Go to Dark Gethsemane

We often want to skip past the time of expectation, Advent, to get to the joy of Christmas. Similarly, we often want to skip past the horror, grief, and dismay of Good Friday to celebrate the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. But when we do so, we deprive ourselves of a greater joy. The joy of the light of the Resurrection can only be truly appreciated in the context of the darkness of the preceding days.

But beyond that, there is another reason that skipping Good Friday is a problem. When we face trials, tribulations, and temptations, we have the example of our Lord and Savior to look to. "For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." (Hebrews 12:3-4, NASB).

This hymn, Go to Dark Gethsemane, was written by James Montgomery in 1820, and has been sung to two alternative tunes, Redhead (1853) and Gethsemane (Monk), written in 1861 and adapted from a 1553 tune by Christopher Tye.

The video below is to the tune written by William Monk in 1861. If you choose to meditate on this hymn this weekend, I would encourage you to not sing the fourth verse until Easter Sunday. Spend the next two days meditating on the verses about Christ's suffering and sacrifice. If you do so, then singing the fourth verse on Sunday will be all the more joyful.

Go to Dark Gethsemane

Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter's power

Your Redeemer's conflict see, watch with Him one bitter hour,

Turn not from His griefs away; learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

See Him at the judgment hall, beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned;

O the wormwood and the gall! O the pangs His soul sustained!

Shun not suffering, shame, or loss; learn of Christ to bear the cross.

Calvary's mournful mountain climb; there, adoring at His feet,

Mark that miracle of time, God's own sacrifice complete.

"It is finished!" hear Him cry; learn of Jesus Christ to die.

Early hasten to the tomb where they laid His breathless clay;

All is solitude and gloom. Who has taken Him away?

Christ is risen! He meets our eyes; Savior, teach us so to rise.

(Public Domain)