Gethsemane 7 - Luke 22:44

With the angel there to strengthen Him, Jesus was still filled with so much agony that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” I always wondered if this was a metaphor because no one records this event except for Luke who says “as it were” like, maybe not real. And honestly, when ever there is a picture painted of the Savior in Gethsemane, I always wondered why his clothes were soaked with blood. I’ve always thought that if he bled out of his skin then his clothes would have been quite bloody by the time he was done.

But then in D&C 19:18 Jesus says “which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore.” And both King Benjamin and Jacob testify that “blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish.” Clearly the bleeding actually did happen, so while it might not seem well recorded or even that important, Jesus bleeding from every pore is incredibly significant.
When I was younger I asked my mom what a “pore” was. She said something to the effect of it being all the little openings where hair grows out, and that’s relatively accurate, but next to the opening where the hair comes out, there is an opening from the skin to the outside that connects with a sweat gland. How is it even possible for blood to come out of a sweat gland? The IM says that what happened to the Savior in this moment came from a condition “known as hematidrosis. This condition leads to the rupture of capillaries just under the surface of the skin, causing the skin to exude a bloody sweat. Any other person would have died before his condition reached the point of bleeding from every pore, but the Savior was the Son of God and so was able to endure this great agony for us.” This explanations lends evidence to the fact that no one else could have performed the atonement. Because Christ was sinless and half-God, he was able to endure unspeakable pain for as long as he chose to.
Before we get into the physicality of hematidrosis, let’s look at the statement “any other person would have died before his condition reached the point of bleeding from every pore.” Why didn’t Jesus die? Why was He able to stay alive when anyone else’s body would have just given up? In “The Infinite Atonement” Jesus’ physical and godly faculties are discussed. There are many quotes which conclude that, had he chose, Jesus could have experienced life as the thundering, intimidating demi-god, but instead chose to experience life like the rest of us. Elder Bruce R. McConkie is quoted as saying, “Our Lord voluntarily abased himself, or, rather, emptied himself of all hid divine power, or enfeebled himself by relying upon his humanity and not his Godhood, so as to be as other men and thus be tested to the full by all the trials and torments of the flesh.”
C.S. Lewis is also quoted as saying, “God could, had He pleased, have been incarnate in a man of iron nerves, the Stoic sort who lets no sigh escape him. Of His great humility He chose to be incarnate in a man of delicate sensibilities.” He could have kept a part of his godhood that was commanding and induced people to believe simply because of the power that he exuded. But Jesus didn’t do that, he wanted to experience mortal life like the rest of us, and that as a personality trait shows just how much he wanted to be empathetic to us, and how much he wanted us to be able to succeed.
He suffered hunger, thirst, fatigue, ridicule, assault, and temptations just like the rest of us. In “The Infinite Atonement” we read that during his whole mortal experience, “not once did he raise the shield of godhood in order to soften the blows. Not once did he don the bulletproof vest of divinity. That he also had godly powers did not make his suffering any less excruciating, any less poignant, or any less real. To the contrary, it is for this very reason that his suffering was more, not less, than his mortal counterparts could experience.
He took upon him infinite suffering, but chose to defend with only mortal faculties, with one exception- his godhood was summoned to hold off unconsciousness and death (i.e., the twin relief mechanisms of man) that would otherwise overpower a mere mortal when he reached his threshold of pain. For the Savior, however, there would be no such relief. His divinity would be called upon, not to immunize him from pain, but to enlarge the receptacle that would hold it. He simply brought a larger cup to hold the bitter drink.”
This explanation really helped me understand this portion of the atonement better. I had always thought that because Jesus was a god that he didn’t feel as much pain, which of course made me angry because if I have to feel the pain, then it’s only fair that when atoning for  me, he feel the same amount of pain. I know that sounds crazy and sadistic, but I did think that way, I did wonder how any man was going to judge me when he didn’t “feel” my suffering to the same degree and depth that I had. If he didn’t really feel what it was like to be me, then how was he supposed to determine my worthiness? But once I understood that he did in fact feel all my pain and sorrow to the extent that I did, and that he used his godly power to not lessen his pain, but to feel the depth of mine, it was a game changer.
Jesus was able to indefinitely hold off on any physical relief from the pain he was experiencing during the atonement, but it did take a toll on his body as we see with the sweating blood. I guess when you’re in the throws of craziness, you can only hold so much together for so long. According to the Indian Journal of Dermatology, hematidrosis is a very rare condition, “around the sweat glands, there are multiple blood vessels in a net-like form, which constrict under the pressure of great stress. Then, as the anxiety passes, the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture and goes into the sweat glands. As the sweat glands produce a lot of sweat, they push the blood to the surface, which comes out as droplets of blood mixed with sweat.” The extreme constriction and dilation of blood vessels on the capillary level speaks to the level of physical stress that the Savior was under at that time.
Let’s look at the physical aspects of Jesus’ body’s reaction. Intense pain leads to an increased heart rate, which wouldn’t be too serious at first, especially considering that Jesus is a pretty young guy at this point, 33 years old, and probably in relatively good shape, having walked around the whole of Israel for the previous 3 years. As his heart rate remains high, his heart begins to work over time, and the blood vessels would begin to weaken after a prolonged period of time. We know that Jesus took at least two breaks because he came back to find his disciples at least twice before he was finished, and just like a cup of bitter drink would separate itself in concentration, there was probably a variable component to the pain the Savior suffered. This back and forth of intensity might have weakened the capillaries so that as the Lord’s blood pressure rose, there was no place for the blood to go except out of his pores.
So was it only the physical pressure that caused the Savior to bleed from every pore? Honestly, if we think about what his body was doing, kneeling or laying on the ground praying, that’s not that strenuous, it shouldn’t have caused such a major physical reaction. I don’t know why I hadn’t made the connection before that if I feel a stabbing pain in my knee, Jesus felt a stabbing pain in his knee too, the same intensity and duration so it was like he suddenly contracted every illness ever known to mankind, that kind of physical exertion all of a sudden would be unbearable for anyone else. So it wasn’t just that he was kneeling there spiritually feeling our pains or something like that, he felt all our physical pains as if they were his own and he felt all our spiritual pains as if he was the one who had been unworthy to be in God’s presence.
The sources that I’ve read say that hematidrosis is not just because of physical pain, in fact, the most cases are “psychogenic (fear induced.)” This is an interesting concept to me because I’ve often thought about what was the most surprising sensation to the Savior as he lived all of our lives vicariously, and I’ve always thought that fear would have been the most surprising to him. I have heard the saying, “fear is the absence of faith,” and I agree with that to a certain extent. I agree that and absence of faith can be the result of fear only to the point that it is not biological. The first time I heard someone say that phrase, I thought, “that’s not true, fear is a natural response from our body to help us avoid danger.”
Looking at it from a spiritual perspective, as Jesus felt our sufferings, he would have had to deal with those fears that stemmed from an absence of faith because the people didn’t know where to find it. During His mortal life, I don’t feel that fear was a prominent feeling that Jesus experienced. He always trusted Heavenly Father, he always trusted His plan, he always trusted his parents, He knew that he wouldn’t die until he chose to give up his life, He knew worst case scenario he could call down fire from heaven in order to accomplish His Father’s work. But I imagine as he felt the abject terror from Able as Cain bludgeoned him to death with a rock, that panic was probably a first for him, and I bet it was terrible.
Jesus wasn’t used to fear, fear on a spiritual level but also fear on a biological, survival level. I think of every charge in battle, every individual act of violence, every rape, every moment of torture ever perpetrated on to one person by another, every unexpected death as someone plunges into the unknown unwillingly. Every moment of terror ever to occur in the whole universe collapsing onto Jesus at this very moment, along with all the pain ever felt by any living creature, with all of our sadness and sorrow and suffering. This would have been an absolute nightmare. It really makes me stop and think if I really understand about the atonement at all.