Surprise discoveries are found at every turn when visiting Israel. One special moment came to me as I was sitting on a wall overlooking the eastern gate of old Jerusalem and beyond to the Mount of Olives. It was a rare moment of stillness during a week of tourist treks.
Echoing up and down the Kidron Valley at that moment was the Muslim call to prayer broadcast from Muslim Minarets. Over my shoulder was the Western Wall, the only remaining portion of Herod’s temple mount.
I pondered how one piece of land has been the site for such pivotal events throughout Biblical history. It was first called Mt. Moriah where Abraham offered his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. King David later bought the land from a farmer who was using it as a threshing floor. David needed it to build and altar to divert a plague. Solomon chose that piece of land to build the first permanent Jewish temple housing the Holy of Holies—God’s dwelling place on Earth.
During New Testament times Herod rebuilt the temple on the same spot. How significant that at the moment God’s only son became the final sacrifice for sin on the cross, the veil to the Holy of Holies in that temple ripped from the ceiling downward—forever making a way for man to approach God.
Today, all that remains of Herod’s temple is one supporting wall, now called the Western Wall where Jews, and many Christians, from around the world gather to pray. Atop the mount is a Muslim mosque built centuries after Christ during the Crusades when Christian factions and Muslims fought to gain control of Jerusalem and Jews were often caught in the middle.
As I sat musing over this tiny piece of land which has become a flashpoint between Jews, Muslims and different groups of Christians, I recalled Christ’s words during his last week on earth, when he stood on the slope of the Mount of Olives and wept over Jerusalem.
“And when he drew near and saw the city,
he wept over it, 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.”
Luke 19:41-42 ESV
Because Christ is eternal—the Alpha and Omega—I believe he was seeing the vast sweep of history from the beginning of time to the future. He was weeping not only for the Jewish people but for all those who would fight on this very piece of land throughout history. Oh that they had ears to hear and eyes to see that Christ had been given and made a way to the Father who desires his creation to know him.
