The Gardens of Gethsemane and the Via Dolorosa

Part one of the Erich Sonntag Postcard Collection's Easter Special 2025

It is that particular time of year, once more, where Christians—like Erich Sonntag—celebrate the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Hence, I thought it a fitting opportunity to sift through the Jerusalem-themed postcards and share some of them with you.

This will be done in two instalments, the first one—this posting—shows a few postcards related to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and the second part shall…well, it’s going to be a surprise (of sorts).

Note that I’m using the USCCB version of the Gospel of John for the below quotes.)

Easter-Themed Postcards from Jerusalem

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.

Thus John 13:1-2, followed by a partial reproduction of John 14:-22-31:

Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, [then] what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

“I have told you this while I am with you.

The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.

I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me,

but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up, let us go.

And into the Gardens of Gethsemane they went.

I do have a daytime picture, too, but I suppose the nighttime postcard is more appropriate here. Note, below, also the church in the Gardens of Gethsemane:

In the Gardens, many grand wisdom’s were spoken. As per John 15:18, 22-27, this one is particularly apt for our time and age:

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first…

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me also hates my Father.

If I had not done works among them that no one else ever did, they would not have sin; but as it is, they have seen and hated both me and my Father.

But in order that the word written in their law might be fulfilled, ‘They hated me without cause.’

“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.

And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.^”

Thus commenced the Passion of the Christ—with those who, as Judas did, betrayed Him and, as Peter did, denied Him; below, you may see the Chapel of Ecce Homo:

Jesus Christ’s Passion took him to the temple and, since it’s Good Friday, on the arduous trip to Golgotha—to the place he was crucified.

Above, the Via Dolorosa, in an otherwise undated postcard from around 1950; below, a more recent postcard from c. 1970 showing the same image (albeit from the other side):

Below, a postcard mailed in 1982 showing a Good Friday procession:

I don’t have any postcards showing Golgotha, hence a few more lines from the Gospel of John will have to do for today (John 17:1, 19:17-20, 30):

“Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you”…

So they took Jesus,

and carrying the cross himself^* he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.

There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”

Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek…

“It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.