When God is Silent

Why is Gethsemane Necessary?

Gethsemane is where we go when there is no place to go but God.

Everyone needs a place to pray, a place to cry out to God. And it is during those times you find out WHO you really are underneath the mask. You begin to see the dross coming to the top. The purpose of the flames coming from gold is to bring the dross to the top, the impurities, the stuff the does not belong and skim it off. To allow us to look at ourselves and admit some statements, “I am jacked up, I have to stop this, this cannot continue to go on, I cannot believe that I have let it go on this long, Father, I got to do better.”

The Garden of Gethsemane is an olive garden located at the foot of the Mt. of Olives. It is the place Jesus chooses to go to have a more intimate but intense talk with His Father. The word Gethsemane means “pressed oil.” To know what it actually takes for an olive to produce oil will help us understand the pressure that it has to go under for olive oil to be produced.

And He took with Him Peter and James and John and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” And He went a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” Mark 14:33-36

This particular day, Jesus being deeply distressed and troubled, makes a statement to his disciples that says, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow. Sorrow to the point of death.” Jesus was ALL God and He was ALL man. He felt the sorrow. He felt the pain, and He felt that extreme intense moment. He cried and prayed to His Father, but all was silent. There was no answer. But His ending prayer was, not MY will but YOUR will be done. Because He knew it was necessary.

There are moments like these that we, as a people of God, don’t welcome our Gethsemanes. Had it not been for His Gethsemane experience, this preparation for the cross, there would be no death, burial, or resurrection. There would be no gospel of salvation. Thus, Gethsemane was necessary.

So, what’s your location, where do you go when darkness and aloneness and despair fall on your soul? When you are at a terrifying place in your life where you don’t know what to do? You’ve prayed. You’ve fasted. You’ve cried out to God, but there seems to be no answer. There is only silence. You haven’t even been given any direction. You have no clue of what to do. First of all, know that it is necessary.

God has a way of putting us in a position on our backs, to where we have no choice but to look up.