You Can’t Get There from Here – Holy Land Pilgrimage in the 21st Century

Walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Following the Via Dolorosa. Pilgrimages. These are all phrases commonly associated with what we often refer to as The Holy Land. However, things are not the same anymore with respect to what these phrases refer to.

Those of us familiar with the Bible Story know that our Lord often walked from Galilee to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals, especially Passover. Usually, this involved walking down the Jordan Valley to Jericho. This City of Palms, which is below sea level, had an ancient spring so was like an oasis rest stop along the way. Then, one made a right turn to the west to get to Jerusalem. The major portion of that segment of the journey was a challenging uphill trek through some very bleak lands… the Judean desert [see map below].

Today, most of this portion of the trip is in Palestine, otherwise known as The West Bank or the ‘occupied territories.’ This refers to Israel’s military occupation of these lands for the last 50 years, following their overrunning them in the Six-Day War of 1967. Indeed, one encounters several large illegal [by international law] Jewish settlements along the way. Settlements is really a misnomer with what it might convey. These are well-built, well-organized towns with populations usually in the thousands [see picture above]. They have good infrastructure including water supply and are connected to one another and Jerusalem by nicely paved roads that Palestinians are not allowed to drive on.

After leaving Jericho, some 20 miles later one got to Bethany. This was another rest stop for many pilgrims and Jesus was no exception. We learn he made friends with a family there, Mary, Martha and Lazarus and often spent time there. As a sort of bedroom community to Jerusalem it was evidently a place where many of lower class lived [remember the biblical references to tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners]. It was cheaper to live in the suburbs then just as now. Of course, one of the key stories involving this family is Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead by calling him out of his tomb. This was just days before Jesus’ own resurrection.  

So, there we were in our tour bus this past April. We had left the nation of Jordan and were making our way to Jerusalem. Our guide announced we would be stopping in Bethany for lunch and to visit Lazarus’ tomb. Actually, this town is now named after Lazarus: in Arabic, Eizariya.

We had lunch at Holland Pizza – what a name for a pizza place in Palestine! Wanting to sample the local fare I had Zatar – a 10” serving with a drink for 20 shekels [about $7US]. It is a common dish in the area. It is a mixture of dried oregano – believed to be the biblical hyssop – mixed with sesame seeds, sometimes basil or thyme and sumac, covered with olive oil [see illustration above].

Back on the bus we started driving up the hill, actually the east slope of the Mount of Olives toward the church and mosque that both commemorate the alleged site of Lazarus’ tomb. Some of us stood on the road taking pictures while the more devout among us actually stooped to enter the tomb. Suddenly our guide pointed up the road and said,“ Look, see! The Wall! You can’t get to Jerusalem from here any more”[see below].

I was shocked. Indeed, there at the top of the hill stood the tall concrete slab structure that snakes for miles around the countryside here. Israel calls it a security wall; they have deemed it necessary to keep Palestinians out of Israel. It was built after a rash of suicide bombings by Palestinians within Israel and has indeed cut down that sort of action. Most others call it a separation wall or even apartheid wall.

Our guide explained that from time immemorial Bethany had indeed been the last stop for pilgrims coming from the east to Jerusalem: Jew, Christian and Muslim [Jerusalem, with its golden Dome of the Rock and the adjacent Al-Aqsa mosque are Islam’s third most holy sites because Mohammed allegedly was transported to that rock and met Jesus, Moses and other biblical figures], but no longer. “The Wall” has eliminated that and obviously affected business in the area. Many pilgrims no longer come to Bethany. It’s now too ‘out-of-the-way.’

And this is just one example of how, in today’s Holy Land, you can no longer ‘get there from here.’ No longer can you follow the footsteps of Jesus the short distance over the Mount of Olives and down across the Kidron Valley into Jerusalem. Unless you take a long road around and back up to the top of the mount and start down from there.