Have you ever stood in a spot where history was made? I have had the opportunity to stand in many famous historical spots ... where President Lincoln was shot ... on the shore of Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims landed over 375 years ago ... on the fields of Lexington, Massachusetts, where the American Revolution began ... at Yorktown, New York, where the last battle was fought that won for Americans their independence from the British. I have been in Westminster Abbey where many English kings have stood and where many are buried. But I have never been more affected than the day I stood on an old stone stairway in the ancient city of Jerusalem.
On the south side of Jerusalem, Herod the Great had a stairway built of large stone blocks over 2000 years ago. This stairway leads down the hill toward the valley of Kidron where there is a brook in the rainy season, but which is dry for more than half the year. Across the valley on the slopes of the Mount of Olives is a garden where old, old olive trees still bloom. It is called the Garden of Gethsemane.
One spring evening almost 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ, who created the mountain on which He was standing, met His disciples in an upper room in old Jerusalem and ate the Passover supper with them there. After they had eaten the meal, He told them, “I go unto My Father” (John 14:12). They sang a hymn together and then left the room. They almost certainly would have used that old stone stairway, because it went in the direction they wanted to go — across the valley of Kidron to the Garden of Gethsemane. As they walked down those stone steps together, the disciples didn’t know what was about to happen. Jesus had told them that He would die and rise again, but they didn’t seem to understand that, or to understand that He would rise again. However, Jesus, the Lord of the universe, knew the future.
Would you take a plane if you knew it were going to crash? Would you stay in a building if you knew it would be hit by a bomb? As Jesus walked toward Gethsemane, He knew that in that garden His hands would be tied like a criminal’s. He knew that the next day He would have an unfair trial. He knew He would be condemned to death. He knew He would be nailed to a cross to suffer the most torturous death possible.
Why didn’t He run away instead of going to that garden? It would have been so easy for Him to disappear into the night and never meet up with the soldiers planning to arrest Him. But the Lord Jesus kept walking, one step at a time, toward the moment He knew was coming. He kept walking because He knew that only by hanging on the cross and suffering God’s punishment for sins would God be able to forgive our sins. If He had run away, we would have no choice but to suffer the punishment for our sins in hell. And so, He walked on.
A few hours later, just as He had known would happen, He walked back to the city bound and surrounded by many people who wanted Him to be killed. His disciples had all run away. He was brought to a false trial and then led out to be nailed to a cross at Calvary. Even there, it was not the nails that held Him on the cross. It was His love for us that held Him until He had paid the full price for all the sins of each one who will believe on Him. We read in John 19:30 that He cried, “It is finished.” And then He died. When He said, “It is finished,” it meant that He had fully paid the debt for our sins.
Jesus doesn’t live in Jerusalem anymore, and He isn’t still dead. After three days He rose from the grave — alive! He went up into heaven 40 days after that, and now He calls you to believe on Him, so you can live with Him there someday. If you know you are a sinner and believe that He died for you, He will forgive your sins. He walked into death because He loved you so much. Don’t refuse that kind of love. Soon He will return to take to heaven those who believe on Him. He said, “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you” (John 16:22). Heaven will be a place of perfect happiness. Are you ready to go there by faith in this loving Savior?
Memory Verse: “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” John 16:22
Messages of God’s Love 11/16/2025