A letter to the Mount of Olives

{This is a lengthy letter not to be missed. I’ve included more visuals than usual to help you on the journey today. This letter has potential to give fresh structure to your faith.}

Views give us perspective.

Our journey has brought us up from the Samarian region into Jerusalem and you, the Mount of Olives, offer a great view. I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday on a rather chilled and rainy afternoon. Today looks much different as the sun shines giving the clouds a popping white. Still a bit of chill.

From the top of the Mount of Olives looking out over Jerusalem.

From the top of the Mount of Olives, I can see out over Jerusalem. The City of David originated small to the left until David purchased the threshing floor where Solomon would build the Temple. Behind me is where Jesus ascended into heaven.  And on the other side of this Mount begins the Judean wilderness, the place we just traveled from and will travel back to when going to the Dead Sea region. What does the land hold right here? Tombs. Thousands of tombs. It’s predominantly what fills your Mount down into the Kidron Valley and up to the City Walls. Why? Why has this become a graveyard? I don’t have the answer, but I do have this thought…

Close up look at the tombs covering the Mount of Olives

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

I beg, you, receive these words as encouragement. As we look from the Mount of Olives, the place where Jesus prayed, sweat tears of blood, gathered with his closest friends, and taught some of the most powerful messages, don’t miss all that happened here. Don’t miss the view. We are not without hope, friends. We are awaiting His return! I walked the garden and the paths Jesus took centuries ago, but He is not physically here or still buried in the tomb just down the hill and outside the city walls. However, Jesus was with me as He lives in me and took me by the hand, right here on you, the Mount of Olives. Thank you for sharing your hill with me. I want my friends to see what I saw. 

The color of stone is identical all around, minus the golden dome atop the Muslim mosque. It’s simple and made from Israel’s natural resources. It’s the white clouds, blue sky, green olive trees that are in the limelight - creations of God Almighty. What a contrast from the gray and the blue!

I can look immediately down your road known as Palm Sunday Road and think of Jesus riding a colt down into the Kidron Valley and up into Jerusalem. Luke 19:28-40 records this account. Poor colt! This was a steep descent. Honored colt! You carried the King of kings on your back. The road was worth it, for King Jesus had a greater road before Him. 

I turn right off the Palm Sunday Road descending down you, the Mount of Olives. This place is called Dominus Flevit, Latin for ‘the Lord wept.’ The Italian architect, Antonio Barluzzi, designed a church in the shape of a teardrop, symbolizing Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem from this mountain. The church was erected in 1955 over a Byzantine Church from the 5th century. 

Dominus Flevit on the Mount of Olives

This place is so special for me. My heart is constantly being stirred to pray for the place God has sent me to love. I envision Jesus often praying over Jerusalem as I am led to pray over my city. Just a few weeks prior to my trip to Israel, I was at a retreat center in southern California. I poured a cup of coffee and turned to leave the lobby. This grabbed me. 

My view one week prior to the day I spent on the Mount of Olives

I walk further down the road, getting into the Kidron Valley. All of this is so close to one another here on the hillside.

Oh Mount of Olives, your rocky grounds contain so much history, so many footprints, so many tears. At your base, olive trees continue to thrive. At your base, lies the Kidron Valley. You are to one side and the city of Jerusalem to the other. Valleys are crucial to every life journey. 

 “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.” (John 18:1) 

Did you know that Gethsemane is Aramaic for “oil press?”  Olive trees here date back hundreds of years and they look like it. Battles happen in gardens. New growth pushes through wintry grounds as spring unfolds. Weeds try to crowd out beauty. This garden was a place of battling prayer for Jesus Christ. These olive trees, gnarled and old, show battle scars. They show that growth and life aren’t easy. Jesus still speaks in the garden. His tears still wet the ground. Creator God’s trees remind me that I, too, must battle in prayer. Prayer should wear me out until I come to Him for renewal. Prayer should cause tears and sweat as I intercede for you, my friends, and this world. 

Views give perspective. Prayer gives perspective.

We are each invited into the garden to pray with Jesus. To surrender our will and submit to His ways. 

Before we leave you, the Mount of Olives, I see what Jesus would have seen from this view. The Eastern Gate, the Golden Gate that Jesus would have entered multiple times going in and out of Jerusalem. Do you see the gate is currently sealed? When the Muslims built the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, they sealed this gate in order to keep Jesus from returning from the east. They must be reading the Scriptures for Ezekiel 43:1-5 tells of such prophecy: “Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory….As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east…” 

In this day and time, from this viewpoint, hold to this truth from Jesus Christ - 

“Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5) 

Grateful for the view,

Shauna

Read more about the gates here.

{Facts shared come from the Scriptures, online searches, and from the tour with Insight for Living Ministries. Imagination from my own heart.)