Jesus & the Garden of Gethsemane
Next Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Something that is often overlooked when talking about Jesus' sacrifice is the fact the He struggled beforehand with what He knew was going to happen to Him.
Just before Jesus was arrested, He prayed and asked The Father to spare Him from the torture that He was going to have to endure. This happened in the "Garden of Gethsemane."
This garden was filled with olive trees. A few years ago we learned about the significance of the olive tree:
Let's first find out what the word "Gethsemane" means.
Gethsemane - in Hebrew it means: oil press or place for pressing oil.
- in Greek it means: a place or occasion of great mental or spiritual suffering.
Both definitions apply to this Scripture passage (see below):
We know that Jesus was struggling by what he told His disciples: "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."
Before Jesus left to pray, He asked His disciples to keep watch. When Jesus returned the disciples were sleeping!! Jesus did this THREE times and always the disciples were sleeping. The number three is very significant (see below):
One of the most important lessons to be learned from our featured Scripture today is the importance of prayer. Jesus Christ fell with His face to the ground and prayed. He asked the Father, "if at all possible" to spare Him from the pain to come but Jesus ALWAYS ended His prayers with "not as I will but as You will."
(at the end of this post is a video about the importance of prayer).
It was ultimately Jesus' choice to sacrifice His life so that we all (we who believe and follow Him) might have eternal life. Yes, Jesus wanted to do His Father's will but our Heavenly Father did NOT force Jesus to sacrifice Himself. Jesus made the final decision by agreeing to be the sacrificial Lamb.
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You might be interested in viewing this video:
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