Page - 12

The Garden of Gethsemane

Monday, ‎December ‎23, ‎2013

Continued ....

Third Day of my Holy Land Trip, Jerusalem

My Holy Land Trip

Jerusalem Is a place where Jesus spent His lifetime mostly, and I never felt enough walking and visiting Holy places there.

Jerusalem: the name itself evokes an idea of universality and peace reaching beyond nationalisms, racial disputes, religious faiths and political barriers.

Jerusalem has always been the crossroads between different races and worlds. Concentrated in only a few hundred feet are Al-Aqsa Mosque, Holy Sepulcher, and Wailing Wall the most important sacred sites of the three principal monotheistic religions.

It was a springtime Sunday in about the year 30 A.D. The holy city of Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims who had come for the annual Passover celebration.

Jesus had spent many months traveling through the towns and villages of Palestine. He preached about the kingdom of God and healed the sick wherever He went. Now the time had come for Him to claim His title as the Messiah - the Savior that God had promised to the Jewish people.

Jesus knew His mission was almost finished. As they traveled to Jerusalem, Jesus warned His disciples that He would soon be put to death, and after three days He would rise again.

As they came near Jerusalem, Jesus told two of His disciples to go into a nearby village and bring a donkey that would be waiting there. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. Crowds of people spread their coats on the ground in front of Him. Some waved branches of palm trees, a sign of victory. The people shouted,

Hosanna!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord –

the King of Israel!

Only a king would be greeted this way (2 Kings 9:13), and the people wanted Jesus to be their king.Most of the people did not understand what kind of king Jesus would be. They expected their Messiah to be a great political and military leader who would free them from the tyranny of the Roman Empire. But the kingdom of God is not of this world. It is a spiritual kingdom that is now growing in the hearts of people who put their faith and trust in God

The Garden of Gethsemane is just walk away from Church of Dominus Flevit, and my next Holy place to visit.

The entrance The Garden of Gethsemane:

The entrance The Garden of Gethsemane

The entrance to the complex is on the north side, which opens to the north garden. The title reads "Hortus Gethsemane" - the garden of Gethsemane.

Above the name is symbol of the Franciscans, the custodians of  the Holy sites.  Their symbol is a large cross with four crosses on each of its corners. This symbol was the Crusaders sign of Jerusalem, and was adapted by the Franciscans. The 5-cross symbol is based on the 5 Holy wounds of the crucifixion  of Jesus (2 in the hands, 2 in the legs, and one in the chest).

A very old Olive Tree in the background

The garden of Gethsemane, near the foot of the Mount of Olives, is named in the New Testament as the place where Jesus went with his disciples to pray the night before he was crucified.

The garden, about 1200 square metres in area, was well known to the disciples as it is close to the natural route from the Temple to the summit of the Mount of Olives and the ridge leading to Bethany.

The name in Hebrew means “oil press”. Oil is still pressed from the fruit of eight ancient and gnarled olive trees that give the garden a timeless character.

Beside the garden is the Church of All Nations. built over the rock on which Jesus is believed to have prayed in agony before he was betrayed by Judas Iscariot.

About 100 meters north of the church is the Grotto of Gethsemane, where Jesus and his disciples often camped at night. In this natural grotto, it is believed, the disciples slept while Jesus prayed, and Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested.

Near the grotto is the Tomb of Mary, where a Christian tradition holds that the Mother of Jesus was buried after she “fell asleep” in death

How old are the trees?

In the garden of Gethsemane, behind a fence of iron tracery with Byzantine motifs stand the gnarled trunks of eight hoary olive trees. They create a spiritual atmosphere for visitors to the garden of Gethsemane, although the flower beds and paths around them introduce an artificial element...

The trees also generate conjecture about their age. Were they silent witnesses to the Agony of Jesus the night before he died?

Israel has many ancient olive trees. Two in the town of Arraba and five in Deir Hanna have been determined to be over 3000 years old.

The present Gethsemane trees, however, were not standing at the time of Christ. The historianFlavius Josephus reports that all the trees around Jerusalem were cut down by the Romans for their siege equipment before they captured the city in AD 70.

Research reported in 2012 showed that three of the eight ancient trees (the only ones on which it was technically possible to carry out the study) dated from the middle of the 12th century, and all eight originated as cuttings from a single parent tree.

The Gethsemane olives are possibly descendants of one that was in the garden at the time of Christ. This is because when an olive tree is cut down, shoots will come back from the roots to create a new tree.

In 1982 the University of California carried out radiocarbon-dating tests on some root material from Gethsemane. The results indicated that some of the wood could be dated at 2300 years old.

What happens to the fruit from the Gethsemane olive trees? When it is harvested each year, the oil is pressed for Gethsemane’s sanctuary lamps and the pits are used to make rosary beads, given by the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land to notable pilgrims.

The main importance of the garden of Gethsemane is that it is the place where Jesus Christ showed his passion for the world by accepting to be crucified for the world's sins.

What Gethsemane means

The Garden of Gethsemane, on the side of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, is where Jesus went to pray before His ordeal on the cross of Calvary.

The Bible says that Jesus was troubled and overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of sweating drops of blood. Three times Jesus prayed that if it were possible the cup of suffering would be taken from Him, but that the will of the Father would nevertheless be done.

Chapter 12 of the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus “endured the cross, scorning its shame” and that He did this “for the joy set before Him”. In other words, although He was under immense pressure, and in torment at the suffering He was undergoing, He pressed on, firstly, because it was the will of the Father and, secondly, because, by faith, He knew that He would have great joy on the other side of the suffering.

The setting of His spiritual travail before the crucifixion, at Gethsemane, and even the name of the place, is deep with meaning.

Matthew 26:36-46, Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” 42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!