To Bleed at Every Pore

Elder Ulisses Soares taught this about the Savior: “My heart rejoices upon remembering the most marvelous, the most majestic, the most immeasurable act that has occurred in all of human history—the atoning sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The eminent words of the prophet Isaiah magnify the greatness and selflessness of the Savior’s condescension and sacrifice in behalf of all the children of God: ‘Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.’” I was struck yesterday as I considered these verses and the rest of this poignant chapter from Isaiah by the quantity of words which highlight the Savior’s selflessness, condescension and sacrifice. Isaiah 53 tells us that He was despised, rejected, and sorrowful. He was filled with His own grief and bore our griefs too. He was stricken and smitten of God. He was afflicted, wounded, bruised, and oppressed. He received chastisement and stripes. He opened not His mouth despite being taken to the slaughter. He was put to grief and His soul was filled with travail as He bore upon Him our iniquities. Perhaps the final verse of the chapter sums up is immeasurable suffering and sacrifice: “He hath poured out his soul unto death.” He gave everything He had in life and in death, giving His very soul to fulfill His divine mission from the Father. He was wounded, hurt, and afflicted in every way imaginable so that He could succor us in every imaginable pain we feel.   

Elder Soares continued, “By voluntarily taking upon Himself the sins of all mankind, being cruelly nailed to the cross, and victoriously conquering death on the third day, Jesus gave a more sacred significance to the Passover ordinance that had been bestowed upon Israel in ancient times. In fulfillment of prophecy, He offered His own body and precious blood as the great and last sacrifice, validating the traditional symbols used in the celebration of the Lord’s Passover. In so doing, Christ experienced physical and spiritual suffering that is incomprehensible to the human mind.” He then quoted this description of the Savior about His sacrifice: “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, … Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16, 18). This is one of only two places in scripture where we learn that He bled from every pore. The other is from the words of the angel to King Benjamin: “And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people” (Mosiah 3:7). Luke seems to have alluded to this as well when He described what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane: “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). In a recent podcast, Dr. Andy Horton described how one institute director he knew once surveyed 34 different churches to ask them how they interpreted this verse from the Bible. He related, “Of those 34 churches, 32 believed that he was perspiring and sweating and thinking about the great drops of blood he would shed on the cross.” So, while this suggests that most Christians do not think that Luke’s words were literal, revealed revelation declares that He did indeed suffer so intensely that His blood came from every pore of His body. His suffering was far greater than we can imagine.

Andrew Skinner suggested that what happened to the Savior in Gethsemane may be what we call today hematidrosis. He related, “It has been known to occur in persons with bleeding disorders, or, more significantly, in persons experiencing extreme distress and highly emotional states. As a result of extreme stress and pressure, the small blood vessels just under the skin hemorrhage. Blood mixes with perspiration, and the skin becomes fragile and tender.” Surely the Savior was under the most extreme stress ever experienced, and this may have been enough to cause His blood vessels to burst and bleed. That happening at one pore would have been extremely painful; the fact that our body has about 5 million pores makes the suffering of the Savior totally incomprehensible. Knowing we will not fully understand what He suffered, we still give thanks to the Father and the Son for this matchless gift of salvation and suffering to redeem all who believe on His name.