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The Garden of Gethsemane
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.
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
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:
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| 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).
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| 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!
