Jesus’ Frustration

Jesus’ Frustration

 

 

 

 

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint (or distress) I am under until it is completed!” (Luke 12:49–50).

 

 

 

(1)    When I read today’s passage, Luke 12:49–50, my attention was drawn to Jesus’ words: “what constraint (or distress) I am under” (v. 50).  So, I chose the title of today’s meditation as “Jesus’ Frustration.”

 

(a)    First, I became curious about the definition of the word “frustration,” so I looked it up online.  It was broadly defined in three contexts, and among them I was particularly interested in the psychological/situational frustration: “a painful state in which one feels anxious or stifled because things do not go as one wishes, or because one’s feelings are not resolved” (Internet).

 

(i)        When Koreans say “it’s frustrating” in daily life, it often includes the following detailed emotions:

          

           A sense of disconnection (lack of communication): the feeling of being blocked when the other person does not understand what I’m saying or when communication breaks down.

 

           Helplessness: the suffering that comes from a situation where I want to do something but cannot do anything due to real-life limitations.

           A frustrating personality: it can also describe someone who is inflexible or slow to act, making the observer feel impatient (Internet).

          

·            Among these three detailed emotions, I found myself connecting the “sense of being blocked (disconnection)”—the suffocating feeling we commonly experience—with helplessness, that is, “the suffering that comes from wanting to do something but being unable to due to real limitations.”  One reason for this is that last week I received a KakaoTalk message from a sister in the Lord, and part of its content—her use of the word “overwhelming uncertainty”—came to mind.

 

-      The suffocating sense of frustration we feel goes beyond simply ‘being difficult.’ It is like a state of psychological suffocation that occurs when my will collides with the walls of reality.

 

1.       The collision between ‘inner energy’ and ‘external barriers’

 

Helplessness reaches its peak when there is a strong desire to do something (inner energy), but the pathway for it to be expressed (practical means) is completely blocked.  What is felt at that moment is precisely frustration.  The energy cannot be released outward and instead swirls inside, pressing heavily on the chest.

 

2.       The ‘overwhelming uncertainty’ of walking in a fog

 

‘Overwhelming uncertainty’ refers to a state where one cannot see ahead.  When not knowing where to go (uncertainty) combines with having nothing one can do (helplessness), a person feels as if they are trapped in a narrow room with thin air.

 

3.       The pain of feeling one’s self becoming smaller

 

When we cannot do anything because of real-world limitations, we experience a sense of our own existence shrinking.

 

If helplessness is the feeling of losing control as the owner of one’s life, then frustration is the suffocating pain that arises within those narrowed choices.

 

That is why Koreans often say in such situations, ‘My chest feels blocked,’ or ‘I feel like I can’t breathe.’  This means that the psychological pain is so heavy that it translates into a physical sense of pressure” (Internet).

 

(ii)        When we experience this kind of frustration, what should we do? I would like to share a few portions from a meditation I wrote on July 16, 2018, under the title “When Greatly Afraid and Troubled in Heart,” based on Genesis 32:7a and verse 11:

 

Are you afraid of death?  Are you not afraid not only of your own death, but also of the death of your beloved family members?  When you stand at the crossroads of life and death, overwhelmed by the fear of death, and your heart feels suffocated because you do not know how to resolve the crisis—what do you do?

 

In today’s passage, Genesis 32:7a and 11, Jacob, when he was greatly afraid and distressed in heart, pleaded with the Lord. Jacob had sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom (v. 3).  When the messengers returned and reported that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men (v. 6), Jacob became greatly afraid and distressed (v. 7).  Faced with the fear of impending death and a life-or-death crisis, not knowing how to resolve it, he felt suffocated in his heart and prayed to God. How did he plead with God? We can think of three ways:

 

(1)    When Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, he pleaded with God while remembering all the grace that God had shown him (vv. 9–10).

 

(2)    When Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, he held on to God’s promise and pleaded with Him (v. 12).

 

(3)    When Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, he did not give up but persistently pleaded with God until He blessed him (v. 26).

I do not want to fear physical death.  I do not want to fear not only my own death but even the death of my beloved wife and children.  Rather, what I want to fear is that my beloved friends may die eternally without believing in Jesus.  I want to fear that the family members and relatives of my beloved brothers and sisters in the church, who do not believe in Jesus, might experience eternal death without faith in Him.  I want to become more and more fearful in this way, and for my heart to grow more burdened.

Therefore, in the midst of intense fear and deep distress of heart, I want to plead with God.  With a heart that loves souls, I want to pray earnestly to Him.  Like Moses and Paul, I want to plead that even if I myself were cut off from Christ or my name were blotted out of the book of life, God would save the dying souls whom He loves and whom I love, so that they may believe in Jesus.  Remembering the grace of salvation that God has given me, I want to ask Him to grant that same grace of salvation to those dying souls He loves.  Holding on to His promises and looking in faith to the faithful God who fulfills them, I want to persist without giving up and plead with Him—even at the cost of my life—until my prayers are answered.

 

(b)    Then, in today’s passage, Luke 12:50, what did Jesus mean by “My distress”?

 

(i)      First, the Greek word translated as “distress” here, “συνέχω” (synechō), goes beyond simple psychological anxiety and carries the meaning of a very strong pressure or constraint (Internet):

 

1.       Original meaning of the word

 

“συνέχω” (synechō) is a compound of “together” (syn) and “to hold” (echō), meaning “to be surrounded and pressed on all sides” or “to be held so tightly that one cannot move.”  It refers to a state of intense, almost physical pressure, as if being squeezed from both sides.

 

2.       Meaning in the biblical context

 

The reason Jesus used this word was to express the intense burden He felt until He would accomplish the purpose of the suffering that was about to come—His death on the cross.

Deep tension: a tremendous inner pressure felt because His mission had not yet been completed.

 

Absorption and focus: a state in which His whole heart was bound to that mission (the cross), unable to turn His attention elsewhere.

3.       While the frustration we experience in daily life—“being unable to do anything due to real-life limitations”—is closer to passive helplessness, “Jesus’ distress” is closer to an active, purposeful pressure in which He willingly placed Himself into that painful process in order to accomplish His mission.

 

It can be seen as a kind of “holy distress”—the feeling of pressing forward on a path that must be completed, even under suffocating pressure.

 

This “holy distress” of Jesus carries within it an earnest desire that the “fire” He came to cast on the earth (Lk. 12:49)—that is, the work of the Holy Spirit that transforms and purifies the world, the power of the gospel, or judgment and purification—would already be kindled across the whole earth so that the kingdom of God might fully come.  Jesus knew that only by passing through the gateway of His death on the cross could that “fire” truly be ignited in the world (that is, the mission of human salvation and the coming of the Holy Spirit could be completed only through His own death).  Therefore, He expressed how intense and urgent His heart was until that work would be accomplished by saying, “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” (v. 50).

 

(ii)        Here, as I reflect on the idea that “Jesus’ distress” is an active and purposeful pressure in which He willingly placed Himself into that painful process in order to accomplish His mission, I was led to meditate on what Jesus meant by the completion of that mission—namely, the suffering that was about to come (His death on the cross)—in connection with His words, “I have a baptism to undergo” (v. 50).

 

·         The baptism that Jesus was to receive here is the “baptism of suffering” (v. 50), symbolizing the most painful and decisive event of His life: His death on the cross.

 

1.       Total submersion and overwhelming

 

Here, the term "baptism"—derived from the Greek word “βάπτισμα” (baptisma)—carries the meaning of being "submerged in water" or "washed."  The baptism of which Jesus spoke signifies that massive waves of suffering and death would completely engulf His entire being.  Much like the imagery found in Psalm 42:7—"Deep calls to deep at the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and breakers have swept over me"—it denotes a state of being completely submerged in inescapable suffering.

 

2.       The channel that bears God’s wrath

 

In the Old Testament, water often symbolizes God’s judgment (such as the flood of Noah).  Therefore, the baptism of suffering means that Jesus, who bore the sins of humanity, willingly plunged Himself into the sea of God’s judgment and wrath that we deserved.  The sinless One descended beneath the waves of judgment on behalf of sinners.

 

Here I am reminded of Jonah 1:12: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea, and it will become calm.” Jonah tells the people on the ship to throw him into the sea to save them from the storm.  This connects with Jesus’ voluntary sacrifice when He said, “I have a baptism to undergo” (Lk. 12:50) and cast Himself into the sea of wrath—the cross.  However, there is a crucial difference: Jonah was thrown in because of his own sin, but Jesus, without sin, was thrown into the “sea of sinners” on behalf of our sins.  As soon as Jonah was thrown into the sea, the raging storm ceased and the waters became calm.  In the same way, by “sinking” beneath the great waves of God’s wrath (His baptism), Jesus stilled the storm of judgment that was coming upon us because of sin.  The peace we enjoy is the result of Jesus bearing those terrifying waves in His own body.

 

3.       The birth of new life through death

 

Baptism simultaneously signifies the “death of the old self” and the “resurrection into new life.”  Jesus knew that only by passing through this baptism of suffering (death) could the mission of human salvation be accomplished and the glory of resurrection begin.  That is why He felt such “distress” (pressure, synechō) until it was fulfilled.

 

-             Here, I also reflect on Jesus’ words about the “baptism of suffering” (Lk. 12:50) in connection with His prayer to God the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion: “Father, if You are willing, take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done” (22:42).

 

n      The “distress” Jesus felt (Lk. 12:50) reached its climax in His agony before the “cup of suffering” in Gethsemane (22:42).  If the “baptism of suffering” in Luke 12 refers to an external overwhelming in which His whole being would be submerged, then the “cup of suffering” in chapter 22 refers to the deeply personal and existential act of inwardly receiving and drinking that suffering.  The state of Jesus’ distress burst forth in Gethsemane in such earnest prayer that “His sweat became like drops of blood.”  Under the pressure pressing in on Him from all sides (“distress”), Jesus knew that the only way to resolve that pressure was to drink the cup of suffering (Internet).

 

(c)    Here, I began to wonder: when we feel helpless and deeply frustrated (overwhelmed) because we want to do something but cannot due to real-life limitations, what lessons can we learn from Jesus’ distress about how to overcome that pressure?

 

(i)       The sense of being overwhelmed and helpless when we are stopped by real-life limitations brings a pain as if our lives are trapped in a narrow prison.  The ‘distress’ (synechō) of Jesus shown in Luke 12:50 gives us three very practical lessons in such situations:

 

1.       Reinterpreting frustration as part of a ‘mission’

 

The ‘baptism of suffering’ that came upon Jesus was an unavoidable reality, yet He did not see it as meaningless suffering but as something that must be accomplished.

 

The Lesson: It is to remember that the sense of helplessness we feel may not merely be a destructive wall, but rather the labor pains through which new life is born.  The beginning of overcoming lies in shifting our perspective—recognizing that our current pause is not a sign of "incompetence," but rather a temporary state of being "bound" (synecho) for the sake of achieving a greater good.

 

2.       An honest confrontation between ‘my will’ and ‘the Father’s will’

 

The prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was the process in which Jesus honestly poured out His feelings of helplessness and pressure before God.  His confession, “take this cup from Me,” shows that He did not deny the limits of human experience.

 

Lesson: Do not suppress your helplessness; instead, honestly confess before God, “This is how overwhelmed and distressed I am.”  Even if prayer does not change the difficult reality, it expands the ‘inner space’ of the heart to endure it.  The place where my will is broken becomes the very place where God’s will begins.

 

3.       Focusing on ‘the one thing I can do now’

 

Although Jesus felt crushing pressure before the immense event of the cross, what He ultimately did was take a single step of obedience.  Just as Jonah told others to throw him into the sea, Jesus entrusted Himself to the baptism of suffering.

 

Lesson: When we feel that we can do nothing in the face of overwhelming reality, we must focus on the one small act of obedience that God has allowed us today.  Rather than trying to calm the massive storm, entrusting ourselves to God—who holds us even in the storm—is the most powerful way to overcome helplessness” (Internet).