Moving Toward Gethsemane
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." Matt. 26:36-38, NKJV.
His hour has come! He has completed instructing the disciples. They may not have absorbed it yet, but the promised Holy Spirit would bring His words to their minds repeatedly after the Resurrection. Jesus had also prayed for them as a group one last time. And now the moment has arrived when He must leave them if He is to accomplish the mission He came to earth to carry out.
After the intercessory prayer recorded in John 17, the opening verses of chapter 18 tells us that after "Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples across the Kidron valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered" (John 18:1, RSV).
Gethsemane is on the Mount of Olives. It is hardly a mountain in the strict sense of the word, but is more like a ridge running parallel to the Kidron Valley several hundred feet below. On the other side of the Kidron was the Temple, which was in full view from the height. Even today it provides the most impressive and least disturbed site of what Jesus actually did and saw in the area of the Holy City. A visitor stands among extremely old olive trees and gazes across the valley to the remains of the Temple wall.
It was from the Mount of Olives that Jesus began His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On it He gave His great sermon on the Second Coming. And now He is returning to it as He moves toward His hour of destiny.
But others were also acquainted with His love for Gethsemane. "Now Judas," John tells us, "also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with his disciples" (John 18:2, RSV).
Jesus recognized that His hour of temptation had arrived and that He needed nothing so much as prayer as He encountered the greatest challenge of His life.
Although He would not back off the road to the cross, He really didn't want to take it. Jesus, in his humanity, was caught in the tension. All He could do was pray.
In that conflict He faced a situation we also share to a much lesser extent. There are times in our lives when the only way forward is through serious prayer. In such crisis times we can advance only with God at our side.
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." Matt. 26:36-38, NKJV.
His hour has come! He has completed instructing the disciples. They may not have absorbed it yet, but the promised Holy Spirit would bring His words to their minds repeatedly after the Resurrection. Jesus had also prayed for them as a group one last time. And now the moment has arrived when He must leave them if He is to accomplish the mission He came to earth to carry out.
After the intercessory prayer recorded in John 17, the opening verses of chapter 18 tells us that after "Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples across the Kidron valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered" (John 18:1, RSV).
Gethsemane is on the Mount of Olives. It is hardly a mountain in the strict sense of the word, but is more like a ridge running parallel to the Kidron Valley several hundred feet below. On the other side of the Kidron was the Temple, which was in full view from the height. Even today it provides the most impressive and least disturbed site of what Jesus actually did and saw in the area of the Holy City. A visitor stands among extremely old olive trees and gazes across the valley to the remains of the Temple wall.
It was from the Mount of Olives that Jesus began His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On it He gave His great sermon on the Second Coming. And now He is returning to it as He moves toward His hour of destiny.
But others were also acquainted with His love for Gethsemane. "Now Judas," John tells us, "also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with his disciples" (John 18:2, RSV).
Jesus recognized that His hour of temptation had arrived and that He needed nothing so much as prayer as He encountered the greatest challenge of His life.
Although He would not back off the road to the cross, He really didn't want to take it. Jesus, in his humanity, was caught in the tension. All He could do was pray.
In that conflict He faced a situation we also share to a much lesser extent. There are times in our lives when the only way forward is through serious prayer. In such crisis times we can advance only with God at our side.
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