Oil Press

Did you know that Gethsemane means oil press? I deliberately looked up the scriptures on Jesus’s experience in that garden this morning because I feel sort of out of sorts in my life, and in my prayers. Don’t get me wrong - I do not compare any emotional disturbance of mine with what Jesus went through but I can learn from this account and I pray I will glean some insight from it.

Why the meaning of the name Gethsemane is relevant I am struck by the process of pressing oil from olives.  An ancient oil press worked in two stages - crushing the olives to paste with a heavy stone, then they were put in the basin and with weight on top. This produced a mash of crushed olive flesh and pits. That mash was put in woven baskets that allowed the oil to drip down through the weave from above by use of wooden beams and stone weights causing the oil to separate from the mash - the oil being collected below from pressure above. 

The scriptures regarding the accounts of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane are found in Matthew 26:36-46, in Mark 14:32-42, and in Luke 22:39-46. My pondering of the account of Jesus time in the “oil press”, I have not really understood yet but here is what I am thinking about:

• Jesus was God yet he was in anguish and sorrow. He was also greatly distressed and troubled. Why was God subjected to such agony?

• The disciples, Peter, James and John, were selected by Jesus to accompany Him yet they were not very helpful. Did Jesus not know they were not going to be helpful?

• Jesus told Peter, James, and John to “remain here and watch”. Watch what?

• Peter, James, and John, according to Luke 22:45 - were found by Jesus “sleeping from sorrow”. What does this mean?

I am going through a process in my personal life that is causing me a bit of “pressing”. I don’t like it. I come to God and desire release but also know that I must be patient and submit to a process. I would rather not. The feeling in my core is unpleasant, yet I must wait on the Lord. 

I am concluding this writing with a nod towards looking for the answers to the questions above. But for now…

“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD. and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like the eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”    Isaiah 40:27-31