Palm Sunday Road, Bethphage, Mount Of Olives, Gethsemane, Bethlehem, West Bank....and Armed Soldiers On The Bus

We spent all of Monday in and around Jerusalem. There’s just SO much to see here. A general recap:

Bethphage—The area where Jesus, in Luke 19:28-34, sent the disciples to get the colt for him to ride into Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday Road—From there, we walked the route that Jesus likely took into Jerusalem.

Mount Of Olives—A quick search reveals 14 references to the Mount Of Olives. Our guide reminded us that the week of the crucifixion was Passover, so many, many Jews would have come from the Galilee area to Jerusalem, and would have been camping out on the Mount Of Olives. Our guide’s comments matched up with little comments in several of these scriptures, the most direct one being Luke 21:37: “Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives.” The Mount of Olives overlooks most of the city of Jerusalem. Here's a shot of Jen's parents on the Mount Of Olives with the city behind them:

Gethsemane--Where Jesus prayed "not my will, but yours" before the Cross. (Matthew 26:36-56).

Bethlehem--The birthplace of Jesus, as you can see from the map in the last entry, is quite close to Jerusalem. In fact, there are places in Bethlehem where Jerusalem is in plain sight. We visited the Church Of The Nativity, which is built upon the sight where it's quite likely that Jesus was born. We also stopped for an hour in Bethlehem for shopping--the first time that we've done any of that. Our guide took us to a shop owned by Palestinian Christians. Near the Church Of the Nativity is located the room (essentially a cave) where St. Jerome translated the entire Bible into Latin for the first time from roughly AD 380 to 405.

Lost In The West Bank....and Armed Soldiers On The Bus--I don't want to get political at all here, but I can't leave out two significant events from yesterday. Bethlehem is in the West Bank--an area populated by Palestinians, with access in and out controlled entirely by Israel. One of our group members went to the rest room, and when he returned and couldn't find us, thought we had left the Church Of The Nativity area (we had actually gone down into Jerome's cave while he was gone) and went to look for us and the bus...in the West Bank...without his passport...alone. To say the least, he was a bit unsettled. Fortunately, a kind Palestinian who knew of Tony, our guide, helped him out of what was a very scary situation.

The other memorable moment from Bethlehem was leaving. As mentioned, access in and out is controlled by the Israeli army. Our tour bus was boarded by two Israeli soldiers brandishing M16s. They walked all the way down the aisle, front to back, to make sure that we weren't smuggling any Palestinians out of the West Bank. To say the least, it was a bit sobering.

Spiritually, the most significant part of the day for me was having a few quiet moments in Gethsemane. After John spoke to us there about the price Jesus paid for us on the Cross, we sang "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," and then had a few minutes alone in the garden to reflect. I was reminded all over again of the depth and height and width and breadth of the love Christ has for me, and how it was demonstrated so powerfully.

--Ben