Best Gethsemane Poems
"Not my will, but thine be done".
Though his mortal flesh was weak,
Yet these words God's only Son
In his darkest hour did speak.
True obedience demands
That we oft repeat this prayer -
Doing all the Lord commands,
Giving him our every care.
Like the prodigal, my choice
Is to fly to foreign lands,
Heeding not the Father's voice:
"Child, thy life is in my hands".
Having spent what was not earned,
Living recklessly and rude -
To the father's love returned
And his will again pursued.
Make my will and thine the same,
Cause this selfish heart to yield.
It is for such hearts Christ came,
By his stripes such hearts are healed.
Though he be my only friend,
Still my soul upon him leans -
Though I cannot see the end,
I must trust him with the means.
We like sheep have gone astray
From the path the Lord has willed.
Each has turned to his own way
And for such, Christ's blood was spilled.
Asking, "Father fashion me
In the image of thy Son” -
May my sole petition be,
"Not my will but thine be done".
A Maundy Thursday meditation on Christ in the garden of Gethsemane - Matthew 26:39
The Garden of Gethsemane
While Jesus was on earth, all creation felt His presence
and for a short interval of time, it breathed a sigh of relief,
for the Creator of Heaven and Earth had come into its view
and for Him to impart of His perfect peace.
But in the stillness of the night, somehow it seemed
the grass beneath His feet began to shudder and the trees quaked with terrifying fear,
for all creation was entwined with Him in great turmoil
while their Master shed great drops of blood and tears.
There were myriads of angels that came and went
in these moments ministering to the Bishop of our soul,
and the devil tried with all his might to kill Him there
but the Master of His life would not let go.
At one point of time when the trial was so intense
He cried, “Father if it be Thy will, from Me let this cup pass”,
but then He added, “Not My will, Father, but Thine be done”
and the Father gave Him the strength to last.
So He continued on His journey with added strength
for the joy set before Him and this is also what each of us must do,
fixing our eyes on the Master of Glory and what He has prepared
up in Heaven for me and for you.
We all have our “Gethsemane” moments in this life
though for certain not as severe as His,
because He paid the greatest of price for His dear children
so with Him we could eternally live.
And now, as I reflect upon Your agony sweet Jesus and in
that garden how You suffered so tremendously for me,
I gratefully come to this conclusion, my Lord
help me to follow You and finish my course no matter what the price might be.
Written by: Marilyn S. Jennings
I lift my eyes, as I have done so many
times, to enjoy the breathtaking images
in the stained-glass window gracing the
church foyer, Jesus kneeling and praying
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Exhausted disciples sleep nearby.
No comforter is pictured there, but I know
an angel appeared to strengthen Him.
The sun's rays are filtering through
the window, illuminating the image of
the Lord in fervent communion with His
Father and enhancing the holy light
that glows around Him.
This awe-inspiring depiction of Jesus
pouring out His heart to God speaks to me
as clearly as any sermon, as movingly as
a reading of the Scriptures.
I know what the Son is saying to the Father:
"O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away
from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done." (Matthew 26:30)
This masterpiece is a reminder to worshipers
of why Jesus came: "The Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world." ( I John 4: 14)
March 3, 2021
entered in Brian Strand's All Yours (March 4) contest placed 1st
Pt I: The Pilgrims
1991
he’d pick ‘his’ path up as it fell
between the dunes toward the wood
and as the trees knew him so well
they’d all bow down right where he stood
and every day with time to pass
he’d walk and find his secret seat
surrounded by the marram grass
divorced from life’s hard grind and heat
and there he’d sit and watch the sky
feeling the calm he craved back then
- the only place that saw him cry
before he walked his path again.
2021
they picked the path up as it fell
between the dunes toward the wood
despite their health and age as well
they struggled on as best they could
now thirty years had come to pass
walking the route to see the seat
surrounded by the marram grass
where they sat silent in the heat
then just before they headed back
with one last look their will was done
they touched the seat's small weathered plaque:
"in memory of our loving son".
Pt II: Gethsemane
1991
the flood that drowned his will no less
were the tears that he had cried
while trekking through his wilderness
and the storm that raged inside
yet when the sky lit up right there
it ‘spoke’ to him at length
- the rainbow brought a purer air
and the clouds some inner strength
then in the cooling midday heat
feeling calmer than before
he stood up from his secret seat
to walk his path once more.
Pt III: Evensong
2021
a photograph that takes pride of place
"we tried to help and always prayed"
in uniform with a pre-war face
"he turned to friends but felt betrayed"
some polaroids of a young child’s smile
"the three of us when we held hands"
all neatly kept in a grey box file
"he loved to play along those sands"
a secret seat and a place of peace
"discharged, divorced - and yet still strong"
sunsets, psalms and pain release
"this parents' path is hard and long."
Over the 2000 year period since the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, thousands of people have toured the 'Holy Sights' in Jerusalem and The Holy Land. One of those sights is a garden known as Gethsemane at the foot of or near the Mt. of Olives. However, the exact location of Gethsemane is not clearly known.*
The title question and theme is really not intended to be a search for the literal garden called Gethsemane, but rather the identity and whereabouts of our spiritual Gethsemene. We are not looking to locate the physical Gethsemane but rather to experience an encounter with God. The trip by Jesus and his apostles was taken rather often, but Let's imagine ourselves in the background looking in on the night that Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane accompanied by 11 of his 12 apostles. On that night, we would have clearly seen Gethsemane as:
A place of SANCTUARY where we seek stillness, peace, and quiet
A place of PRAYER where we meet with God and converse with Him
A place of WAITING where we obey His orders and move at His commands
A place of SLEEPING. Sleeping is not the purpose here and should be avoided
A place of TEMPTATION. "Pray, that you do not enter into temptation"
A place of SWEATING. Prayer is 'not a day in the park' but 'an engagement of warriors'. A place of AGONY and WARFARE where we engage, fight, endure, and never quit. A place of SERENITY. God gives us a 'free will' and asks us to 'surrender it freely'.
04052019PoSoupContest, Favorite Poem From Last Week (March 31-April 6, 2019) Poetry Contest, Lu Loo; Original Title, Where Is Gethsemane
*Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, "Gethsemane",p.675, 1975, ISBN 0-8024-9697-0 There are four[6] locations claimed to be the place where Jesus prayed on the night he was betrayed.
1. The Church of All Nations overlooking a garden with the "Rock of the Agony". 2. The location near the Tomb of the Virgin Mary to the north. 3. The Greek Orthodox location to the east. 4. The Russian Orthodox orchard, next to the Church of Maria Magdalene.
Modern scholarship acknowledges that the exact location of Gethsemane is unknown
2009 year old olive tree
There in the garden of Gethsemane
Close by him did you hear him pray
As sweat drops of blood
Poured down his loving face
Did you feel the torches
As the soldiers entered the place
Did you feel the kiss of Judas Iscariot
Placed upon his tear stained face
Did his mighty breath brush against your leaves
Over the short life that he lived
How many times did you hear him pray
How oft did he come to the garden to stay
In your hollow are his words stored
Could I visit and be restored?
Gethsemane was a garden where my Master prayed alone.
Deep distress He was in. His crucifixion wouldn't be long.
As in the garden, I'm in distress. I'm lonely without my wife.
People blown, slashed, tortured I see. I'll never be alright.
Dear love, I write this letter for you're always on my mind.
Just to touch. Just to hold. Having your hand again in mine.
In the day I think of you. In the night of you I dream. Every
second of every hour you're always there...or so it seems.
Dear love, like the sun so do you shine your light on me.
Calming the troubling waters of my life. I'm still just like
the sea.
I'm at war in another land, but it's a lonely place for me. My
garden of Eden is home with you. I'm in distress like Gethsemane.
Dear love, I'm defending my life, yours and the kids too.
Defending it for my country. Fighting for a girl like you!
So depressed I get without you my sweet and darling wife.
Need you here next to me. Please know you are my guiding
light.
Dear love, I want to say you're such an amazing girl. Honor,
riches and gold won't do, wouldn't trade you for the world!
Fortune, fame and all the rest...that stuff just won't do.
None of it matters to me. All my riches I have in you.
Another minute
Another day
Another night without you.
Oh love
My sweet love
How am I missing you!
Dear love, they just told me I'll be soon going home.
Tell the kids I love them. I'll be back where I belong.
Sadly I didn't make it, for in the night there was an attack.
Several of us were killed. There's no way I'm coming back.
Dear love, I'm so sorry. Won't be coming back to you.
Promised I did, but now sweet love what are you going
to do?
Saw the news. You gave a cry, "My garden of Eden you
are to me!" Wailing, holding my picture softly saying
these words to me.
"If I could hold you again. If I could have you next to me.
My heart would be a garden of joy and not in distress as
Gethsemane."
"Another tear"
"Another cry"
"Another night I scream, 'Why!?'"
"Though I try"
"Can't get by"
"Just so hard to say goodbye!"
An unusual heaviness hung in the air.
The wind didn’t stir, no single leaf fluttered.
The dead weight of engulfing darkness pressed on.
It was a fateful night, horrible and stark !
As a monument of misery, walked Jesus
weary and distraught as never before,
with staggering steps to the Mount of Olives,
to the Garden of Gethsemane
For him it was the d a r k e s t hour of the soul.
He needed to be comforted by his Father.
Oppressed by anguish, pinned down
by the weight of the world’s sin,
He g r o a n e d and m o a n e d.....
He wanted his disciples to keep vigil and pray.
To his great annoyance, he saw them sleeping.
Failed repeatedly by disciples,
callously deserted by followers
He knew he had to drink the cup of pain all alone.
He saw the demoniac hordes of hell surround him
He bowed down to touch the ground in prayer
His soggy eyes were lifted to Heaven again and again
At that fierce hour, sweat pouted out as drops of blood!
On the edge of a battle, he knew he can’t escape,
He prayed in all earnest, his soul writhing in agony
‘If it be possible, let this cup pass from me
But not as I will, but thou wilt’
The f a t a l hour came for him to bear the cross.
On his way to Calvary, many followed him,
not to share his pain or lessen his burden
but to enjoy this spectacle of disgrace and contempt
While the whole of his body sagged on three nails,
and his flesh, cut and peeled at every point
He didn’t scream in agony, but remained calm
and a prayer escaped his parted lips
“Father forgive them, for they don’t know
what they are doing”
Is there any other on Earth
who suffered the worst type of betrayal
and the excruciating pain of crucifixion
with such forgiveness and in such grace!
Tears in the Garden of Gethsemane were in a downpour
They ran deep in the cracks of pain of a divine soul
There was an endurance of a struggle to repress the world’s evils
An anguish that could not edify Jesus' slumbering disciples
The passing of that grief was beyond what scripture could show
The rain hanged in the clouds to let Jesus’ tears flow
Dripping from his eyes and drenching his white robe
The lord absorbed humanity’s inflictions with every heartthrob
The life that was breathed into the Garden of Eden
Jesus held its breath to give us a new life in Gethsemane
An immolation of divinity no prophet could amply inscribe
A supplication beyond any prayer that the saved can imbibe
It is the longest time a man has ever beseeched and knelt
The most hits the world’s spines of sin can ever pelt
The heaviest burden a single man has ever felt
Agape flooded Gethsemane when God's tears spilt
Natural serenity prevailed in the garden
That evening,
A warm light breeze blew
Interweaved with the sounds of
Crickets
Chirping their shrilled symphony,
And occasionally interrupted by
The haunting cries of wild peacock.
Bathed in pale moonlight
Stood a man
Dressed in a simple cloth robe
Wiping beads of sweat
And blood
From his brow.
Peering at the slumbering disciples
Huddled together before him
He sighed,
Ad then spoke the following
With compassionate disdain.
“Away but for a short time
Beseeching my father,
Only to return and find
My brothers asleep,
A moment longer
You could not wait?”
Nearly tempestuous
Was the wind,
As if God himself
Were attempting to wake
With forceful breath
Those who pledged to share
His sons’ every trial.
And in the twilight hours
Came the
Dutiful military denizens,
Guided by
Ulterior treachery and
Sworn to fulfill their mission.
Father, My Father the hour is come,
My weary heart feels the brewing storm,
Rome's Calvary to Me they hasten,
In Thy presence I kneel chastened.
Take Thy goblet from Me I pray,
Veer me away from the devil's way,
Hide Me within Thy towering pavilions,
Away from Caesar's bloodthirsty minions.
But not My will but Thine be done,
I stand obedient to Thee a Son,
Weary but willing to stand the test,
If that assures salvation for the rest.
So let Thine angel give Me strength,
For though My bloody sweat fall at length,
I'll drink this chalice of suffering still,
Knowing I harken to My Father's will.
To You then My breath I give,
Let death be for Me a brief reprieve,
And eternal life for the rest of human race,
Who'll sing forever Your Amazing Grace.
Sonnet VI (HE’s Still Hanging There)
HE’s still hanging there (figuratively)
After being judged, mocked, crowned with thorns, scourged;
Then crucified for the sins of the world.
HE’s still on that cross (figuratively).
An endless sacrifice for all mankind –
How much blood was sweat in Gethsemane,
As the song says “to save a wretch like me”?
I wish so many of those sins weren’t mine!
HE did not die just for the sins of the past.
Just like HE did millennia before,
HE calls to repent and to sin no more.
HIS loving grace was meant to ever-last.
What can we do to get him off that cross?
Accept HIS grace to make it worth HIS cost
There were much agony and tears
Painful words entered my ears
Sorrow filled my troubled soul
Yet I knew this was no time to fold
I took three disciples to watch with me,
but they could not; sleep got the best of them
Sweat poured from me like drops of blood
I felt the gloom, but never void of My Father's love
"Father!", I cried. "Please remove this cup so bitter?"
But my Father made me a gallant fighter, not a quitter
I knew that this cup was filled with the sentence of death
Its contents meant a brief separation between me and my Father
So I persisted, "Is there any possibility that I don't drink this cup?
Three times I asked, and three times, my Father said, "No".
Finally, with love for mankind, I surrendered to my Father's will.
My closest friends forsook me, for fear that they too would be killed.
With My Father's love, I drank the bitter cup designed only for me.
With my Father's love, I drank it for her, him, them, and for you.
04052017 PS; Poem Written in April(Not for Contest), Laura Loo I felt God's love embracing me as I wrote this. I pray you also will experience such overwhelming love as you read it.
God is waiting to meet us in a garden called Gethsemane
Essential to our relationship with God is spending time with Him
There will always be a 'battle royal of temptations' to avoid this place
Human-defined happiness and personal fulfillment cannot be found here
Serenity to God's will is the highest achievement to be found in Gethsemane
Emptying of our fleshly goals and selfish ambitions take place in Gethsemane
More of God is the golden discovery, and less of us is the greatest victory
Ascension of God's Glory and the descension of our will are what happens here
Newness, restoration, repentance, resurrection, and revival are conceived here
Every part of our being and the deepest areas of our hearts are dealt with here
04202019FBPoSoup
The blood spilled on the often fluid ground
and marked the place where young men ceased to be.
Until a time when birdsong fills the air
and crimson flags demand “Look, this is me”.
I am the souls of young men everywhere
anointed by the tears of loves and family.
Avail this place with all due reverence
and don’t forget the dead beyond Gethsemane.