The emotions of Jesus-How to deal with yours
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth
For this reason he had to be made like them,[a] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people
Jesus was fully human and fully God. These are two scriptures that highlights the human nature of Jesus. John 1:14 says that the Word (who was Jesus) because flesh. And Hebrews 2: 17 says “he had to be made like them,[a] fully human in every way”. So, Jesus was indeed fully God, but also fully human. If He was fully human then it means that He felt everything just the way we do, physically, but also emotionally. We have an example of physical pain that Jesus endured that we cannot even imagine, I mean I’ve never been put through anything not even close to what happened to Jesus before going to the Cross, on His way there and on the cross. So honestly whatever we even experience as physical pain is nothing there that Jesus did not feel.
Ok, now that we established what kind of physical pain Jesus went through, let’s investigate what did Jesus feel emotionally? Did Jesus experience emotions just like we do? Did He cry? Was He happy? Was He ever angry? How did He control His emotions? Was He led by emotions or was He controlling them?
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
Jesus rejoiced when the seventy-two came back with good news. Luke 10:21 describes that Jesus was “full of joy” at that time. Jesus was happy to hear good news. [Our good news will also make Jesus happy, so we should aim to have good news to share with each other every day to make Him happy. Also, just like Jesus did, whenever we hear good news, we should praise God because He is the one who made those things to happen possible]
Good news will make Jesus happy.
Praise God for all the good news/good things that happen in my life.
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
In John 15:11 we can see that Jesus was joyful. The verse says that if His joy is in us our joy may be made full. This verse highlights how Jesus experienced full joy that we are not able to experience without Him. So, Jesus experienced the ultimate level of happiness and If we want our joy, happiness to be made full. How can we work towards reaching Jesus’ level of happiness? By reading the Bible. The words the Jesus spoken to us will bring the joy He has in him in our lives. So if we want out joy to be made full we need to know His words and His words are in the Bible.
You want to be happy? Just read the Bible!
And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
This scripture highlights not only how Christ finds joys when the lost souls are coming back to Him, but the encouragement to share the joy with others.
Celebrate and share the joy of something good happening with other disciples.
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it
In John 11:35 we can see Jesus’ crying “Jesus wept” (related to the death of Lazarus) and also in Luke 19:41 we can see Jesus crying again. “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it”. Yes, Jesus experienced sadness too. Notice how outward focused Jesus was. He was not crying for Himself. And He probably had reasons to. I mean, would you not cry for yourself If you had to live the life that Jesus did, to go through everything He did? I probably would have, but He didn’t. Jesus cried at the death of a dear friend and for the city of Jerusalem and this shows how focused on anything and anyone else but Himself He was.
It’s ok to cry, but what are you crying for? He didn’t cry for pity so we shouldn’t either. For anything we are going through there is a solution in the Bible, we just have to find it!
Jesus was the Alpha male (Revelation 22:13-15 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End) and He cried. If you are a mother and you have a son, teach them that its ok to cry and show them that Jesus did, teach them not to allow the society to make them feel weak or less of a man if they do.
If you are a woman and feel weak when you cry, remember that Jesus cried too. But investigate the reason of you crying. Are you crying for pity or are you crying because you are indagated?
Jesus shows us in many scriptures how much compassion He has in His heart for the people, for the lost, for the ones who are suffering in the world.
Compassion in the Cambridge dictionary means: a strong feeling of sympathy and sadness for the suffering or bad luck of others and a wish to help them” Another meaning is “to suffer together”.
Psalm 103:13 "Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him."
Jesus showed His compassion towards women, the bleeding woman and the woman caught in the act of adultery. He was gentle with these women and by Him being compassionate He thought them a big lesson that perhaps changed their lives. So, what I take from here is that compassion can help us help others change their lives. Because it’s our life and doctrine that will show to the lost what it truly looks like to follow Jesus. Looking at the world, many religious people are pushing others away or scaring them because the people in the world have this belief that religious people tell you what to do, they want to change you, they force you, they make you leave your church and come to theirs and we can see what religious people did in the bible as well. Jesus didn’t even try to teach these women anything by using the books, He thought them (probably) the biggest lesson of their lives by His actions and behaviour. He didn’t tell them what compassion is but showed them what compassion looks like in action.
John 8:1-11 also highlights for me what power looks like. Power is not always about weapons and this scripture shows me that a powerful man is a man who has compassion for the ones who are suffering.
Also, Matthew 9:36 mentions Jesus’ compassion for the crowds that He saw. It says that He had compassion on them because they were helpless and harassed. This is so powerful! He could have blamed them, look down on them because of how they were. Jesus could have seen all of us as helpless and could have chosen to just leave us, but Jesus chose to have compassion. Compassion is a choice. You can see a homeless man from a cold point of view and think “ oh, hes here begging for money, he could go to work, he should get a job not take drugs and get drunk” or we could see that homeless man with more compassion “ poor man, who knows what happened to him, I will pray for him, this can happen to all of us, it can only take a small mistake to get here, let me spend 5 minutes to talk to this man” .
The second option is what Jesus chose to do. He could have passed by and ignore us, but Jesus chose to stop, talk to us, show us what to do how to do and he gave us more than money or anything else , He gave up His life for us, he didn’t only give us a hot coffee, He gave us His blood, all of it, not just half or 3 quarters, but All. And He did that because He had so much compassion for us who have been lost in the world.
Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
John 8:1–11 ->The woman caught in the act of adultery
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Yes! Jesus experienced anger as well! Let’s look at some scriptures where He experienced this feeling,
Jesus was angry at the teachers of the law and Pharisees who had so much power in the world (think of the church in the world…) and was shutting the door of the kingdom in people’s faces because of what they were teaching them.
"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?" (Matthew 23:33). Before this, he had referred to false prophets as those who come in sheep's clothing "but inwardly they are ferocious wolves" (Matthew 7:15).
Jesus was angry at those who were leading people astray, He wasn’t angry because He missed the bus or because His mother didn’t listen to Him and followed Him the first time, He was angry at those who were truly worshipping the evil and leading people away from God. He was angry at the religious people who were taking the word of God however they wanted to, twisting it to make themselves live a good life.
Jesus was not getting angry for a small thing that is equal to nothing. He was indagated because those teachers of the law were leading people to hell and not to Heaven.
John 2:14-17: “In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[
In this scripture we can see how Jesus reacted out of His anger by scattering the coins of the money changers and overturning the tables. Again, we can see his indignation here because these people were making out of the temple courts a place of worship for money and other worldly things rather than for God. Those things were taking people’s focus from God and worshiping God which was what the Temple was supposed to be made for. We can see Jesus reacting because He was angry. Why was He angry? He was not angry because He didn’t have money to buy something or because those sellers were not His friends, but because of the lack of principles of those who were doing these things in the temple courts. He was angry for something big, because all these activities had nothing to do with God and worshipping Him. They were using the temple courts to make money which was wrong.
However, we are not supposed to do the same as we do not have this authority. Jesus came in the world to show us how to live, to teach us, that means teaching and calling out those people as well and to save us. Jesus had all authority. Matthew 28:18 says “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” So Jesus had all authority in Heaven and on Earth, but we do not so we must use the Bible to teach others and follow what the Bible says about teaching.
We can observe in these scriptures that Jesus’ anger was not triggered by wordly things. He wasn’t angry because the food was not salty enough, He wasn’t getting angry because His phone broke (they didn’t even have phones back them but you get me , He wasn’t even getting angry that the people didn’t accept Him and that everyone kept treating Him badly and not recognize Him, no. Jesus anger was only triggered by the people who were closing the doors of the Kingdom for others.
Jesus had been and felt all the emotions that we do. Looking at all these scriptures I see how outward focused Jesus was in all of these emotions.
Happiness- He was happy for others/ Rejoiced for others.
Sadness- He was sad for others/ Cried for others.
Compassion- He was compassionate with those around Him/
Anger- He was angry because of how some people’s actions were leading others to hell.
Jesus had experienced all these emotions, but He never allowed any of these to make Him make Himself a victim. He didn’t allow sadness to make Him the victim and He had serious reasons to have been one If He wanted to, but He chose not to allow anything that happened in His life to make Him become a victim Jesus chose to be a saviour, not a victim. And this was possible because He didn’t allow His emotions to lead Him. Not even when He was going to the cross. If Jesus would have allowed His emotions to lead Him, we would have all ended up in hell.
But He has never been inward focused, His focus was on GOD. And because He was focused on God and God’s mission for Him, He knew that these emotions must only be outward focused.
When we focus happiness only on ourselves, we become selfish. (I won, I deserve to be celebrated, I am happy for myself for doing this, I got the job, me, me, me, me , me, all about me)
When we focus sadness only on ourselves, we become victims. (But I don’t have a job, but I don’t have friends, nobody loves me, there’s no point to… )
When we focus anger only on ourselves, we become abusers (of people, and things -drugs, alcohol, food …) (we start shouting at the ones we love, we curse them, saying ugly words to others, it can get to physical abuse as well, we can start abusing drugs, alcohol)
When we focus compassion only on ourselves, instead of helping those in need, we will sit down with them and lose ourselves on the way, looking for people to pity us.
Jesus teaches us that it is ok to feel and to experience all these emotions, but it is what you CHOOSE to do with them at the end of the day.
