A New View of Gethsemane

[Anonymous]

The house I am renting right now has a sauna. (Yes, envy is appropriate. 🙂 ) I have used it a few times this past month, and something happened recently that I want to share here before I share it elsewhere.

As I sit in the sauna and start to work up a steady sweat, I understand a little the idea of feeling and looking like I am “sweating from every pore”. That, however, is not what gave me my new view of Gethsemane.

The flooring is wood, and the wood is not completely consistent in type and coloring. There is one board, in particular, right in front of where I normally sit, that is darker than the rest of the floor. As my sweat hits that one board, it looks remarkably like blood, due to the unique coloring of that one board.

In the past, I have viewed the descriptions of Jesus bleeding from every pore in Gethsemane as purely figurative – but sitting in that sauna watching myself “sweat, as it were great drops of blood” gave me a new view of what John might have witnessed as he saw Jesus pray that night. It might have been a much more literal description of what he saw than I had realized previously – even if it still was “sweat, as it were great drops of blood” and not real blood hitting the roots of the tree beneath or around Jesus.

[Anonymous]

That is beautiful Ray. Years ago I listened to Truman Madsen retell Gethsemane. I have never found a recording or written version of the particular talk, but I felt as I listened to him, as if I were in the garden in the shadows watching the experience. It is the only time I can remember having a transcendent moment with the entire last events in Christ’s life.

Today I have a bit of Holy Envy for you.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing, Ray. I appreciate your point of view in this since that’s the way I have seen this for quite some time. That is, it is more of a description of what the sweat looked like as opposed to describing it as actual blood. I don’t know if it was blood or not, but I can envision great drops of sweat (which we don’t generally see) that could be described as looking like great drops of blood (which we do sometimes see). Actually, if it weren’t for the D&C I wouldn’t have any uncertainty about it being blood or sweat – I would have believed it to be sweat.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing with us. Small but profound experiences bump the lens and change how we see things. I hate to call them tender mercies, but they are.

[Author]

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