For the love of a…rabbit?

This is our Giant Flemish rabbit named Fluff.

He is the very picture of an Easter bunny, and he has stolen my heart. It has taken a while for him to warm up to me, but our relationship has been growing steadily for the past year. He is so incredibly soft to pet and is just as needy (and big) as a dog. Fluff was actually a Christmas present for my daughter. However, since she is in school most of the day, Fluff hangs out with me quite a bit. I sneak him treats regularly when I make my lunch. He has even been known to steal some of my fruit right off the table. As much as I have grown to love this rabbit, human love on any level whether for family members, dear friends, or our pets pales in comparison to the love between God the Father and his Son Jesus. 

The Gospels tell us quite a bit about Jesus and his relationship with the Father. Here are just a few instances that reveal the level of closeness that the two shared.

• John 10:30 “The Father and I are one.” 
• John 5:19-20a “…Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing.”
• John 3:35 “The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands.”
• John 17:23 “I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”
• Mathew 3:17 “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

As complicated as it is to understand, the Trinity is a picture of perfect unity and love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The relationship between Jesus and the Father that we read about in the Bible gives our limited minds a small glimpse into that deep connection. It is a love greater than our human hearts and minds can even comprehend. 

With that level of unity and intimacy in mind, let us step into the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus on the night that he was betrayed.

Jesus had just finished the Last Supper (Passover) with his disciples and he brought them to the garden to pray. He separated himself from the rest of the group to enter into a time of deep and intimate conversation with the Father. 

In this moment Luke tells us in chapter 22 verses 40-44 that Jesus prayed so earnestly and with such agony that “his sweat became like great drops of blood.” This phenomenon of sweating blood is called hematohidrosis. According to the National Library of Medicine, hematohidrosis is “a very rare condition in which an individual sweats blood. It may occur in an individual who is suffering from extreme levels of stress…Fear and mental contemplation are the most frequent causes.”^[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3827523/  accessed 4/9/2022

What was it that was causing Jesus such great stress that he experienced hematohidrosis?

Pastor and theologian Daniel Akin explains:

“The anguish and the pain of the cross was not what concerned His soul. It was knowing that He would be abandoned by and separated from His Father as He answered ‘for every sin and great crime and act of malice and injury and cowardice and evil in the world.’ That is what brought Him to His knees and moved Him to make His poignant plea.”^[2]Akin, Daniel L, Christ-Centered Exposition Elating Jesus in Mark. B&H Publishing Group, 2014, 334.

Akin points out that the thing Jesus wanted to avoid the most was not the physical pain of the cross. Many Christian martyrs went to their death with “thanksgiving and joy”. It was the separation from the Father that he was dreading to the point of sweating blood! Let that sink in a little bit. Do I love anyone in such a way that being fully separated from them, even for just a short time, would cause me this much stress and agony? Do I love God that much? I am filled with wonder at the depth of intimacy, love, and connection that this moment reveals about the relationship between the Father and the Son. 

Jesus set the example of how we are supposed to live in all aspects of life, including how to love God.

This has brought me to a place of deep reflection on my love for God. This is not the kind of love we have for a pet. It is not even the level of love we have for a child or even a spouse. This love goes so much deeper than that. It is a depth and breath of love that does not come naturally to us as flawed human beings. Love like this is something we can’t even strive for on our own. I love my husband with all that I have and all that I am. That still falls short of the love displayed between Jesus and God the Father. 

My prayer this Good Friday and Easter weekend is that God would deepen my love for Him.

 That we would grow in intimacy, and that I could experience even the slightest amount of connection with Him at the level that He shares with the Son. There is no love greater than this. What an incredible honor it is to see that love in action through the pages of Scripture. How great is God’s love for us, Christ’s love, that He would go through that heart wrenching situation on the cross so that we could share in the love of God as well.