Gethsemene

Christians are familiar with the word "Gethsemene" because it is the name of the garden where Jesus was taken into custody the night before His Crucifixion.

But in Hebrew, the word gethsemene means "olive press." The photo is of one part of the olive press in Capernaum. The Garden of Gethsemene was (and is) a grove of olive trees.

Ray Vander Laan wrote the following about the literal and symbolic meaning of the name of the garden in which Jesus prayed the night before his Crucifixion:

When considering the symbolic meaning of the gethsemene, it is important to understand both the economic and religious importance of the olive and its oil in Biblical times. Much of Israel was, and still is today, olive-producing. The olive was much more than food: Its oil was burned in lamps and served as a preserving agent and a lubricant for skin care. It had great value in daily life.

The process used to extract olive oil was a laborious one. Whole olives were put into a circular stone basin in which a millstone sat (see photo). A donkey or other animal was then harnessed to the millstone and walked in a circle, rolling the stone over the olives and cracking them.

The cracked olives were scooped up into burlap bags, which were then stacked beneath a large stone column--a gethsemane. The enormous weight forced the precious oil to drip from the fruit into a groove and on into a pit at the base of the gethsemane, from which it was collected.

The gethsemane and mill were large and expensive tools, and private citizens could rarely afford to own them. Whoever controlled the equipment, the wealthy elite or government officials, had economic power over the local population. People had to pay steep fees in order to process their olives. The gethsemane and mill were a burden born by many, because olives were an economic mainstay of society.

Deeper Meaning. The olive tree and its oil had even greater cultural importance as religious elements. The verb mashach-- from the same root word for messiah in Hebrew--means "to be annointed with olive oil." Priests, kings and prophets were annointed with olive oil, indicating that they were gifted and called by God. So it was understood that the anticipated Messiah would be specially annointed with olive oil.

The tree also represented the purpose of the promised Messiah--to renew Israel. When an olive tree grows old, it is cut down because there's too much trunk for the leaves to nourish. The following year, a new shoot comes out of the old tree, eventually producing new fruit and lots of healthy branches.

In Isaiah 5, God says to the unbelieving nation of Israel (paraphrased), "You didn't produce any fruit. But I was patient. I dug around you. I fertilized you. I kept you growing. And after a while, I looked. There was still no fruit, so I cut you down." And then He says in chapter 11, "Behold, a new shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse and will become a new tree with new fruit."

The Jews believed that the new shoot, which was going to renew, restore and revitalize the nation of Israel, was the Messiah. The Messiah is the shoot or branch out of Jesse. If Jesus is the branch or stem, then we, as Gentiles, have been grafted in, according to the apostle Paul. That means our roots are the Jewish people. That's our stump. We can't exist and bear fruit without the Jewish roots. Second, it means Jesus is where we get life and energy.

But the key is the olives we produce. Paul says in Romans 11:21 (paraphrased), "If God cut down the natural tree, what do you think He would do to you who have been grafted in if you don't bear fruit?" Jesus came to be the new shoot for what reason? So we would have life to bear fruit.

Greatly Pressed. The night before His Crucifixion, Jesus went to the garden of the olive press--the Garden of Gethsemane. He got down on His knees and began to experience the weight of what was going to be laid on Him. That weight was so incredibly heavy that it squeezed out of Him His own blood. He was heavily pressed. This Jesus, who taught and preached and performed miracles and was raised from the dead, went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Laid on Him was the sin of the entire world.