The Emotionality of Jesus

Ever have one of those days when you just feel emotional for no reason? If you are a woman, you know what I’m talking about. When I was going through menopause I experienced mood swings, sadness and anxiety on almost a daily basis. 

I was reading about the death of Lazarus in the Bible and started thinking about the emotionality of Jesus. Mary and Martha had notified Jesus that their brother Lazarus was ill. Jesus and the disciples went to Judea but were delayed four days. By the time they got to Bethany, Lazarus had died. John 11:33 says “..he was greatly distressed in spirit and deeply moved.” John 11:35 says “Jesus wept”. These verses show just how deeply disturbed Jesus was, he showed great emotion. Jesus’ emotions are not always visible to us in the Bible, but here, his emotions are clearly felt. 

Jesus also shows great anguish when praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22:44 says, “In his anguish he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood..” Jesus was so stressed, and possibly fearful, because he knew what was about to happen to him. He was under extreme duress and demonstrated his intense emotion and spiritual struggle in this Biblical account.  

Jesus shows great compassion in the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus was saddened when he learned of the death of John the Baptist. He was praying when people started to follow him. Matthew 14:14 says, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them”. Jesus had double emotion here. He was grieved about John the Baptist and had great compassion for the people following him. 

Jesus also showed anger. Jesus went to the temple and saw people buying and selling and yelled at the money changers. He also made a whip out of cords and drove the people out of the temple. In John 2:16 Jesus says “Take these things out of here! Stop making my father’s house a marketplace!” Here we can clearly see the level of Jesus’ anger. No where else in the Bible do we see this level of emotion in Jesus.

Jesus not only shows negative emotions like sorrow, anguish and anger but also joy. In the book of Luke, Jesus sends out seventy disciples to heal the sick and cast out demons in his name. In Luke 10:17 the disciples said, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” Verse 21 says, “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit”, then in joy Jesus praised God. 

Jesus was fully human, he experienced all of the emotions that we do. It does not say that he was ever depressed but he often showed frustration in that the disciples did not understand Jesus’ ultimate goal on earth. 

There is a very popular picture that was painted showing Jesus laughing. It is not recorded in scripture that Jesus ever laughed but he must have. If he were here with us I’m sure he would show us this emotion in love. 

Dear God, thank you for the blessing of your son, Jesus Christ. He showed his ultimate love and concern in your word. Help us to believe that he would be exceptionally happy with us. Amen

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