We all deal with pressure in life. Jesus sure had his share of pressures to navigate. Where did Jesus’ pressure come from?
Religious Leaders-You would think they would be lining up to try to spend time with Him. Yet, Jesus’ popularity with the crowds didn’t pique the curiosity of the religious leaders. It agitated them. It angered them. It threatened them. They were concerned for their job security. They were concerned about maintaining the status quo. And so, they did what they could to undermine Jesus’ credibility, to destroy His reputation, to minimize His impact and following. They were constantly picking on Jesus, trying to subtly bully Him by questioning His motives, His authority, and His power. They even plotted to kill Him and attempted to do so on numerous occasions.
Crowds-Mark 3:9-10 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him.
The crowd was so large and so aggressive, Jesus needed a boat to be ready so He could put distance between Himself and the crowd in case they stampeded each other to get to Him. Because Jesus healed some everyone expected for Him to take time to heal them. These weren’t small crowds. At times we know there were thousands and thousands of people trying to get Jesus’ attention. Jesus couldn’t walk through the streets like a normal person. Everyone needed and wanted something from Him.
How about one more example? Luke 8:40-42 (NIV) 40 Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. 41 Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42 because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. The crowd that welcomed Him almost crushed Him. To feel as if there is no rest, no break, and that everybody’s physical well-being depends upon you-that’s pressure.
His Family-Jesus faced pressure from His family. There was a time when Jesus’ family thought He was a lunatic. They thought He was out of His mind. They tried to “reign Jesus in.” Families are unique and there are pressures to perform a certain way or to achieve a certain status or standard. There are expectations that are always dangling in front of people to meet. Jesus had to deal with that kind of pressure as well.
Jesus also dealt with pressure from Demonic Spirits. Satan harassed Jesus from the beginning of His ministry, and He didn’t stop. Demons would routinely mess with Jesus, violently crying out, trying to intimidate Him or expose Him in order to disrupt His ministry. Battling demonic forces-that’s pressure.
Success brings pressures of its own. The more you accomplish, sometimes the more pressure there is to accomplish even more. Everyone had an opinion about the Messiah. Many wanted Him to be a political figure. They were looking for an earthly Savior for an earthly King. Jesus couldn’t allow others to define success for Him. He couldn’t look to others to inform His mission. He had to stay laser-focused on what His Heavenly Father had called Him to do, and resist the pressure to conform to the opinions of the majority regarding why He had come.
The Disciples-Jesus’ relationship with the disciples created pressure for Him. He took these 12 guys on as His personal project. They lived together for three years. Try going on vacation with 12 people and after a week, I guarantee you will be looking toward home. Jesus had to spend every day and night with these people. He surely felt a responsibility to make sure they had food to eat and that their basic needs were cared for. He felt pressure to train them and equip them for the mission that He had called them to. He had a lot of curriculum to cover with them in the three years they were together. He didn’t have unlimited time. He had to make the most of every minute. Just answering constant questions can feel like pressure can’t it? Jesus had that to deal with on a daily basis.
His Mission-By its very nature, Jesus’ mission was stressful and pressure-filled. Jesus had a lot to accomplish. He would walk many miles. He would face many perils. And, of course, He had to do it all knowing that His crucifixion was the culmination of His mission. To live with the knowledge that you will die an excruciatingly painful death, had to be a pressure we could never imagine. It wasn’t easy to stay focused on each day’s tasks with the crucifixion looming in the not to distant future. Jesus said in Luke 12:49-50 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! The pressure was so great that at times it was like, “Let’s hurry up and let’s get this over with.”
How did Jesus cope? How did He deal with it all? I see three behaviors, three strategies, three choices that Jesus consciously made that enabled Him to deal with the pressure that came with His life and mission.
Luke 22:39-45 (NIV) 39 Jesus went out AS USUAL to the Mount of Olives, and HIS DISCIPLES FOLLOWED HIM. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but YOURS BE DONE.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
The first thing I see that Jesus did in order to deal with the pressures of life that He cultivated a routine dependence upon God. Luke 22:39 says that Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives. He was going to the Mountain of Olives to pray. He was going to talk to the Heavenly Father about the pressure He was feeling and the fear He had about what He was facing. He was going to pray in order to unload some of the burden He was feeling. And this wasn’t the first time He had done so. Scripture tells us this was part of a regular routine for Jesus. Luke 5:16 tells us that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
The reason Jesus could handle every day pressures, family pressures, pressures from spiritual forces, pressures from the religious elite, pressures from the crowds that followed Him and face the cross and surrender His life was because He was fully relying on God to see Him through. He didn’t let pressures build up. He took His pressures to God in prayer. You see, Pressures become less problematic and less powerful when prayer becomes our priority. Praying regularly didn’t exempt Jesus from pressure, but it enabled Him to continue from day to day, even though there were great demands on Him.
The second thing that we can see from Jesus’ encounter in the garden is that He connected in community with other people. Jesus didn’t go into the Garden alone. He took the disciples with Him. He asked them to watch and pray with Him. He let some people in to the trial He was facing. While we know they wound up falling asleep, at least they were there with Him. At least He wasn’t physically alone.
Before the Garden scene, where was Jesus? He was eating with the disciples in the Upper Room. He was fellowshipping with them. Yes, He was preparing them for what was to come, but He was sharing inside of His community, inside His circle of friends.
The third and final thing I believe Jesus did to handle the pressures that came His way was to Commit to God’s will above all. That moment in the Garden of Gethsemane was the toughest pressure Jesus had faced to date. Look at it again: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but YOURS BE DONE.”
Like the regularity of His prayer time, Jesus regularly chose the will of God. Jesus said in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.” Every day, Jesus was laser-focused not on the pressures of life, but on the will of God. You see, if you are in the routine of choosing God’s will every day, on the days when it feels harder, it will still be possible for you to say “yes” to whatever God asks of you because you will be in the habit of obeying the Lord.
Do you feel like there is a full court press going on in your life right now? Do you find it tough to advance? Do you feel like circumstances or people have you off of your game or are keeping you from playing the game of life well? Do you feel as if your back is to the wall and you are out of options with no time outs left? There is a way to break the press. Follow Jesus. Cultivate a routine dependence upon God, connect in community with other people, and commit to God’s will above all else.
