GETHSEMANE

The word Gethsemane means “olive press.”
An olive press is a pit wherein there is a millstone.
After the pits have been removed,
the olives are put into the press
and the millstone is used to press the oil from them.

Jesus went with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane
which was on the Mount of Olives.
He had to spend some time with His Father.
He asked His disciples to wait and keep watch
while He went further and He poured out His heart to God,
wrestling with what He knew was ahead of Him.

Feeling the weight of His upcoming encounters
with the arresting officers, guards,
the chief priests, elders and teachers of the law,
the Jewish crowd, the high priest, and Pilate,
before singularly shouldering the sin of the world,
He agonizingly asked His Father for some other way.
But obedience, borne out of love, brought Him to the place
of relinquishing His will to that of His Father's.
He got up from His knees, returned to His disciples and found them sleeping,
something that underscored His aloneness in the press!

To ponder:
I wonder how often the “oil of joy” promised by God
is delivered to us through “olive press experiences”,
those times when we feel as though we are being crushed,
when we relinquish our will and submit to God's will.

Isaiah 61:3
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
to give unto them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD,
that he might be glorified.


Twila Charles Leichty, L -14