Week 5 – Bethany & the Mount of Olives
Thursday 25th March Today we are just 2 miles from Jerusalem City, in the village formerly known as Bethany.
I once got lost on my way here. We had a few hours scheduled for wandering by ourselves through the souks and bazaars in the Old City, and my friends and I somehow missed the rendez-vous for the drive to Bethany where Jesus stayed with Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
On the map, it looked like we could walk it in half an hour, but we kept going round in circles. Finally, we decided the only thing for it was to jump into a taxi.
‘Bethany, please’ we said. The taxi driver looked non-plussed. Where?
‘Ah! West Bank!’ he said eventually.
West Bank? No, it’s close by, just a few kilometres, we tried to say. When communication wasn’t free-flowing, off sped the driver. It was Middle Eastern driving at its scariest! Good for your prayer life, as they say.
As it turns out, ‘Bethany’ is the modern Arab village just the other side of the ‘peace wall’ between Jerusalem and the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. On the map, it was 3km away. The drive was a much longer loop around checkpoints and closed-off streets. Its modern Arabic name is al-Azariyeh which, if you say it over a few times, sounds very much like Lazarus – its named after its famous former resident and friend of Jesus’.
You’ll know the story, I’m sure, of Mary and Martha:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10: 38-42
Sitting by a Rabbi’s feet was the position taken by a disciple, i.e. an apprentice or student. We might think of Mary taking up a position of humility and meekness. In fact, when Martha is outraged at her sister’s behaviour, it is in part at least because her sister is assuming a place normally reserved for a man. And a woman’s place is, she thought, in the kitchen!
Jesus defends Mary’s quite liberated decision not to do what was expected of her by her culture, and by her family. Women have as much place in Jesus’ community as men.
We need to make sure we don’t slip back into thinking the ladies job is to be in the kitchen of the parish hall making tea. Making tea is an important job, but one that men can do as well as women!
Another episode in Bethany was this:
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound[a] of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii[b] and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it[c] for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
John 12: 1-8
Mary shows up the men once again in this passage! Judas is pretending to care about the poor, and the others seem quite unaware. But Mary senses that Jesus is soon to die, and she is overcome with emotion.
She performs a lavish act of worship, including opening up a bottle of very expensive perfume. Once opened, it has to be used. Of course, she knows it will be required very soon, when Jesus is finally executed. Mary is anointing Jesus for his death. It is a prophetic act.
Friday 26th March And here we are – on the Mount of Olives, looking at the classic panorama of Jerusalem below, the Holy City, the destination on this pilgrimage.
Look at the skyline – there are high-rise buildings. This is not a museum or a representation, but a modern city. Yet it is so full of ancient history.
Look at the shining Dome of the Rock. Built on Temple Mount, it reminds us that this was for centuries an Arabic city, and it is where three monotheistic, Abrahamic faiths come together.
This mosque is built on Temple Mount, site of the Jerusalem temple which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The remnants of that temple form the Wailing Wall. Security on Temple Mount is like nowhere else on earth! The tension felt on this site, so holy to Jews and Muslims, is palpable.
Jews come here to lament the fact that their temple lies in ruins. The air is filled with cries and shouts of grief. Worshippers write their prayers on slips of paper and insert them in among the stones.
Looking across at the ruins of the old temple precinct, pilgrims experience a wide range of emotions: joy, exhilaration, awe … But here on the Mount, we remember that Jesus wept:
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Luke 19: 41-44
We have been retracing Jesus’ steps around the Holy Land. When he arrived here, he realized that Jerusalem was not going to accept him as Messiah. The political and religious leaders there were ‘hell-bent’ on their own corrupt plans, nationalistic agenda and their privileged position at the expense of the poor and disenfranchised. In short, they were rejecting God’s kingdom.
So Jesus wept over this city. He was distraught that his own people were rejecting God’s new kingdom on earth, and that the consequences would be dire.
So from Dominus Flevit Church here on the Mount of Olives, we will walk in the steps of Jesus (or rather the hooves of his colt!) on this coming Palm Sunday.
Join us at 10am from Christ Church, Castlerock and join us in shouting Hosanna! Hosanna! as he arrives at last in the city of destiny.
Greek this Week 