Which Garden do you Prefer?

Teresa Poucher

I’ve seen rock gardens in Colorado, flower gardens in Hawaii, and vegetable gardens in Louisiana.  However, none of these intrigue me like the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives.  Yes, it was full of olive trees.  Olive trees are known to live 5,000 years. Some of the very trees Jesus prayed under could still be alive today.    

 

The olive tree was held in very high esteem. We first heard the word “olive” after the flood when a dove brought an olive leaf back to Noah. After that, we heard of olive oil used for anointing and burned to give light, and olive wood used for doors and posts in Solomon’s temple, as well as angels carved from olive wood, also in Solomon’s temple.

 

  The name “Gethsemane” is Aramaic for “olive” (Gat) and “press” (semane). Within the Garden of Gethsemane was an olive press where there would be crushing and bruising.  Without it, there would be no anointing and no light.  

 

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” ((Isaiah 10:27)

The disciples went with Him, but Jesus went “a little farther” to pray. He was sorrowful to the point of death, and His sweat was as great drops of blood. He succumbed to His father’s will in a place of agony, betrayal, and death to His own will. Would there have been a Calvary without a Gethsemane?

 

 

Of all the gardens I have seen, I long to go a little farther, break my will, get a burden for the lost, and go to my garden of Gethsemane