Climb Every Mountain

One of the readily available ones being the Mount of Olives, watching over the city of Jerusalem.

Our trek upwards two weeks ago was an apt preparation for this next week, bringing us to the church at Bethphage, where the procession for Palm Sunday begins.  Here the Gospels narrate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, while the disciples and crowds of others greeted him as the son of David.

 

Inside the church is a large stone which holds the tradition of being where Jesus climbed on to ride down the hill—today covered in medieval frescoes.

 

Continuing from there we headed toward Bethany and Lazarus’ tomb, but to get there we had to pass the wall barricading off the West Bank from Jerusalem.

 

Delayed in completion, the wall runs through the towns of the hilltop, creating problems often solved by bulldozer.

Some walls have had other causes for deterioration.

 

 

The church at Bethany commemorates the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and is adjacent to his tomb.

 

Today’s church built in the ‘50’s follows on the crusaders’ church, which was built on still earlier sanctuaries.