36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:36-39
Located outside the walls of Jerusalem, this beautiful garden among a grove of olive trees is thought to be the place where Jesus prayed this prayer, and it is pretty amazing over 2,000 years later, that you can go and visit it today.
In Hebrew Gat Shemanim means “oil press,” pointing to the area’s ancient olive oil production. Home to a number of gnarled olive trees, scientific tests indicate the trunks date back to the 12th century, though their root systems are even older. So we like think these are the great grandchildren olive trees of the ones that were in the garden in Jesus’ day!
Next door to the ancient olive grove is the Church of All Nations, also known as the Basilica of the Agony. The current church, built in 1924, rests on the foundations of two earlier ones, that of a 4th-century Byzantine basilica, destroyed by an earthquake in 746, and of a small 12th-century Crusader chapel abandoned in 1345.
For us, the significance of Gethsemane is not found in venerating a particular rock or identifying the precise spot where Jesus knelt. It is found in what happened here.
Knowing the suffering that awaited Him, Jesus prayed, “Not as I will, but as you will.” Gethsemane gives us a profound glimpse of both the humanity of Jesus and His willing obedience to the Father as He prepared to go to the cross.
Groups travelling with an ordained minister can reserve a place in the olive grove for a private service.
