Did Jesus feel fear or dread?

Yes. Facing the cross, Jesus said, 'Now is my soul troubled' (John 12:27), and in Gethsemane he was in such anguish that his sweat was 'as it were great drops of blood' (Luke 22:44). He felt genuine dread, honestly asked to be spared, then surrendered to the Father's will.

Does feeling afraid mean you lack faith?

No. Jesus felt real dread yet fully trusted the Father, praying 'not my will, but thine, be done.' Fear and faith coexisted in him. His anguish in Gethsemane assures us that our fear does not disqualify our faith or place us where God has never been.

The emotions of Jesus

Jesus Was Troubled and in Anguish

Before the cross · John 12:27, Luke 22:44

Jesus was not a serene stoic. Facing the cross he said, 'Now is my soul troubled' (John 12:27), and in Gethsemane he was in such agony that 'his sweat was as it were great drops of blood' (Luke 22:44). God, in Christ, knew dread and anguish from the inside.

The moment

“Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.”John 12:27

Why it changes everything

Some imagine that if Jesus was truly God, he must have faced his death with untroubled calm, floating above the fear the rest of us feel. The Gospels refuse that picture bluntly. As the cross draws near, he says, 'Now is my soul troubled.' In the garden of Gethsemane he becomes 'sorrowful and very heavy,' tells his friends his soul is 'exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,' falls on his face, and prays in such anguish that Luke, a physician, records that his sweat fell like great drops of blood.

This is dread. Not doubt, not sin, but the genuine shrinking of a real human being from real horror. He asks, honestly, for another way, 'let this cup pass from me.' And only after the honesty does he surrender, 'nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.' He does not skip the fear to get to the faith. He feels the full weight of it, and trusts anyway. God did not merely permit human anguish; in Christ he entered it and drank it to the bottom.

He did not float above the fear to reach the faith. He felt the full weight of dread, and trusted anyway.

Which means, for youWhen you are gripped by dread, of a diagnosis, a loss, a future you cannot control, you are not in a place God has never been. In Gethsemane, God himself sweated in anguish and begged for another way. Your fear does not disqualify your faith; his did not disqualify his. You are met there by One who knows the inside of that garden, and who found, on the far side of it, that the Father could be trusted.

✝

A God who felt it too

The feeling you are carrying, grief, anger, dread, longing, was not foreign to God. In Christ he felt it himself, from the inside. The Living Bread is a quiet place to bring the whole of what you feel to the One who understands it, read the Gospels, and pray, at your own pace.

Meet Jesus Living Bread on the web iPhone Android Jesus in Gethsemane

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Frequently asked questions

Did Jesus feel fear or dread?: Yes. Facing the cross, Jesus said, 'Now is my soul troubled' (John 12:27), and in Gethsemane he was in such anguish that his sweat was 'as it were great drops of blood' (Luke 22:44). He felt genuine dread, honestly asked to be spared, then surrendered to the Father's will.
Does feeling afraid mean you lack faith?: No. Jesus felt real dread yet fully trusted the Father, praying 'not my will, but thine, be done.' Fear and faith coexisted in him. His anguish in Gethsemane assures us that our fear does not disqualify our faith or place us where God has never been.

More of what Jesus feltJesus in Gethsemane Jesus felt forsaken The anxious generation All the emotions of Jesus