Have you ever had an experience when you read about something or someplace and when you actually went there you discovered that your perception of the scene might have been off? You missed something in the reading that you could only get in the seeing? This was the case for me when I visited the Garden of Gethsemane. Yes, I knew it was an olive field. I knew the story of Jesus going there just prior to his arrest to pray. I knew that his friends had let him down when he asked them to pray with him, they fell asleep instead. I understood that he prayed so hard that he sweat blood. It was a difficult place for Jesus in reconciling himself to his destiny of going to the cross. That’s what I saw in the reading, but when we went, I saw something more.
We started the day on the Mount of Olives and it was from that vantage point that my friend Julie told me about the return of the Messiah on the Mount and that as his feet touched the earth at that spot an earthquake will erupt, and he will proceed through the valley to the walled up Eastern Gate, which we could see from there. We then strolled down the mount through massive grave yards that where placed there in light of the prophecies about the Messiah’s return to ensure the expedient resurrection of those buried there. It’s on the other side of what seemed to be thousands of graves that the Garden sits.
Gethsemane actually means “oil press” in Hebrew and true to its name, it’s an olive garden with trees over a thousand years old. It’s said that one of the trees was alive during the time of Jesus. Within the garden is the Church of all Nations which is said to be built upon the spot where Jesus actually prayed. Who knows. But as I looked around I could see the Mount of Olives from the garden, I could see the Eastern Gate and it occurred to me, this place of “the press” was the place where Jesus not only reconciled himself with the crucifixion but with everything. As he prayed, I believe he remembered past prophecies as he looked at the Mount of Olives, as he saw the eastern gate he saw the future, and he heard the voices of his present coming up the walkway. In this place, he reconciled himself with the full weight of his past, his present and his future in order to proceed.
Bear in mind, this guy Jesus was perfection in human form and it was still a painful process to work through. How much more difficult for those of us that are less than perfect with “tainted” pasts, challenging presents, and no line of sight into the future? I wonder how many of my gentle readers are sitting in their own personal Gethsemane? Unable to make peace with the past, take the reins of their present and couldn’t possibly believe for a glorious future? Stop flogging yourself with the olive branches and press on! It’s in the press that the oil is made, and oil is symbolic of the anointing, otherwise known as empowerment. If you are brave and press on, the empowerment will come to realize all that you are created to do, be, and have.