<p>12:50 <i>But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and great is my distress until it be accomplished</i>- These words almost seem to be the Lord speaking to Himself. The immediate context is of judgment to come, and the divisive effect the Lord's work will have upon relationships. But <i>His</i> focus was upon His upcoming death for the salvation of His people. This was what He sought above all to 'accomplish'.</p><p>The cross was to the Lord a baptism He was being baptized with, it was not only accomplished in His physical death; the process was ongoing. He saw His death as the baptism with which He must be baptized (Lk. 12:50 cp. Rom. 6:3,4; Col. 2:10-12, His 'baptism-unto-death' Gk.); and yet He spoke of the baptism with which He was being baptized in an ongoing sense (Mt. 20:22). The Lord's fear of death was, it seems to me, to a far greater extent than what even we experience- doubtless because He knew all that was tied up with <i>His</i> death and how much depended upon it. Hence His &quot;distress&quot; He spoke of how &quot;I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished&quot; (Lk. 12:50). See on Heb. 5:7.</p>