Emmaus Road Ministries

Matthew 26:36-39
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.”  And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

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Jesus’ sufferings began here, in the garden of Gethsemane.  The name means “Oil press,” in Hebrew.  It is no coincidence that it is so named. Our Master Storyteller, The Holy Spirit, is drawing a very, VERY graphic picture of the beginning of what Y’Shua/Jesus, ourMessiah, suffered on our behalf. (You may need a box of tissues). 😭.

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He went to Gethsemane right after the Last Supper (Passover/Pesach) that He would share with His disciples in the upper room.  According to rabbinical tradition, there are two times when it is lawful for one to partake of the Passover:  The evening before or the evening of the feast.  Y’Shua/Jesus partook the evening before in order to become the TRUE LAMB of God Who would pay for the sins of the whole world the next day.

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He knew all too well what was going to to Him happen in the hours ahead and needed strength and comfort from His Father to weather the coming storm. He was so distressed in body and soul that He literally sweat great drops of blood!  😮

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History Of Olive Oil Production.

Pronounced, “Gat-Shemané,” it is derived from two Hebrew words: “Gat,” which means “A place for pressing oil (or wine)” and “Shemanim,” which means “oils.”

Olive presses have been in use since the Greeks first began pressing olives over 5,000 years ago.  They work by applying pressure to olive paste in order to separate the liquid oil and vegetation water from the solid material. The oil and vegetation water are then separated by standard decantation, a process which separates the mixtures.  It acts to remove a layer of liquid, generally one from which a precipitate has settled.

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In ancient Israel, heavy stone slabs were lowered onto olives that had already been crushed in an olive crusher.  This is the kind of work that Samson would have done, after he was betrayed by Delilah. His captors, the Philistines, had gouged his out; then he was chained to such a press and used as a workhorse to produce olive oil.

All of this is a picture of what Y’Shua/Jesus did in saving all of us as you will read further on.

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The first mention of “Gethsemane” in the Bible is here, in Matthew 26.  It is recorded only 7 times which, in Bible numerics means “Completeness, promise, or oath.”  It’s a picture of Y’Shua/Jesus Who was crushed for us until every sin and every curse was paid for in full.

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(For more on the topic of numbers, you may follow the link below to a short series on that topic:

https://emmausroadministries.international/2020/07/02/numbers-have-meaning/)

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Think about it:  The One Who is Faithful and True, Who CANNOT LIE, SWORE AN OATH; and delivered up His own beloved Son to die for us all.  For our sakes, Y’Shua/Jesus poured out of Himself everything He had and was forsaken by His Father so that you and I could have what He has; that we would never be forsaken by God and be able to cry out to Him, “Abba: Father!”

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Why would God, the faithful and true, Who CANNOT lie, need to swear an oath?  To reassure us humans, the wishy-washy, faithless ones. He gave a glimpse of what He would do all the way back in Genesis.

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The Blessing Of Judah.

Jacob called his sons to himself in Genesis 49, just before he died, to speak a blessing over each one; all except Joseph and his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Theirs are recorded in the previous chapter, 48.

“Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh {Jesus} comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, HE WASHED HIS GARMENTS IN WINE, AND HIS CLOTHES  IN THE BLOOD OF GRAPES.  His eyes are darker than wine, And his teeth whiter than milk.”  Genesis 49:9-12

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Wine is made from grapes in much the same way as olive oil is pressed from olives.  They must be crushed and trodden underfoot to release their sweet juice.  To the Hebrew mind, the idiom here is “The blood of grapes.”  Both processes are graphic depictions of what Y’Shua/Jesus went through in redeeming us.

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Quite significantly, the process of pressing olives to extract their oil consisted of THREE steps:

1:The oil from the first pressing was used in the temple for the lamp which provided light in the temple.  2: The oil produced from the second pressing was used for medicine.

3: The oil produced by the third pressing was used for the manufacture of soap for cleansing. 

Here is why this is so descriptive: 👇

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1: In the Garden of Gethsemane, the first “Pressing” where He shed great drops of blood, He, Who would become the the Light of the world, allowed Himself to be “Taken captive,” much like the ark of the Covenant was “captured” by the Philistines in the days of Samuel, the Prophet.

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(For the whole story on that topic, you may follow the link below:

https://emmausroadministries.international/2022/11/17/why-did-the-oxen-stumble/)

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2: At the scourging post, the second “Pressing,” He took all our sicknesses upon Himself for it says,“By His Stripes we are healed.”

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3: Finally, on the cross, the third “Pressing,” He paid for all our sins by His perfect sacrifice.  He cleansed the sins of our entire lives by His precious blood.  He cleansed us with His heavenly “soap!”

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Thank you, Jesus, for loving us!  Thank you for going through the oil press, “Gethsemane.”