Don't Forget Gethsemane

Don't Forget Gethsemane

A week of glory, and a week of infamy and shame

Began as on a donkey’s back, rode He of Jesus name.

Triumphantly along the street, with throngs cheering His way,

Into the Holy City rode the King, the Light, the Way.

And those events which followed made dramatic history;

And of one them-- not the least of them, was in Gethsemane.

Yes, Gethesemane! The garden on the hill,

Where Jesus knelt to plead and pray and do His Father’s will.

He had cleaned out the temple of the moneychangers den

Preached unto the masses, irked the Pharisees again.

Next, gathered twelve around Him in an upper room’s recess,

The sacrament’s bless’d emblems shared, washed feet, his friends caressed.

Now, to the Mount of Olives, beginning agony—

Jesus prayed, wept, sweat, and bled, in old Gethsemane.

Gethsemane? Gethsemane—the garden on the hill,

Where Jesus bled from every pore, doing His Father’s will.

For there He was, leaving his apostles.  Now alone,

This perfect sinless being knelt, approached His Father’s throne

He prayed, “Thy will be done,” and all our sins He took away—

Though scarlet now, if we’ll repent, they’ll be white as noonday!!

Yes, agony supreme our Lord endured for you and me,

Upon the cross, but perhaps even more, there, in Gethsemane

It was at Gethsemane, that garden on the hill

Where Christ atoned for all our sins, doing His Father’s will.

Swiftly came betrayal, trials, scourging, crown of thorns,

The crucifixion, burial--then dawned the “Morn of Morns.”

How glorious the tidings angels told to Mary, “Dear,

Why seek ye here the living?  He’s risen—He’s not here!!”

What wonderment, what joy the resurrections brings to me,

But still this thought comes back: “Please don’t forget Gethsemane!”

Gethsemane, Gethsemane!! The garden on the hill.

Where Christ atoned for all our sins, and did His Father’s will.

                                                                  

   --Jay M. Richardson