June 25 2025
- Pastor Mike
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
Wednesday June 25
Luke 22:39
The Garden of Gethsemane
39 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.
Welcome to Pastor's Chat. Today we're looking at Luke chapter 22. In this chapter, we continue to learn about some of the things that happened the final week of our Lord's life in Jerusalem before His crucifixion on Friday. In chapter 21 we are told that after Jesus had His confrontations with the Pharisees and the chief priests there at the temple, and gave His Mt. Olivet discourse to His disciples about end-time events, it says in verses 37-38, “And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet. Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him.” So throughout the week, in the evenings Jesus would be going back to the Mount of Olives, and then in the mornings come back to the temple.
Then we see on this Thursday evening that we're looking at here in Luke chapter 22, Jesus has the Passover meal with His disciples, and there He institutes the Lord's Supper. Somewhere between the Passover meal and the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Judas leaves to go gather the soldiers that will arrest Jesus. It is around this same time, Jesus told Peter, "You're going to betray Me three times." Now, it is at that point, John 18:1 says, “When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered.” In Matthew 26:36, Matthew gives us the name of the garden. “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there."
That's what we're looking at in verse 39 of Luke 22: “Coming out, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him”. No doubt, Judas knew that He was going to this place each evening, and that's why he went there with the Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus after he had betrayed Him.
You might ask why is this garden such a significant place for the story of Christ betrayal, arrest and crucifixion? Why did Jesus go to this garden, and why does this garden become a place that we need to know about? I think there are so many wonderful things we can learn from this. We must remember that the history of mankind began in a garden; that's where God created Adam and placed him in a garden in Genesis 2:7-25. Read through that passage and circle the word "in the garden" or "the garden".
It's in the garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3 that sin enters the world. There you see Adam and Eve disobeying and rebelling against known will of God and eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and sin enters the world. But we also know here we have the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the second Adam, according to 1 Corinthians 15:45-47. The first Adam was disobedient and ate of the fruit that was forbidden, and sin comes into the human race. It was the second man, Jesus Christ, who submitted to the will of God. He became obedient even unto the death of the cross, and there in the garden of Gethsemane, He accepts the cup, the cup of our sins, the cup of sufferings, and He is willing to go to the cross and die for us and give us eternal life. The first Adam brought death in a garden, but the second Adam, Jesus Christ, is the one who brings us life as He submitted to the will of the Father.
How interesting is that, that it all begins and ends in the garden? Maybe John had in mind, when he said that Jesus crossed the brook Kidron, he was thinking about David in 2 Samuel chapter 15, when Absalom rebelled against him, and David loses his throne and leaves Jerusalem with a small remnant of followers and goes across the brook Kidron, fleeing from his son Absalom. Here we see Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews, literally the King of heaven, the King of eternity; He is rejected, and He leaves Jerusalem and goes across the same brook Kidron, which means “murky, dark. and enters the garden of Gethsemane.
The word Gethsemane means “olive press”, where the olives would be pressed, and out of it would come the oil that would be used for healing and cooking and for so many different things. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus Christ drank the cup of our sins; He was pressed; His life was pressed out of Him there in prayer as He prayed, and willingly laid down His life for us
What an interesting passage. I trust you'll meditate on these words, and you'll even more than ever love your Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave His life for you.
God bless!
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