Day 4

Today we went to the temple mount and the Mount of Olives. I learned a lot of history not related to the Bible that gave me background into the current state of these historical sites. The temple mount is the area where the temple was in the time of Jesus, but when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, it was basically flattened. After that, it was essentially vacant for 640 years, at which point the Muslims believed Muhammad ascended into heaven at the exact location where the Holy of Holies location of the temple was. So the Muslims built what is called “The Dome of the Rock” over that location. So now this site is considered holy by Christians, Jews, and Muslims, which obviously causes conflict. Anyway, we were allowed into the temple mount area (but not the Dome of the Rock). The temple mount is huge. We were not allowed to take Bibles in, and we had to be dressed modestly (no knees showing, no bare shoulders).

There were a lot of Israeli soldiers around, with machines guns, but they are everywhere in the rest of Jerusalem anyway. We have even seen soldiers on motorcycles with machine guns, which doesn’t seem that safe. From the Mount of Olives, we saw the location of Bethany, where Lazarus was raised from the dead. We can’t go into that area, because today it is the West Bank and not safe to visit. From there we went to the areas that Jesus would have been Palm Sunday/Passion Week. We walked down the general vicinity where Jesus would have ridden the donkey for the triumphal entry, and where he shed tears for Jerusalem (which happened on the Mount of Olives because you had an excellent view of Jerusalem.

We also went to the Garden of Gethsemane (probably not the EXACT location but the general location). Gethsemane is where Jesus was praying and was arrested. This is recorded, in varying details in Matthew 26:47-56, Mark 14:32-52, Luke 22:39-53, and John 18: 1-11. In Luke 22:39 Luke says, “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives…”. Jesus specifically left the busyness of the city of Jerusalem and secluded himself in a garden to pray to God “as usual”. I think this is something that I need see in my life as I imitate Jesus more, separating myself for the purpose of prayer on a regular basis. Is this something that you need in your life also? Will you take some time today to get away and pray.