By Dr. Randall Smith
Courtesy of Christian Travel Study Programs, Ltd.
There is an ancient prophecy in the Book of Zechariah. “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” [Zechariah 9:9].
On this last journey to Jerusalem, Jesus fulfilled that ancient prophecy. As he neared a village, which many scholars believe was Bethphage (“house of the early figs”), he asked two disciples to go into the village and to bring to him the colt that that he desired to enter the city on.
Jesus mounted the donkey and rode into the Holy City. So overjoyed was the populace that they stripped branches off of palm trees and waved them in the air. All the while they shouted prayers of thanksgiving otherwise sung at the Passover Seder. “Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” [Mark 11:8]. To this day, every year on Palm Sunday, branch-carrying pilgrims begin a journey to Jerusalem at Bethphage that recalls the first procession.
A 19th century church built at Bethphage incorporates features of an earlier Crusader sanctuary, including a rock sometimes called the “Stele of Bethphage,” after the Crusader tradition that Jesus mounted his donkey and rode to Jerusalem from the mounting stone. The church protects the memory of the forgotten village, and stands above the slope of some burial area that appears to be from the time of Jesus.
© Christian Travel Study Programs, Ltd.
