HOW CAN JESUS BE AMAZED?

JACK COTTRELL, APRIL 2019

        QUESTION:  My King James Version says in Mark 14:33 that when Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His death, He “began to be sore amazed.”  My 1901 American Standard Version likewise says He “began to be greatly amazed, and sore troubled.”  How could Jesus, who is God the Logos as well as a human being, be AMAZED?  Does not God foreknow everything?  How could anything “amaze” Jesus? 

      ANSWER:  This is indeed an interesting question.  Mark is the only Gospel writer who puts it this way, but he clearly says that the amazement was a new feeling that Jesus experienced on this occasion: He began to be amazed.  How can we explain this?

        Someone might suggest that this is just an incorrect translation of the Greek word Mark uses here, which is ekthambeō.  I looked up this verse on the Bible Gateway website, which will list together about 59 different English versions or translations of any verse.  Only eight of them translated it as “amazed.”  The greatest number (26) translated it as “distressed.”  Other versions say Jesus began to fear, to be in despair, to be troubled or sad or upset.  But – only eight said “amazed.”  Could they be wrong?

        Mark uses this word three other times, all for just ordinary people (Mark 9:15; 16:5, 6).  I looked these three verses up also, and found that almost all of them translated the same word in these verses as AMAZED, or with similar words such as startled, surprised, astounded, or astonished!  Also, the New Testament uses at least five other Greek words in the same family as ekthambeō; they are thambeō, ekthambos, thambos, ekthaumazō, and thaumazō.  Most of the time these similar words are translated with “amazed” or synonyms (e.g., astonished, surprised).  These are referring mostly to ordinary people, also.

        So, why would most of the translators be so reluctant to translate the same Greek word in Mark 14:33 with something else, especially a word (“distressed”) that is essentially the meaning of the verb that follows it?  I think the hesitation to use “amazed” here is simply the fact that at this point Mark is talking about JESUS!  The translators seem to be thinking the same thing as my questioner, above:  “Surely, Jesus as God could not actually be amazed about anything!  So we will have to find some other word that just fits the context, even if it does not fit the Greek word itself.”

        If this was their thinking (and I am only speculating), it was certainly wrong, and unnecessary.  The Greek word used by Mark here means amazed, and should be so translated here!  When Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane, He began to be amazed!  I will explain now how this was so.

I.  JESUS WAS BOTH GOD AND MAN

        The explanation begins with the fact of the INCARNATION, a word which literally means “enfleshment.”  It is a word we have created to express the statement made in John 1:14, that the eternal Logos, the second person of the Trinity, “became flesh” and dwelt among us as a human being, Jesus of Nazareth.  The idea is that Jesus, from the time He was supernaturally conceived in Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20), had two distinct natures:  divine and human.  This one person was thus both God and man.

        A.  The Divine Nature of Jesus.  I will first say some things about Jesus’s divine nature.  The eternal God has always existed as three distinct persons or centers of consciousness in one divine Being.  In Old Testament times He was known as Yahweh, a name that could refer to any one or to all three of the persons of the Trinity.  Ever since Jesus came, as recorded in the New Testament Scriptures, we have known that Yahweh is actually the three divine persons we know as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (e.g., Matthew 28:19).  Here I will refer to them as the Father, the Logos (John 1:1), and the Holy Spirit.

        All three persons of the Trinity are equal in existence, nature, power, and authority.  However, they are sometimes distinct in their deeds, actions, and tasks.  We call the former the “ontological Trinity,” since it has to do with their being or essence; and we call the latter the “economic Trinity” (from the Greek word oikonomia).  I.e., though they have the same kind of essence, they do different things.

        Here I will explain two aspects of their equality of essence.  First, we speak of the omnipresence of God, which is the idea that He is present within our universe everywhere, all the time.  This applies to all three persons of the Trinity.  For illustration purposes, I will ask you to think of an entire created universe, not necessarily like ours, in whatever shape you like (cube, sphere, e.g.).  Now think of that whole universe as being totally filled with three things.  Every cubic centimeter of it is totally filled with water.  At the same time every cubic centimeter is totally filled with a comfortable degree of heat.  Also, every cubic centimeter is filled with electricity.  All three of these things are occupying all the space of this imaginary universe at the same time.  They are omnipresent within it.

        The three persons of the Trinity are in a similar way omnipresent within our universe.  I say in a “similar” way, since I think of them as being present TO every point in our space, rather than WITHIN it.  The important thing for our purposes is that this applies to the eternal Logos, as much as to the Father and the Holy Spirit.  He is always existing everywhere TO our universe, both before AND after His incarnation as the man Jesus Christ.  This does not mean that the man Jesus Christ is thus omnipresent, though.

        The other aspect of the equality of God’s essence is His omniscience, or infinite knowledge.  He knows all things, all the time.  This is likewise equally true of all three persons of the Trinity.  To continue the illustration above, think of one more thing that is equally present along with the water, the heat, and the electricity of the imaginary universe, namely, light.  The light is present to and within the water, the heat, and the electricity, filling it everywhere and always.

        The light in this illustration represents knowledge, as in the concept of omniscience.  All three persons of the Trinity, including the Logos, share the same infinite, unlimited, complete body of knowledge of all reality for all times—past, present and future.  This body of knowledge also includes awareness of all possible realities, even if they never come into existence.  The Logos Himself is, always has been, and always will be omniscient in His eternal essence.  This does not mean that the man Jesus Christ is thus omniscient, though.

        B.  The Human Nature of Jesus.  How, then, does all of the above relate to the man, Jesus Christ, in His human nature?  Here we begin with how Jesus fits into the eternal plan designed by God before any actual implementation of it had begun.  We should think of the three persons of the Trinity drawing up a plan for the creation and completion of this specific universe.

        Here we shall point out several key divine decisions that were part of this plan.  First was the decision to create free-will beings with relative independence, making them capable of sinning or not sinning.  This free-will nature of the universe means that its future is to a great extent in human hands.  The second key aspect (not necessarily a decision) is that God in His foreknowledge knew from the beginning that His free-will human beings would become sinners.  The next key aspect was the decision to work out a way to offer redemption to sinners, something that would allow them to have eternal fellowship with God despite their sin and unworthiness.  The last key aspect was the decision that one of the persons of the Trinity—the Logos—would become a human being and do the only thing that could possibly save sinners from their deserved punishment.  This is where Jesus of Nazareth enters the picture. 

        The implementation of this last aspect of the plan adds human nature to the divine Logos.  The Logos continues to exist as the omnipresent, omniscient third person of the Trinity, but He becomes present within the human person, Jesus, at the same time but in a unique and limited way.  The person Jesus thus has two natures, both divine and human.  To use our illustration one more time, I think of Jesus as something like a unique, magnificent light bulb that is planted within our imaginary universe.  The bulb itself is equivalent to Jesus’s human nature, and the light that shines from it is (at least in part) equivalent to His divine Logos nature. 

        What is crucial for our purpose of understanding Jesus’s amazement in Gethsemane is the fact that His consciousness or mental state operated like that of other human beings rather than like that of the Logos.  Jesus did not have two separate minds or centers of consciousness; He was just ONE person, with one center of consciousness.  I.e., like other human beings, He was limited to thinking about one thing at a time, with all other knowledge being stored as if within a computer’s memory, to be recalled at will.  The divine Logos still exists with full omniscience, but this divine consciousness is not shared with the human Jesus.  According to the eternal plan of God, Jesus’s consciousness is controlled by the limitations present in human beings.

        But God’s plan also includes some exceptions to this general situation.  For one thing, the reservoir (or computer memory) from which Jesus could by an act of will call up some bit of knowledge to His consciousness was infinite, i.e., by so willing it, He could tap into the omniscience of the Logos.  Thus He at times had miraculous knowledge, such as being able to read the minds of people in His audiences.  Such knowledge would not be present all the time, though.

       More importantly, some bits of knowledge in the infinite reservoir of facts were, by the eternal pre-creation plan, not available to being called up at the human Jesus’s will.  For example, Jesus Himself tells us that He did not personally have knowledge of the time (day, hour) of His own second coming; the Father knows this, but not God the Son in the human consciousness He exercises as Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 24:36).  The purpose for this probably is to prevent us from trying to use some recorded teaching of Jesus to determine the date and time of the second coming.

       But another part of the plan to withhold knowledge seems to be equally significant, and it enables us to explain Jesus’s amazement.  This is the suggestion that during Jesus’s earthly life, what He was supposed to know about Himself and His role in the plan of redemption was to be made available to Him only in stages, and not all at once.  Think of the light bulb illustration again. The bulb is attached to a dimming-brightening switch.  In the beginning of His life, it is on a dim setting; but as Jesus grows older and into His ministry, the switch periodically increases the brightness of the bulb in that more and more knowledge is poured into it.

        How do we know this?  I owe the bare bones of this explanation to my Professor of theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in the early 1960s.  What he taught about this was one of the most interesting and most important things I learned throughout my seminary years.  Teaching on the subject of “the obedience of Jesus,” Professor John Murray explained his understanding of Luke 2:52, which says, “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

        Luke made this statement in his narrative when Jesus was just twelve years old (v. 42), at the end of the account where His family was attending the Passover feast in Jerusalem and Jesus was separated from His parents for three days while engaging in discussion with rabbis at the temple.  He made this impression on these teachers: “And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers” (v. 47 – “amazed”!).  And so, Jesus kept increasing in wisdom, and in favor with God.  After hearing what Professor Murray had to say about this, I have put it together like this.

        How are we to think of the development of Jesus’s mental abilities and states from the time He was conceived in the womb?  We must remember that in this regard, His human nature dominated.  We must not think of the baby Jesus in the womb or at His mother’s breast contemplating the teachings of David or Isaiah, and planning the beginning of His ministry.  In the early years of His human nature, His knowledge increased as that of any other child, but without the hindrances imposed by the absorbing of sin.  He learned the things any other child of His time could learn, but no doubt with the highest intelligence and motivation. 

        But it would be necessary from somewhere in these early years for the Trinitarian plan to begin, for the bulb of knowledge to be switched more and more brightly, for the inauguration of the series of steps in which His divine identity and His messianic mission were gradually unfolded to His consciousness.  This had probably begun before His twelfth year, and was probably reflected in His impressive showing before the rabbis (Luke 2:46ff.).  More was probably revealed to Him periodically over the next eighteen years, but we have no data on that.  In any case, as His consciousness of His identity and His mission increased, His acceptance of it and His commitment to be 100% faithful to it was noted by God the Father; and this is the point of the statement in Luke 2:52, that He increased in favor with God.  The more He knew about the divine plan for Himself (Philippians 2:7-9), the more He perfectly submitted to it; and the more He submitted to it, the more He increased in favor with God.

        I would suggest that main uploading of knowledge concerning His mission, probably to near the brightest setting, occurred at His baptism.  The descending of the Spirit upon Him in the form of the dove symbolized His inauguration for the ministry years, and filled Him with the Spirit—see Luke 4:1.  At some point, perhaps prior to this event but at least shortly thereafter, Jesus knew that His mission would involve His death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21).  At each stage of His life, as His self-consciousness was increasing according the pre-arranged plan, the Father was pleased and full of favor toward Him.

II.  HE BEGAN TO BE AMAZED – MARK 14:33

        The question now is this:  how does all of this help to explain how Jesus could begin to be amazed upon His entrance into Gethsemane on that fateful night?  This was the night of His arrest, and the beginning of His observable sufferings for our sins.  He no doubt already knew the basics of His death, that it would be by crucifixion; and He knew the horrible nature of physical death by being nailed to a cross.  But one thing had no doubt been withheld from Him until now, namely, the full intensity and depth of the suffering that He was about to undergo in order to accomplish our salvation!  But now, it was time for the final stage of awareness to be unfolded before His consciousness.  It was as if a curtain had been opening in small measures over the past years; but now the curtain was drawn fully back and the bulb of knowledge was fully brightened—and He could see for the first time (“He began to be amazed”) that He was about to suffer not just horrible physical pains in His human nature, but the infinite agonies of God’s own divine wrath enveloping His divine nature as well!

        The point here is that the pre-creation redemptive plan of the Trinity was that the only way man’s sin can be forgiven is for one person of the Trinity—it was determined to be the Logos—would have to suffer all the punishment that human sin deserves.  And the holy nature of God determines that human sin against the divine Trinity deserves eternal punishment in Hell.  Thus the redemptive plan for the Logos was this, that in the form of the human being Jesus of Nazareth, He would suffer the equivalent of eternity in Hell for the entire foreknown human race.

        This is why the incarnation of the divine Logos was necessary for our redemption.  Our deserved punishment is eternal suffering in Hell.  Another human being could perhaps be an adequate substitute for me as one other human being—if a sinless human being could be found to take my place!  But all have sinned, and therefore every other human being already owes God his eternal suffering for his own sin.  This is one reason why the sinless God had to be our substitute. 

        But the main reason why the divine Logos was the one who came to take our place was that this suffering had to be endured for the entire human race!  God was making it possible for every sinner to be saved—so that “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Thus Jesus, not just as a human being suffering on a physical cross, but also as God suffering in His divine nature, was absorbing not just what one other person deserves for his sins, but what the entire human race deserves!  Only an INFINITE being could be the substitute for all of us.

        And not only that.  Our deserved suffering is eternal, which means that if Jesus is our substitute, His suffering must be eternal also.  But how could He do that without going to Hell and staying there forever—which He did not do?  This is another reason why our substitute had to be divine—had to be God Himself.  Only the INFINITE Being could suffer an eternal punishment in a finite period of time.  All the deserved suffering drawn out for eternity for all of us finite beings was compressed into those few hours from Gethsemane to the point when He died on the cross!  

        Here at Gethsemane’s gate, for the first time, Jesus realized what lay just ahead of Him:  He saw that He was about to suffer the equivalent of eternity in hell for every human being!  He saw that it was not just the physical cross that He was about to endure, but also the infinite wrath of His holy Father!  NO WONDER HE BEGAN TO BE AMAZED!  Until then, He had no idea just how terrible His suffering was going to be!  If this weight had been on His shoulders from His youth, or even from the beginning of His ministry at His baptism, His human soul would have been crushed.  No wonder the drawing back of the curtain was delayed until this moment.  No wonder He began not only to be amazed, but also to be “troubled”—adēmeneō, the second verb in the statement in Mark 14:33:  “He began to be amazed and troubled.”

III.  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR US?

        What does all of this mean for us, especially when we are about to partake of the Lord’s Supper?  A major part of the Supper is that we are remembering that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that he took our place under the wrath of God!  He suffered FOR US what WE deserve to suffer. 

        When you think about your sins against God, and you realize that you deserve to be condemned and punished for them, just how bad do you judge that suffering should be?  Just how awful do you think was the suffering Jesus took upon Himself in your place?  Do we really appreciate how bad it really was?  We usually focus on the physical agony imposed by the cross, but that was just the wrapping compared with the content poured out upon Jesus’s divine nature in those hours:  the infinite wrath of God! 

        This suffering is so unbelievably awful that its intensity was actually withheld from Jesus’s own consciousness until the end was near.  It is so bad that when the knowledge of its intensity was opened up before Him, He was AMAZED at how awful it was going to be!  Even God the Son was AMAZED at it! 

        This shows us all the more just how thankful we should be for what Jesus has done for us!  It shows us how much MORE thankful we ought to be than we usually are.  We have no idea what our Savior went through to make forgiveness of our sins possible!  Its awfulness amazed even Him!

        The bottom line is that WE are the ones who should be AMAZED at the fact that our Savior loved us so much, that He was still willing to go through with it—however awful it was going to be!

                              I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene,

                              And wonder how He could love me—a sinner, condemned, unclean!

                              How marvelous!  How wonderful!  And my song shall ever be—

                              How marvelous!  How wonderful is my Savior’s love for me.