rebuking people for bringing children to him to be blessed, he was indignant. The Greek word used is only found here in the New Testament and “is a combination of two words: ‘much’ and ‘to grieve’.” Jesus was grieved at his disciples’ lack of compassion and lack of understanding of the kingdom of God and spoke to them with righteous indignation.
Throughout the gospel, Jesus is angry at those who should have known better. The disciples, the Pharisees, and the priests who knew God’s word and failed to uphold it. His anger was against the religious irreverence of the Jews towards God and the unjust treatment of the poor. All the devastating features of this fallen world excite his wrath. Ultimately the source of Jesus’ anger was his love for his Father God and his desire for God’s glory and holiness to be upheld.
Fear
Jesus’ ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane illustrates his humanity and emotions in graphic detail. The depths to which he emotionally wrestles with his upcoming death resonate with anguish and pain. Mark’s account of Gethsemane depicts the horror Jesus feels towards his suffering. In Mark 14:33 Jesus is described as “deeply distressed and troubled.” The words in the original language describe someone in the grip of a shuddering horror or terrified surprise.
As Jesus looked into the cup of God’s wrath, he was astonished and overcome with horror. This was suffering beyond any human being has ever experienced. Jesus continues in verse 34 saying, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” His distress, indicated by deep grief, is so desperate that it threatens his life.
The account in Luke 22 brings to the fore even more of Jesus’ deep distress. Jesus’ extreme agony is revealed physically through firstly his prostrate position of prayer and his exhaustion which is so great an angel came from heaven to strengthen him. When Jesus resumed his praying it was in such anguish that his sweat fell like drops of blood. Jesus’ emotional response to his suffering affected his whole being. He was racked with fear at his impending death. He poured his whole strength into pleading with God for another way. Christ cried loudly in agony for the cup to be taken away because he was truly a man who felt the significance and weight of the cross.
Throughout all his agony and emotional anguish Jesus retains a calm mastery over his behaviour towards those around him; his disciples, his enemies, his judges, and his executioners. His suffering does not lead him into sin towards them. He remains in control and on the cross can cry out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Even while enduring the greatest act of suffering Jesus remains the sinless saviour.
Application
What does Jesus’ display of his humanity and divinity through his emotions mean for us?
There are three brief applications.
1) We can have confidence in the completeness of Jesus’ death for us.
His divinity was necessary for him to be our sinless sacrifice and his humanity was necessary for his identification with mankind. In Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who lived and died as a human, we have an all-sufficient Saviour whose death achieved total forgiveness.
2) We have a great High Priest who can empathise with our weaknesses, and “who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.”
Jesus knows fully what it is like to be a human so whatever emotion we are feeling we can come to him knowing he understands. He is not a distant God but one who has walked our path.
3) Jesus shows us that God designed emotions for our good and how we can properly engage with our emotions without sin.
Our current culture seems to see them as the defining mark of how we view ourselves. But we know that is not accurate. Our feelings can be fickle and changeable. They can be at odds with the reality of our bodies and the world around us. This can lead us to view our feelings with suspicion. We don’t want to be seen as ‘too emotional’.
Looking at Jesus we see that emotions are a normal part of the human experience. We don’t want to suppress them, instead, there are times when it is right and good to be emotional. Jesus also shows us how to exercise our emotions without falling into sin. We can learn from him.
The study of Christ’s emotions helps us see what it means to be properly human. They “carry home to us a very vivid impression of the truth and reality of our Lord’s human nature” and we are left with the conviction that Jesus was a human being like ourselves. We are also witnesses to the truth that his emotions are in keeping with his sinless divine character. Christ’s emotions were always unveiled in ‘perfect proportion and balance’.
