Jesus afraid?

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gambling88

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In Mark 14:33, it says “…he began to feel dread and to be exceedingly troubled.” I don’t understand how Jesus could be afraid. In 2 Timothy 1:7, it says “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of prudence.”. In Mark 5:36 Jesus says “Do not be afraid, only have faith.” Someone please explain to me why Jesus was afraid when he preached against it.

Thanks
 
Wouldn’t you be afraid if you knew exactly what suffering you were going to go through, and it was suffering as horrifying as that which Jesus was about to begin?

Jesus was human, just like the rest of us, and He certainly felt human emotions. However, He was also divine, and His human will and divine will were both in perfect unity. He could not have possibly despaired, because He was God, but that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t experience fear, joy, excitement, or any other human emotion.
 
But 2 Timothy says God does not give us a spirit of fear and why did Jesus say “Do not be afaid” if he was going to be afraid and as you aredescribing it as a perfectly natural human emotion.

I’ve got my own idea but I will wait and see if more people can enlighten.
 
The Bible was not written to be taken out of context.

That quote from Timothy is from a completely different part of the Bible, and a different context, than the parts of the Gospels which discuss Jesus’ passion. When it says that God does not give us a spirit of fear, that doesn’t mean that no Christian is ever afraid. Of course not; that’s silly.

You should take the meaning of every bible verse in context. If I had time, I’d take a look at the context of the verse you mention myself, but I have to log off, so I suggest you do so yourself and answer your own question. 🙂
 
No one like pain ND SUFFERING but Jesus showed us how to go through it.
 
If he did not show fear, he wouldn’t be a very realistic model to shoot for in life. He is to be our example in how we can conquer sin with God’s help after all.
 
To Gambling88: Have you seen the film "Passion of the Christ:? If not, I recommend it to you. Jesus was human as well as Divine, I defy anyone human to see what Crucifixion involves, to KNOW they are about to go through that, and NOT be afraid of the pain and suffering! And, He knew He was doing it for millions of people who simply did not care, did not believe and for millions in the future who would not believe or care. He did it because He loved us anyway!

If, after seeing that film, you don’t think He loved us beyond anything else (other than the Father, of course), then think again! Would you actually go through that to save even one soul? I have to ask myself that question each year when I watch the film during Lent, and my honest answer is: “I don’t know if I could, but I HOPE I could for just one soul, but somehow I doubt that I could, though I’d like to have enough holiness and faith that I could!”:o
 
As others have mentioned, Jesus being fully human in all things but sin must have felt the dread of what he was about to physically experience. His humanity must also have been deeply troubled at Gethsemane as while in prayer to His Father the spiritual and physical horror of all human sin was in effect run before Him and placed/to be placed upon Him.

He felt ‘alone’ on seeing the Apostles sleeping even while He was so troubled {“can you not watch one hour with me?”], and on the cross the next day, abandoned by all but His Mother and John and abused by the mob and torn and in agony it is also very understandable that His humanity should briefly express itself in a form of doubt and indeed ‘panic’, when He uttered those words, “My God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned Me?”
 
gambling88 said:
But 2 Timothy says God does not give us a spirit of fear and why did Jesus say “Do not be afaid” if he was going to be afraid and as you aredescribing it as a perfectly natural human emotion.

I’ve got my own idea but I will wait and see if more people can enlighten.
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He’s speaking of this life in general-not to be anxious about worldly concerns and fears because our treasure is not of this world. And in any case His immediate fears were overcome. The awesome thing is that, knowing what was coming, to the point where He sweat blood, He nevertheless went willingly to His destiny-for our sake. He could have walked away-or commanded an army of angels to stop His persecutors.
 
gambling88 said:
In Mark 14:33, it says “…he began to feel dread and to be exceedingly troubled.” I don’t understand how Jesus could be afraid. In 2 Timothy 1:7, it says “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of prudence.”. In Mark 5:36 Jesus says “Do not be afraid, only have faith.” Someone please explain to me why Jesus was afraid when he preached against it.
Thanks
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What you seem to be getting confused about also is the difference between “thought” and “feeling”. Mark and the letter to Timothy are telling us that God is with us, so we should not give in to the thoughts of fear and should act heroically by thinking instead on the love and faith of God. A “feeling” is a spontaneous inner reaction that is apart from thought. Even though Jesus knew he had nothing to fear (for he was after all God), his human nature still experienced that spontaneous fearful feeling.

To use another example, I knew when I am getting into the roller coaster at the amusement park that it has been over-engineered with redundant safety systems and I will make it safely to the end so logically I have nothing to fear. Those thoughts however do not stop me from experiencing “fear” as we climb the lift hill.
Mount_Carmel said:
As others have mentioned, Jesus being fully human in all things but sin must have felt the dread of what he was about to physically experience. His humanity must also have been deeply troubled at Gethsemane as while in prayer to His Father the spiritual and physical horror of all human sin was in effect run before Him and placed/to be placed upon Him.

He felt ‘alone’ on seeing the Apostles sleeping even while He was so troubled {“can you not watch one hour with me?”], and on the cross the next day, abandoned by all but His Mother and John and abused by the mob and torn and in agony it is also very understandable that His humanity should briefly express itself in a form of doubt and indeed ‘panic’, when He uttered those words, “My God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned Me?”
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Very well put. Just one small item - Jesus’ words on the cross “My God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned (forsaken) Me?” are not words of fear or panic, but words of triumph and faith. He is quoting Psalm 22, which per-configures His death but ends with the triumph of God.
 
gambling88 said:
In Mark 14:33, it says “…he began to feel dread and to be exceedingly troubled.” I don’t understand how Jesus could be afraid. In 2 Timothy 1:7, it says “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of prudence.”. In Mark 5:36 Jesus says “Do not be afraid, only have faith.” Someone please explain to me why Jesus was afraid when he preached against it.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Courage is not an absence of fear. Courage is doing what is right in spite of our fear. When Jesus said, ‘do not be afraid’, He was not telling them to do something unnatural. He was commanding them to do something supernatural. The Spirit gives us the courage to face our fears and do what is right no matter how difficult. This is what Jesus was doing. He was full of dread, so much so that He sweat what was as it were, ‘great drops of blood’. Even so, He did what was right. His resolve to die for His people was stronger than His natural inclination to self-preservation.
 
gambling88 said:
In Mark 14:33, it says “…he began to feel dread and to be exceedingly troubled.” I don’t understand how Jesus could be afraid. In 2 Timothy 1:7, it says “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of prudence.”. In Mark 5:36 Jesus says “Do not be afraid, only have faith.” Someone please explain to me why Jesus was afraid when he preached against it.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi Gambling,

I think there is an important terminological issue here. The word “fear” or “afraid” is not the best translation from Koine Greek in either of these passages.

In the Markan verse, the words are best translated “awe struck” or “full of dread” and “distressed” or “troubled”, not fear. If we look at parallel uses of these words, the emphasis is not on being a scardy cat but on being moved (to amazement and sadness) by the immensity of something happening. We can therefore understand how Jesus would have felt this way, pondering what he was going to go through.

Similarly, in 2 Timothy, the implication of the word (which can be translated “fear”) is more one of being a coward or overly timid. Now Jesus clearly does not have this spirit - he is going to an excruciating death and does not back down no matter how distressed he is because he wishes to fulfil his Father’s will.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks everyone and Jonathan hili,

Here’s what I think

Jesus wasn’t afraid, he was in deep agony because he loved us so much and the people he loves he was going to see crucify him and hate him when he loved them so much and they “do not know what they do.” Jesus said not for us to fear those who can harm the body but after that can do nothing and then he was gonna go ahead and be afraid of those who harm the body. I don’t think so. Fear is always from the enemy, it is our lack of trust/emnity with God.
 
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