“And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth’phage…”

On Palm Sunday morning, Jesus comes to Jerusalem along with the immense crowds crowds of Jewish pilgrims. The Jews come in anticipation of the Passover Feast, the commemoration of their people’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. Jesus comes with the intention of instituting a new and spiritual Passover. By his own sacrifice on the Cross and his Resurrection from the tomb, he will liberate all nations from the bondage of sin and death.

The first century Jewish historian Josephus claimed—in a likely exaggeration but still testifying to the immense size of the crowds—that two and a half million pilgrims came each year to Jerusalem for the Passover. They came to the Holy City several days early because there was much to do in preparation for the great feast. Each person was expected to purify his body in a ritual bath called a mikvah before he could partake of the Passover. The removal of all leavened bread and the preparation of foods for the Passover meal also had to be taken care of, in addition to the purchasing of the sacrificial lamb in the Temple’s Royal Portico.

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem began in Bethany, where he was always shown hospitality by Martha, Mary, and Lazaraus. After spending his final Sabbath there, he proceeded to Jerusalem on Sunday morning—on Palm Sunday morning. Word spread among the caravans of pilgrims that the Wonder-worker from the Galilee was coming. Talk and rumor of Jesus’ recent miracles, especially his raising Lazarus from the dead and restoring sight to the blind man Bartimaeus, must have caused great excitement. Could he really be the long promised Messiah?

The crowd of disciples and the curious swelled along the two mile road that led from Bethany to Jerusalem. In preparation for his entry, Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead to the village of Bethpage with instructions to find a donkey for him to ride upon.

And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth’phage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If any one says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and he will send them immediately.’” (Matt 21:1-3)

Today, the little village of Bethphage (meaning “House of unripe figs), is only a scattered hamlet of a few houses upon the Mount of Olives. The exact site of the biblical village is unknown, but the early Christian tradition places it on the site where there is today a Franciscan church and residences for some sixty Arab-Christian families.

A church was built on that site in the fourth century, according to the writings of the early pilgrim Egeria, in memory of the encounter of Jesus with Martha and Mary as they hastened to him as he came from Jericho to raise their brother Lazarus from the dead. At the time, the shrine was at the crossroads between the road from Jericho to Jerusalem and the road from Bethany to Jerusalem. A later church was built on the site in the twelfth century to commemorate where the Lord mounted the donkey for his triumphal entry. The report of the Russian Abbot Daniel in 1106, at the beginning of the Crusader period, states the site commemorated both Jesus’ encounter with Martha and Mary as well as the mounting of the donkey.¹

But during the Crusader era all memory of the meeting with Martha and Mary was lost and the sole focus of the site became the events of Palm Sunday. The shrine fell into ruins on account of the complicated and violent history of the Holy Land, but the Franciscans were able to purchase the land and build a shrine on the site of the Crusader-era structure in 1883. This was actually more of a home than a proper shrine because the Ottoman rulers of the time forbade the building of any new churches. It was at last completed into the church it is today in 1955, with beautiful frescoes along its walls depicting the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem.

Within the Church at Bethphage can still be seen a cubicle stone from the Byzantine-era accidentally discovered in 1876 by a bedouin shepherd. This stone was mentioned by pilgrims as that on which the Lord put his foot to mount the donkey. The German pilgrim, Theodoric, relates in 1172 that he was shown the stone “on which Jesus put his foot to mount the donkey.”² The Franciscans were able to acquire this stone and place it in the church they erected. On its sides are paintings and inscriptions dating back to the Crusader period. These are of the few whose characters were not literally defaced by the iconoclasm of the Muslims. The cubicle contains: to its northern side a castle along with a group of men, a donkey and its colt; to its eastern side people carrying palms; to the south the resurrection of Lazarus; and to the west an inscription in which appears the name Bethpage.³

Furthermore, according to Fr. Eugene Hoade, O.F.M. in his guide to the Holy Land:

The figures represented on the stone, alluding to the events that took place in the vicinity of Bethany, confronted with the accounts of the pilgrims of the 12th cent. and then with the documents of the 4th cent. give us to understand that evidently there was preserved in this very place from very early times the memory of the meeting of Martha and Mary with Jesus, when He came to the village to call back Lazarus from the dead.⁴

The Palm Sunday procession commemorating Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem begins from this shrine every year at 2:30 in the afternoon. It is presided over by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and winds up and then down the Mount of Olives, through the Kidron Valley and ends at the Church of St Anne near the Lion’s Gate. This is among the most festive days in the Holy Land and can draw up to 15,000 local Christians and international pilgrims.

Like the Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday and the many Christian pilgrims who gather at the Church of Bethphage today, let us greet the Lord in our own parish churches as our Messiah and King. On this holy day, we wave our palm branches in his honor and proclaim in song, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!”

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