Our ladies Bible study has been working our way through the book of Luke. In chapter 19, we came to the section describing what we now honor as Palm Sunday, the day when Jesus descended the western slope of the Mount of Olives and ascended a hill into Jerusalem. With a tour group in Israel last spring, I had the chance to walk down the path that historians believe Jesus likely took. They call it the Hosanna Road. In Biblical times, huge crowds of disciples greeted Jesus, shouting “Hosanna” and rejoicing as they spread their cloaks on the ground before him. In spite of this joy among the people, the text says when Jesus saw the city, he wept over it.

Along the Hosanna Road, Christians built a church called the Dominus Flevit to mark the spot where they believe this moment happened. The building is shaped like a teardrop. Because this path leads down a hill toward a small valley where the Garden of Gethsemane lies, and Jerusalem is atop another hill on the other side, visitors can get a remarkable view of the old city. In this panoramic shot, we can see the historic walls, the Eastern Gate, and other notable features of the city. And we can get an idea of what Jesus might have seen.

View of Jerusalem, Israel in spring of 2023

He would not have seen cars, buses and skyscrapers, of course. Nor the prominent gold-domed building. It’s called the Dome of the Rock and considered sacred by followers of Islam. It was built on the site where the Jewish Temple stood in the days of Jesus. He would have been looking at the beautiful white and gold stone temple where he was welcomed by Simeon (Luke 2:25), taught as a youth (Luke 2:46), was tempted by evil (Luke 4:9), and more. That shining, imposing structure was the focal point of much of Jewish life and ritual. And Jesus knew its sad destiny. As he paused along the road, he said,

Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! … 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 and tear you down to the ground … and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Luke 19:42-44

About 40 years later, in 70 A.D., this prophecy was fulfilled when the Temple was razed to the ground, and Jerusalem was utterly destroyed by the armies of Rome. Temple fires melted gold into the stony foundation, so the soldiers literally dug stones up to get to the treasure. But here’s the good news. Jesus didn’t stop halfway down that road, and he didn’t turn around. He walked onward, was arrested, endured the Cross, and miraculously rose from the grave; he now rules from heaven. All those, at that time and since, who truly have trusted in him, in his life as an atoning ransom for sin, have been saved, no matter how their earthly bodies died. I Timothy 2:4-6 says God our Savior “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” He grieved, because he loved them so deeply. Time was short for some of them, and they were failing to heed his invitation to eternal life.