Dark Gethsemane Illumined by the Light of the World

“Go to dark Gethsemane,

All who feel the tempter’s power;

Your Redeemer’s conflict see.

Watch with Him one bitter hour;

Turn not from His griefs away;

Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

Calvary’s mournful mountain climb;

There adoring at his feet,

Mark that miracle of time,

God’s own sacrifice complete.

‘It is finished!’ hear him cry;

Learn from Jesus Christ to die.”

Mr. Kern in “The History of Hymns” writes: “James Montgomery, considered one of the most important hymn writers of the English language, wrote this beautiful hymn in 1820 and is still one of his most widely used hymns, most often sung during Lent or during Holy Week.”

Jesus commands the disciples to watch with him while he prayed, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42, KJV). Within days the world and humanity across the ages would hear his final answer to sin, death and the devil: “It is finished” (John 19:30, KJV). These verses give the account. The acts of Jesus over the three days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Saturday of Holy Week complete the prophecy, satisfy the wrath and placate the justice of God for sinners. His death teaches you to die. His resurrection from the dead teaches you to hope.

The cosmic, eternal and permanent result of Jesus’ sweating drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane and his blood (with water) pouring from the side of his pierced corpse at Calvary (the cross) is that a new world is born and new way to heaven bursts open. Hell is notified as the days of the power of death and sin are numbered. No longer will the blood of goats and bulls be required to pacify the demand of the law or to assuage the sentence of sin! Here’s where a Christian might shout, “Halleluiah!”

For at the moment of Jesus’ death, as the curtain of the temple was rent asunder by the unseen hand of God (from top to bottom) so the veil of his son’s blood opens the gates of heaven for those who will trust Jesus alone for salvation: by grace through faith plus nothing. Christ is risen! Let there be light!