Gethsemane

I was particularly touched by the children’s song Gethsemane that our Primary sang in Church this Sunday as part of the Primary Program.  It’s a simple song with a powerful reminder to us of the love that Jesus gave to us in Gethsemane.  I think that the place itself has a lot to teach us about what the Savior performed there.  We have the olive trees that produce olives and, with the help of the olive press, olive oil.  According to Truman G. Madsen, “Geth or gat means press, and shemen in Hebrew means oil. The place of the olive press.”  That oil when initially extracted after intense pressure, comes out red, just as for the Savior, “Blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people” (Mosiah 3:7).  Olive oil in their culture was extremely important to just about everything in daily life from cooking to cleaning to lighting their lamps just as Christ’s atonement can be the light and life and power that strengthens us in our daily walk.  It’s interesting as well that the trees are very, very old: “There are trees today—for new shoots come forth from apparently dead roots—that are known by actual horticultural study to be 1800 years old. There may be trees on the Mount of Olives older than that. One could even say of the olive tree, ‘It is immortal.’”  Christ suffered in the midst of these immortal trees so that He could bring immortality to the children of men. 

                In one of the few verses of scriptures that actually mentions the word Gethsemane, we read this: “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane, which was a garden” (JST 14:36).  The JST adds the fact that this was a garden, telling us this was a place that brought forth life, a place where seeds grew into a harvest.  On another occasion Jesus had said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).  Surely He was foreshadowing His own suffering in a garden, where He like a seed would in pour out His life in a garden in order to bring forth “much fruit.”  We are that fruit for which He fell to the ground and died.  The word Gethsemane reminds me of the French word semer which means to sow in a garden, and perhaps there is some similarity in the root of those words; Christ sowed His own life by giving it up and hopes to reap the salvation of our souls. 

                The place of Gethsemane also was a place where the disciples faltered.  We read that as they arrived, “The disciples began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy, and to complain in their hearts, wondering if this be the Messiah” (JST Mark 14:36).  Despite all that they had seen, the heaviness of the experience caused them to wonder again about the Savior.  After this Peter, James, and John sat and were instructed, “Tarry ye here, and watch with me” (Matt. 26:38).  But they were tired and during the most important moments of all of human history they fell asleep.  And even after the Savior found them asleep, He left again and came back and “found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.”  He asked Peter this piercing question: “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matt. 26:40, 43)  Surely that is a question we have to ask ourselves in our own efforts as disciples to follow and obey the Savior—can we stay vigilant in watching and following the Savior despite our own weakness and fatigue?  Whatever it is we are able to do—and surely we too falter in our own Gethsemanes when we are called upon to stay true—we praise the Lord that He was perfectly true to His mission in the garden 2000 years ago.