Anesthesia Refusal

(Today’s audio reading on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7kaVp0YYXO3tUVfv0JqlfF)

The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it. (Matthew 27:34)

In the stripping away of so much from Jesus on the cross, an offer was made to give something to him. That offer was an opportunity to deaden some of his pain. The human tendency is to soften the blow of pain and lack of comfort. We take those steps ourselves, or we take help if someone offers that to us. We gravitate towards pain reduction.

During a recent medical procedure—admittedly with modern medicine, and me in an environment and for a reason that was light years different from this one—I gladly received their offer of pain reduction. Isn’t that normal?

But for Jesus, the offer they made to him was refused. It was not acceptable. In tasting it, he recoiled, and he refused to drink it. He was not going to go through this in an antiseptic, or anesthetic state. He would not endure this pain by drugs.

So, the result is that he endured the cross fully aware of what he was doing. There was no shortcut, no opportunity to face the process in a drug-induced state. He would not accept the logic of those who might have said: “I know you’ve been through a lot; here drink this, and it will soften the blow, you won’t feel a thing! Hey, you’re going to die anyway! This will help! No need to make it hurt worse than it does!”

He didn’t accept that route. He felt the full force of what he was going through, conscious of the increasing pain and agony and ongoing torture. Perhaps others so convicted accepted the offer. And it  was  common-place practice for those crucified to accept a brief reprieve from the soldiers in some touch of apparent help or kindness (though hard to classify it as that!). But not Jesus. He refused that kind of help.

When I witness his refusal, I see that he was interested in the help of his Father. He was going to a deeper level, not a surface level. His look for help went to the depth of his being and his relationship with His heavenly Father. Far deeper than pain medicine by mouth which went to his central nervous system. Because for Jesus, total sacrifice meant his total being would go through with this sacrificial act. No one could say that he made a bargain from the cross in a drug-induced state. Or, he died for us, though he wasn’t fully aware of what he was doing.

He experienced this sacrificial death for us with his full faculties about him. He did so, extreme pain and all.

“Father, thank you for Jesus’ resolve to endure this unfathomable torture, even without the help of pain relievers.”