“The Garden of Gethsemane is not really a
garden but an orchard. Olive trees still grow there today. During Jesus’ day it
was a place of business, an olive press producing the local areas supply of
oil. This is where the word Gethsemane comes in. A “gat” (Hebrew) is a press, a
large five-foot high square stone pillar, and a “semane,” or “seman,” is oil.
So on the evening before his crucifixion he went to the orchard of the Olive
Press with Peter, James, and John, to pray.
“If you lived in the first century and
worked with a gethsemane your day would be spent gathering olives, placing them
in a woven fishnet like bag, and putting them on top of a stone table. This
specially designed table is round with beveled edges that curve down to a
trough. The trough is angled and funnels into a pot which holds the oil. The
top is designed to receive the gethsemane. The tall square stone is lifted up
and set on top of the basket and for several hours its tremendous weight is
left there to crush the liquid from the olive.
“It is no mistake that Jesus spent his
last evening in the Garden of Gethsemane. From there he would leave to go to
the cross and receive the weight of the world, the gethsemane of our sins,
blood crushed from his body running down the cross to the world below. Luke
describes the pressure Jesus suffered that evening: “Being in anguish his sweat
was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” It is an image of the
gethsemane crushing the oil from the olive fruit.”*
Perhaps you are in midst of your own
gethsemane right now. The pressure is
becoming unbearable. Whatever the
problem -- when it seems you have reached the end of your rope -- the One who
knows all about crushing weight invites you to cast your burdens upon Him
(Matthew 11:28-30). He longs to share
the load that threatens to crush you.
Will you let Him?
God loves you!
Mike
*https://sermons.com/sermon_openers.asp
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