The Garden, the Cross, and the Tomb

By David A. Edwards

Church Magazines

We can learn from the places where the Savior suffered for us and the place where His triumph was first made known.

Illustrations by Brian Call

When Jesus Christ gathered with His Apostles in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, He commemorated events of long ago and pointed to events that would soon take place.

He observed the Passover. This was the Jewish celebration of the ancient Israelites’ being saved from the destroying angel and being delivered from bondage in Egypt. Jesus also commanded His disciples to eat bread and drink wine to remember the sacrifice He was about to make. This sacrifice would be the one that all earlier sacrifices and ordinances (including the Passover) were meant to symbolize (see Alma 34:14; Moses 5:6–8).

Illustration by Mike Hall

In the hours after His experiences in the Upper Room, Jesus Christ went to a few significant places. These included a garden, a cross, and a tomb. As you look at what happened at each of these sacred places, you can learn about the vast scope of the Savior’s atoning sacrifice, as well as its very personal meaning for you.

The Garden

Name: Gethsemane—an Aramaic word that means “olive press.”

Location: On the east side of Jerusalem, on the slope of the Mount of Olives. This garden was apparently a place the Savior had visited frequently (see Luke 22:39; John 18:1–2).

What was there: A grove of olive trees and probably a press for squeezing oil from the olives.

What significant things happened there?

In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Savior’s suffering on our behalf began.

On this night, the Savior went to the garden with 11 of His Apostles. He withdrew to pray and took Peter, James, and John with Him.

He began to feel intense sorrow and anguish (see Mark 14:33–34). He prayed, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). An angel came to strengthen Him (see Luke 22:43). As He prayed, He sweat “great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44; see also Mosiah 3:7) “at every pore” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18).

The Savior suffered “temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death” (Mosiah 3:7). He also suffered “afflictions,” “sicknesses,” and “infirmities” of every kind (Alma 7:11–12). He suffered “both body and spirit” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18).

When this intense suffering had apparently passed, Judas came to the garden with Jewish officers and a band of soldiers. Judas betrayed the Savior. Jesus Christ was arrested and taken away to suffer humiliation and torture.

What does it mean for you?

The Savior “suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:16; emphasis added). Because of Jesus Christ, you can repent and be free from the torment of sin.

In addition, Jesus Christ suffered all of these things “that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:12). Jesus Christ knows how you feel. He can help you in every circumstance of your life, in anything you suffer, with every weakness.

Jesus Christ knows how you feel. He can help you in every circumstance of your life.

The Cross

Name (where Crucifixion took place): Golgotha or Calvary. The word Calvary comes from the Latin translation of the Aramaic word Golgotha, which means “a skull.”

Location: Just outside a gate of Jerusalem, near a highway.

What was there: At the time of Christ, a place where the Romans would publicly torture and execute people by crucifixion.

What significant things happened there?

On the cross, the Savior’s suffering on our behalf continued—and ended. Most important, He suffered death there.

After being scourged and humiliated by the Roman soldiers, Jesus Christ was led to Golgotha with His cross. He was nailed to the cross and raised up to hang there for several hours.

He was mocked in a number of ways: A sign was placed above Him that said He was the King of the Jews. He was told to save Himself. When He thirsted, He was offered vinegar to drink.

Eventually, Jesus Christ cried, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; see Psalm 22:1). Then He cried with a loud voice: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). “It is finished” (John 19:30).

He gave up the ghost (that is, His spirit left His mortal body), ending His mortal life. The earth shook. Later, a Roman soldier pierced Jesus’s side with a spear. Then Jesus’s body was taken down from the cross.

What does it mean for you?

The people “scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men” (1 Nephi 19:9). The Savior suffered because He loves you.

Jesus Christ “was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world” (1 Nephi 11:33).

He taught, “My Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me” (3 Nephi 27:14). Jesus Christ, who was lifted up on the cross, draws you to Him, so you can overcome death and sin.

The Savior suffered because He loves you.

The Tomb

What it is: A space carved out of a rocky hillside as a final resting place for the dead. The Savior’s tomb was owned by Joseph of Arimathea, who persuaded the Romans to give him Jesus’s body so that he could bury it there.

Location: Near Jerusalem.

What was there: A tomb, a large stone to cover the entrance, and a garden outside the tomb.

What significant things happened there?

The empty tomb proclaimed the Savior’s victory over death. And the resurrected Savior first showed Himself to someone there.

Jesus Christ’s body was brought there, wrapped, laid in the tomb, and sealed in. Guards were placed at the tomb to make sure His followers didn’t take the body and claim He had risen from the dead.

On the morning of the third day after His burial, women came to the tomb to prepare the body. When they arrived, the stone had been rolled aside, and the tomb was empty. An angel said, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6). Jesus Christ laid down His life, but because He was God’s Only Begotten Son, with divine power, He rose again.

At the garden outside the tomb, the resurrected Lord first appeared to Mary Magdalene, who had been weeping. He said to her, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God (John 20:17).

What does it mean for you?

“The death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death” (Alma 11:42; emphasis added). Jesus Christ’s Resurrection enables you to be resurrected.

“Spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:33). Through His Resurrection, Jesus Christ allowed us to experience a joy we cannot otherwise experience.

Jesus Christ allowed us to experience a joy we cannot otherwise experience.

Remember Him

When you think of the garden, the cross, and the tomb, remember the Savior, His love, and His power. Remember that He came down to earth to become mortal like you. Remember that He suffered more than anyone could suffer—and He did it for you. Remember that He was lifted up in humiliation and anguish so that He could lift you up in glory through resurrection. And remember that an empty tomb was a sign of our hope for a fulness of joy. Remember Him.

Notes

1. See Guide to the Scriptures, “Gethsemane.”

2. See Guide to the Scriptures, “Golgotha.”