Matthew 26:36-46
At an olive press, a beam was lowered onto a stack of sacks filled with olives, and weight was added in order to press oil from the olives. The more pressure, the more oil.
After Jesus and His disciples had celebrated Passover, they went to a garden called Gethsemane just outside Jerusalem. It was a quiet place where Jesus often went to pray and meet with His disciples. Gethsemane is taken to mean “the place where olive oil is pressed”. Jesus was under tremendous pressure and probably felt like he was being crushed from carrying the weight of the sin of the world on his shoulders. He knew “all that was going to happen to Him.” (John 18:4) He knew he would soon be betrayed, arrested, tortured, and crucified. He acknowledged His sadness when He asked His disciples to keep watch, as “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” (Mark 1434) The immense pressure caused Him to fall to His knees, and He cried out,
“Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
While Jesus was fully divine, He was also fully human and He was afraid. But even stronger than His fear was His trust in God. Oftentimes we pray for God to change our circumstances, deliver us from evil or give us our desires instead of surrendering to His will. There are also times when we feel defeated and we don’t pray at all. James 4:2b says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” However, James 4:3 goes on to say, “When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” We must abide in his Word to gain the knowledge needed to have faith that shifts our prayers to reflect who God is and what He wants from us. Praise God that the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf when our prayers do not align with God’s will. (Romans 8:26) Jesus said in John 6:40, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Scripture tells us that Jesus poured out His soul in deep, fervent prayer three times to the point that His sweat was like drops of blood. We know that God did not ultimately deliver Him so that He would not have to drink of the cup. Instead, God sent an angel who strengthened Him as He prayed even more earnestly. He prayed throughout the night, occasionally returning to His disciples to find them sleeping. Jesus said to them, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) We, too, must keep watch and pray so that we can withstand the temptation to deny Him when we go through the olive presses of life and feel like we are being crushed by our circumstances.
When Jesus returned to wake His disciples after praying for the third time, He was ready to face the path his Father laid before Him. Jesus had previously shared with the people, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me.” (John 6:38) He will allow us to go through our own Gethsemane at times but oil is produced under pressure and it brings joy to those who produce it. (Isaiah 61:1-3) When we fall on our knees and cry out to Him in prayer and surrender just as Jesus did, we allow our spirits to be raised up and we will find ourselves ready to face whatever task He has set out before us.
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