The Garden
(praying hands)
After the Passover Seder was finished, and Judas had been excused by Jesus to go and do what he must (go and tell the chief priests and scribes where Jesus would be), Jesus and the remaining disciples sang a hymn and headed out of the city to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Gethsemane was a small garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley from the western wall surrounding Jerusalem. Gethsemane actually means “oil press” in Hebrew, and contained a rock bowl and press where the olives would be smashed and their oil would run down a chute and be collected and used for cooking as well as to light lamps in people’s homes.
Read Mark 14:32-52
Jesus asked His Father God not to let Him suffer and die, but if it was God’s will, He would do it. Jesus always did what His Father wanted Him to do. Still, Jesus agonized over this decision, knowing the torture that awaited Him.
After He finished praying, Jesus woke up His disciples, who were so exhausted that they couldn’t stay awake to pray with Jesus when He needed them the most. As they were rubbing the sleep from their eyes, Judas Isacariot arrived with a mob of soldiers, there to arrest Jesus.
Blessings,
Gay B Brown