Articles
How are You Changed When You "Go to Dark Gethsemane"?
Often we look for a sanitized version of the gospel. Jesus is serenely praying in the garden, looking just tired or sad in Pilate’s hall, or calmly awaiting death on the cross. The hymn, “Go to Dark Gethsemane,” challenges us to step into those scenes and learn from Jesus’ example in submission, suffering, and death for our lives as living sacrifices here (Matthew 26:36–27:50).
I. Hebrews 5:7-9. If you go to Gethsemane, you will experience the Savior’s sorrow unto death. We must linger here to know too how to submit and obey.
Go to dark Gethsemane, Ye that feel the tempter’s pow’r; Your Redeemer’s conflict see; Watch with Him one bitter hour; Turn not from His griefs away; Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.
II. Philippians 3:8-11. If you spend time witnessing the sham trials our Lord endured and the terrible suffering that came to him before Calvary, you’ll learn the value of suffering as well.
Follow to the judgment hall; View the Lord of life arraigned; O the wormwood and the gall! O the pangs His soul sustained! Shun not suff’ring, shame, or loss; Learn of Him to bear the cross.
III. Colossians 3:1-4. If you climb the hill of Golgotha, hear the crowds and the Christ cry out, see the darkness and the agony of the silent Lamb bearing your sin, you may learn to die.
Calv’ry’s mournful mountain climb; There, adoring at His feet, Mark that miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete: “It is finished!” hear the cry; Learn of Jesus Christ to die.
The sadness we see early on the first day of the week is that of the women going to the tomb after a somber Sabbath. It is there that Jesus shows how to rise to walk in new life.
Early hasten to the tomb Where they laid His breathless clay; All is solitude and gloom; Who hath taken Him away? Christ is ris’n! He meets our eyes: Savior, teach us so to rise.
