Quotes about Gethsemane

If I am perturbed by the reproach and misunderstanding that may follow action taken for the good of souls for whom I must give account; if I cannot commit the matter and go on in peace and in silence, remembering Gethsemane and the cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

At that time Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He told them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”

Then they came to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus told His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”

He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed.

Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour would pass from Him.

And He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where He knelt down and prayed,

And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.

We feel pain as an outrage; Jesus did too, which is why he performed miracles of healing. In Gethsemane, he did not pray, "Thank you for this opportunity to suffer," but rather pled desperately for an escape. And yet he was willing to undergo suffering in service of a higher goal. In the end he left the hard questions ("if there be any other way . . .") to the will of the Father, and trusted that God could use even the outrage of his death for good.

Terribly black must that guilt be for which nothing but the blood of the Son of God could make satisfaction. Heavy must that weight of human sin be which made Jesus groan and sweat drops of blood in agony at Gethsemane, and cry at Golgotha, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

An interesting fact about the Garden of Gethsemane is that it sits at the base of a known escape route from the city over the Mount of Olives toward the Judean desert. This is the route David took when running from his son Absalom. Jesus would have known this. But instead of running, He turned to His Father and said nine hell-shattering, demon-shaking, Devil-killing words: "Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36).