LEAVE A MARK - Persistence

After the supper given in His honor, Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-50  ).  Gethsemane means "oil press".  Gethsemane was an Olive Grove. Olive oil was a very precious commodity. Ancient peoples would use oil presses to crush the olives. The olives would be placed in large round stone basins, and then they’d be “crushed” by another large round stone that was rotated around the basin by oxen or other domesticated animals. Gethsemane represents a place of intense conflict and pressure.

Imagine the pressing that Jesus was feeling:

• The Pressing of Broken Promises  – All of His disciples left Him and fled. Remember that these are the same men who just hours before had been fighting among themselves over which one would be sitting at His right hand. Men who had declared wholehearted allegiance and undying loyalty. Peter went so far as to say – “even though all may fall away, yet I will not.” Then they left the lighted upper room where they shared the Passover – and entered the "pressing". When we are under pressure, what is in us comes out.  The truth is that the world is full of broken promises. Our faithfulness waxes and wanes. 

• The Pressing of a Broken Heart –  He began to pray very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood.  Here in Gethsemane’s shadows the dark reality of the cross finally took shape.  He weeps because He knows that soon He will be enveloped in the shadows of the cross. He doesn’t weep for fear of the pain but His heart broken for a broken creation – Jesus will willingly lay down His life and take it up again. 

Regardless of the pressing trying to crush Him, Jesus clearly announces that He wants to yield to God's will not His personal feelings but will remain persistent. 

In a sense we all go through a garden type place of pressing.  Every day we have to make the decision to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.  Every day we have to decide whether or not our commitments will withstand the pressing times and difficulties.  It seems that people all around us are not standing up to the pressure, but quitting, or giving up.

But let us make a decision to LEAVE A MARK OF PERSISTENCE!