If Only The Gethsemane Olive Tree Could Talk

by Sandra Pena de Ortiz

Title

If Only The Gethsemane Olive Tree Could Talk

Artist

Sandra Pena de Ortiz

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

FEATURED PHOTO: Comfortable Art FAA group - 06/03/2013

FEATURED PHOTO: Group of Photographers From Around the World FAA group - 06/03/2013

FEATURED PHOTO: Your Best Work FAA group - 06/03/2013

FEATURED PHOTO: Memories and Nostalgia FAA group - 06/02/2013

I shot this awesome photograph at the the beautiful Garden of Gethsemane in the outsides of the city of Jerusalem during my tour through Israel in April 2007. The garden is actually at the foot of the Mount of Olives. The sight of it left me without words; full of awe ... I was approaching, entering, seeing, and standing upon the actual site where my Lord, Jesus Christ, agonized as a man on the eve of His crucifixion. On the eve of Passover, the eve of His crucifixion, He came to this garden to pray to the Father as a man about to give up His own life for God's chosen ones. As John 12:24 tells us, Christ died as the grain of wheat that fell into the ground in order nor not to remain just as the Only Begotten Son, but also in resurrection to become the Firstborn among many brothers. Thus, He came to a place known as Gethsemane, which means oil press. At Gethsemane the Lord was pressed so that the oil, the Holy Spirit, could flow out from His inner being; out from His human shell. In Mathew 26:39 Jesus said: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." The cup referred to His crucifixion and death on the cross. Yet again, why did He come to Gethsemane to pray? Why choose this place full of olive trees as those seen in the photograph? The word Gethsemane gives us the answer. Yes, He was to die on the cross, but such death would issue in resurrection: in the flowing out of His divine life, which dwelt in Him bodily. Hallelujah!

There are a total of eight beautiful and outstanding olive tress planted in the garden. Three of them have have been dated to over 900 years old, the others are said to be older. The olive three with the widest and most complex trunk system in the garden is the one captured in the photograph. Some believe that at least some of the trees, perhaps that one, was present during the times of Jesus. Here, as seen in the image, I came upon one of the olive trees and was so impressed; so surprised! Behold an olive tree with the semblance of a face! I could clearly see formations on the tree structure that made out what looked like an eye socket, a nose, a mouth, a forehead, a chin, cheeks, and even some sort of a hairstyle toward the front and one side of the tree. What an amazing sight! I thought of all the history that these trees must have "seen" and I thought to myself: if only this tree could speak? I remembered at that point the verses in Isaiah 53:2-3:

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Some may be surprised at these verses because according to Bible prophesy, Jesus, just like this Olive Tree at Getsemane, and contrary to popular believe, was not a physically attractive man. What made Him attractive was the inner essence of the divine life that dwelt in Him represented by the olive oil of the Holy Spirit.

Uploaded

June 2nd, 2013

Colors

Embed

Share

Tags