In His steps

“When you visit the places that Jesus walked, it’s like the stories that you’ve read about in the Bible go from being just words to actual events (which they were, but you see it better). It’s like going from watching a movie in black and white to watching it in color for the first time- everything becomes more real.””

Mary Fowler

In early 2019, my husband, Joseph, and I were able to take a group of people from our church to the Holy Land for the trip of a lifetime. We were able to see many of the places that I had read about in Scripture, from Jordan to Galilee to Nazareth to Bethlehem and more. One of the most prominent places, though, was the Holy City itself- Jerusalem. We spent multiple days exploring the city, and my eyes were opened to the reality of what it would have been like at the time of Christ even though we were touring it thousands of years later.
Touring Jerusalem was an emotional experience in so many ways, but nothing sticks out to me more than the Sunday morning that we spent in the Garden of Gethsemane. While churches across the world met to worship together, we were able to worship under the same trees (yes, they are thousands of years old!) that Jesus Himself shed the first drops of blood for us underneath.
The word “Gethsemane” means “olive press,” and if you ever get a chance to travel to Israel, you will likely see an olive press at some point (or you can Google it to find a visual image)- it is a huge, wheel-like stone that it put into a circular trough, and used to crush the oil out of the olives that sit in the trough. The magnitude of a stone that large on top of small olives shows the irony of the place where Jesus went that night, on what would have been Thursday night of Holy Week, being named “olive press”. As we read in Luke 22:44, it says “being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling from the ground” (ESV). In this, we begin to see how Jesus was “crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5, ESV) and this was only the beginning of the pain that He went through for us on what we know as Easter weekend.
Joseph read a story a few years ago about someone in modern times who suffered from hematohidrosis or the sweating of blood condition that Jesus suffered that night as He prayed for the cup to be taken from Him. This man had been in a motorcycle wreck, and had broken almost every single bone in his body- can you imagine what that would feel like, and how that kind of pain and agony would cause one to literally sweat blood? Jesus, who was not in a wreck and had not even gone through any physical pain yet, felt that same pressure and weight of what He was about to endure on the cross for the sins of the world. He asked for the cup to be taken, yet surrendered to the will of the Father for our sake when He said “nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42, ESV). He did this for you, for me, and for every person in this world so that we could experience forgiveness for our sins.
On this Holy Week, I pray that you have a chance to reflect on what Jesus did for the sins of all, so that we may have eternal life in heaven. That Sunday morning, as we sang the song “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us,” I was able to reflect on the immense love that He has for us, and recommit my life to wholeheartedly following Him. May those same words resonate in your heart this Easter weekend.
“I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection!
What should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer.
But this I know with all my heart;
His wounds have paid my ransom.”
If you ever have the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land, I strongly encourage you to do so! The Bible will become real to you as you walk the same places that Jesus and other Biblical characters walked. We are excited to be taking our second trip in May 2024, and I encourage you to seek out an opportunity to go if you ever get a chance!
Joseph and Mary Fowler live in Ruston, Louisiana, where he is the pastor of Cook Baptist Church, and she teaches math at Ruston High School. They have a son, Isaac,2, and by the time of this publication, a daughter, Elizabeth Jo. Mary is a 2012 graduate of TCHS.