From the book ‘The Gift of the Atonement’ and W. Jeffrey Marsh:
The lunar calendar and Jewish calendar help us determine that there was a full moon the night Christ entered the Garden of Gethsemane. If the night was clear Jesus would have been able to see the temple across from the garden as well as a graveyard that lay on the southern end of the Mount of Olives in an olive yard (Luke 22:9). The olive tree is a symbol of peace (Genesis 8:11). Olive oil provided light for lamps. Pure oil is a type of Christ, “the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6), the light of the world” (John 8:12).
The word Gethsemane, comes from the Hebrew word gath, “press,” and shemen, “oil.” Gethsemane was a small olive grove with an oil press. Olive oil, used for healing, nutrition, light, and anointing, was extracted when the olives were subjected to immense pressure. Here, in Gethsemane, the weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future, pressed upon the sinless Messiah and the healing “balm of Gilead” was extracted from his soul (LDS Bible Dictionary, s.v. “balm,” 618). His name, Jesus the Christ, refers to his role as the Anointed One, for he was anointed before he was born to be the Redeemer of all mankind. Jesus is spoken of as the Christ and the Messiah, which means he is the one anointed of the Father to be his personal representative in all things pertaining to the salvation of mankind. The English word Christ is from the Greek word meaning anointed and is the equivalent of Messiah, which is from a Hebrew and Aramaic term meaning anointed” (LDS Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Anointed One,” 609). His atonement empowered him to pour oil over our wounds to heal us (Luke 10:24 and gave us “the oil of joy for mourning” (Isaiah 61:3).
The process for extracting oil from olives is an instructive one. Ripened olives are harvested and placed in a circular trough. A large and heavy stone is then rolled around and around, passing over the olives to break them up. At first the olives are bruised, then they are broken, and eventually the weight of the stone turns the olives into a gray-green mash from which oozes the oil. Sometimes the mash is transferred into burlap sacks and tied off tightly. The bags are placed on a second type of press, this one having a large stone attached to a lever. Soon the oil begins to ooze from the olives and out through the pores of the bag. The first thing to appear is bright red juice, which is followed by the clear-colored olive oil.
In Gethsemane, this place of pressing, Jesus was pressed down by the weight of sins and suffering of the world until his anointing blood, which provides us with healing, oozed from every pore (Matthew 26:36-37; Luke 22:44; Doctrine and Covenants 19:18). “Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:4-5). The olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane today are gnarled and twisted, as if bearing witness of the agony that took place there for us. ~ W. Jeffrey Marsh, The Gift of the Atonement (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 2002) 54-55
