Holy Boldness

it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:49, 50). The word translated as “distressed” means “ to be pressed, constrained, to have pressure from every side.” 5 Jesus felt keenly the weight of His assignment. We must allow Christ to be a man or we will not be able to look to Jesus for clues as to how to walk in the fear of the Lord. The book of Hebrews says that Jesus sympathized with our weaknesses and was tempt ed in all things. Jesus is the pattern for so much more than most believers realize. Significantly, the disciples only gradually came into a revelation of who Jesus was. This further confirms His humanity. They did not know that He was God’s “only begotten son” until it was revealed to them over time. Even the concept of “messiah” was unclear in first-century Judaism. There were many opinions about what the “Christ” was supposed to be. One can read the debates about it right in the Gospel accounts. (See John 7:40-52) Even though the Old Testament prophesies concerning the Messiah were explicit, they were rarely understood by people of first-century Judaism. Jesus did not announce His messiahship in so many words, know ing that the Jews held many expectations of what Messiah was supposed to be. Part of the offense towards Jesus was that after people came to believe He was the promised Messiah, He did not meet their assumptions of what Messiah should be. Jesus needed the fear of the Lord in His own life to walk out His unique understanding of Messiahship as there was tremendous pressure from all sides for Him to conform to popular expectation. Many were confused by Jesus’ actions. At a certain point, John the Baptist sent a delegation of his disciples to Jesus asking if He was “the one,” i.e. the Messiah, “or should they look for another.” (see Matthew 11) Even Jesus’ closest disciples challenged the idea that He was going to be killed by the Jews. They sought to persuade Him in another direction. Up until the final hours before the cross in the garden, Jesus was in prayer seeking the way through, asking if there was any other way other than the cross that would lead to the redemption of man. (Luke 22: 42-44). But Jesus was

5

Abbot-Smith, G. Manuel Greek Lexicon of the New Testa

ment, Charles Scribners Sons, 1936 p. 428

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