Matthew 27:34

“they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink.”

When sickness is incurable, and death is around the corner, some people are given sedatives and tranquilizers to relieve the pains, and to make death easier for them. Even executions by lethal injections in the US require the condemned to undergo some smooth passage into death through the use of specially processed chemical injections. Bible commentaries say that it was this desire to ease the pain of Jesus that made them give Him sour wine with gall, which would have relieved His pain by causing Him to lose sharpness and consciousness. But Jesus refused this. Jesus wanted to die fully conscious of His pains.

Do we seek to escape the consciousness of pain? When God is ushering us into the agonies of dying to Self, do we flee from it? Pain is never easy to handle, and it is normal to want to escape or reduce the experience of pain. But we have not been called to live normal human lives. We are spiritual beings called to live the superhuman life in Christ. When we are called upon to walk the path of pain with Christ, we have to trust Him for grace to go through the journey in the full consciousness of pain. Some sympathizers and encouragers are not God-sent. There are pains that God intends for us to go through because He knows that they are doing a quiet work of deeper reformation in us. Consciously accepting pain when we are sure that it is God working through it, is a major hallmark of a true disciple.

“Lord, I am not a sadist, and I don’t enjoy pain, but when You know that pain is good for me, O Lord, give me the grace to consciously go through it, even as Christ did. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.”