According to the Bible, Jesus did experience uncertainty. He knew what he was supposed to do, but he also knew that it was going to be lonely and very painful, and there were times when he wanted to escape. That’s why asked that the cup be taken from him, why he spent the night praying in the garden, and why he called out on the Cross that his father had forsaken him.
Mainstream Christian belief is that Christ was fully human as well as fully divine (at least prior to his death). I’m riffing a bit here, but I think what that means is that, as a human, he could have chosen to walk away from God’s plan (see, e.g., The Last Temptation of Christ). Certainly, one can disagree and argue that this doesn’t make sense, but that’s the belief. Think of it as analogous to the wave-particle duality. (
I see Chronos in this thread).
But there are any number of human beings for whom any of that is true. Christian belief is that he became a human being, not every human being. Note too that the Bible says that he lived in poverty, worked with his hands, and spent his preaching career among society’s outcasts. He didn’t personally experience everything in society, but he kept it real in many ways.
He believed he knew these things, but as noted above, there were times when he worried that he had been forsaken.
Christian belief is not that he pretended to die, but that he actually did die, just like all of us someday will. He was resurrected on earth, which is obviously unique to him. Ultimately, though, he went to Heaven, and that’s available to human beings as well.
Christ had to come to earth and choose to die as a human being to redeem humanity, because it was human beings who chose to stray into original sin. As I understand it, it’s about God respecting the degree of autonomy that he chose to give to his creations.
(Yes, there are Christians who do not believe in free will. Their views are presumably somewhat different, but I’m not the person to address them.)
The suffering and dying is here on earth. Christ’s promise was life everlasting in Heaven. Many, if not all, Christians believe that those who died between the Fall and the Resurrection did not go to Heaven, although I think there’s disagreement on what happened to them. Catholic theology posits a Limbo, which Dante portrayed as the first circle of Hell. Souls there were comfortable, content, and not tormented, but they were separate from God. I think he also wrote that when Christ passed through Hell, many virtuous ancients chose to leave with him.
BTW, I’m not trying to witness, and I’m not stating any of this as fact. I’m not saying that this is what I believe, and I’m certainly not suggesting that you should believe it. I’m just setting forth the point of view that I think many Christians would offer to address some of the points raised in this thread.