Holy Week: Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion

I remember thinking when we finally arrived in Jerusalem for the last segment of our trip that this would probably give me the best sermon fuel for Holy Week. After all, it is in this city where all the action happened in Jesus' final week. I also remember enjoying that connection with it being our final week in Israel as well.

Our first full day in Jerusalem started with a stop at the "tourist overlook" which gives an incredible view of the city. The Dome of the Rock positively glistening in the sun, the outline of the Temple wall, the domes of the Holy Sepulchre....Great to look at, even better to experience. Johnny, our guide, took us from this overlook, on the top of the Mount of Olives, for a walk down the Palm Sunday Road. The Mount of Olives is quite steep, so going down was great for me (not the knees, though). There are quite a number of churches constructed along the way down, including Dominus Flevit ("Where Jesus wept over the city").

View of the city behind the altar at Dominus Flevit.

We sang a variety of hymns as we traversed down, though I admit I kept wanting to sing from "Jesus Christ Superstar" - Hosanna, heysanna, sanna sanna hosanna heysanna, hosanna, hey superstar! (Thank you, Andrew Lloyd Webber). But in all sincerity, it was fantastic to imagine what this road may have looked like, covered with people welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem from Bethany.

"They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." Mark 14:32


The moment that hit me, however, was arriving at the Garden of Gethsemane. Though I feel I have been more cynically minded in terms of the places we had been and things we had seen, being in the Garden, seeing the olive trees....it hit me - this is real, this is something that is in part exactly as it was. One tree, pictured below, has been aged to a little over 2000 years, so it could have been witness to Jesus' prayers.



Being that it was still fairly early in the morning (probably around 10 or so), the area was not completely packed with tourists, so there was still a small sense of calm - and it was fantastic to just walk and soak it in before entering the Church of All Nations.

What intrigued me most of the Church of All Nations was the truly somber feel of the interior. The sanctuary had high ceilings, each dome with a different mosaic with a different country's flag depicted somewhere. As well, there was artwork throughout that spoke of Jesus' passion, which started close to this spot out by those trees.

I don't want to enter the feeling of Good Friday yet - there is a time for mourning, after all - but I appreciated that the Church of All Nations really captured my Good Friday feeling in a way that I really needed. My grandmother died at the end of October, she never knew that I was going on this trip, and with having to jump right back into school and work, and then preparing for the trip, I don't think I've given myself the time I need to continue through the grieving process. Often throughout the trip, I had small moments of intense sadness - and being in the Church of All Nations I was given a space to really embrace those moments and take it all in. This is a place for remembrance - to remember Jesus' final week, to remember others and to just take in the time.

I think that as I continue throughout the rest of this Holy Week, I will remember the joy of bounding down the Mount of Olives coming to rest Thursday night in the Three Days which started by a tree.


Scripture for today: Procession - Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16; Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 14:1-15:47