Jesus' Agony in Gethsemane: Sweating Blood from Overwhelming Sorrow

We are continuing our daily meditations on the events that led up to the crucifixion of Christ. When Jesus and the disciples arrived in Gethsemane, Christ moved a stone's throw away from them, and Luke tells us that He fell to His knees to pray (Luke 22:41). Matthew tells us that at times His posture was lying face down in impassioned prayer:

³⁷He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." ³⁹Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:37-39).

The phrase “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” is very vivid and makes us wonder what was happening in Jesus' soul. Whatever Christ experienced, the Lord described it as so overwhelming that it nearly brought Him to death (v. 38). The moment was so intense that He begged the disciples for support in prayer, saying, “Stay here and keep watch with me” (Matthew 26:38). Mark described Jesus as being “deeply distressed and troubled” (Mark 14:33). The writer of Hebrews also talked about what Jesus endured in the garden, saying, “he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death” (Hebrews 5:7). The English King James Bible translates the same verse as: “He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears.” Luke described Jesus as: “being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). The Greek word for anguish is the root of our English word agony and describes someone fighting a battle with intense fear.

Jim Bishop, in his book The Day Christ Died, comments on the sweat of Jesus being like drops of blood:

“Medically, this is called haematidrosis. It occurs when fear is piled upon fear, when an agony of suffering is laid upon older suffering until the highly sensitized person can no longer sustain the pain. At that moment, the patient ordinarily loses consciousness. When that does not happen, the subcutaneous capillaries sometimes dilate so broadly that, when they come into contact with the sweat glands, the little capillaries burst. The blood is exuded with the perspiration and, usually, this occurs all over the body.”^[1]

I read about this happening during World War II when Nazi Germany bombed London in what was known as the Blitz. The daily stress of the bombing led to several cases of haematidrosis. The fear was so intense that some people began sweating blood.

Some scholars interpret “his sweat was like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44) to mean that Jesus wasn’t bleeding; He was sweating so profusely that it appeared as if He was bleeding. They suggest He might have been sweating from the intensity of His fervent prayer or due to stress. Christ’s Gethsemane experience took place during Passover, which falls between March and April on our calendar, and Jerusalem is usually cold because of its mountain location. Later, Peter warmed himself by the fire in Caiaphas’ courtyard with those who arrested Jesus, indicating it was cold, and making it unlikely He was sweating as described; otherwise, why mention blood? Sweat would have been hard to see in the moonlight from a short distance, but it’s suggested that the disciples noticed He had been sweating when He went to wake them. If it had been blood, it would have shown in the color of His tunic when He approached the disciples. I leave it to you to decide which interpretation seems more believable. I personally believe that the Scriptures mention drops of blood because He was sweating blood due to the severe anguish and stress He endured in the garden. Why is this significant? To keep this to a 3–4-minute read, let’s continue tomorrow by reflecting on what caused Christ such anguish. Keith Thomas

You may be interested in watching or listening to this talk on YouTube. Here’s the link:

https://youtu.be/GLBuK6QlBnU

The written study 60 in Luke can be read at the following link: Jesus at Gethsemane.

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^[1] The Day Christ Died by Jim Bishop. Harper San Francisco Publishers. Page 169.