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BETHANY
AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
© Carlos
Padilla. September 2016
Bethany and the Mount of Olives hold a number of deep and spiritual events of
our Lord Yahshua–Jesus Christ, that deserve our deep dedication. This small
village was indeed part of the area known as Mount of Olives, in which
western slope was a special place known as Gethsemane, or orchard of olives. In
the eastern slope was the village known as the house of the brothers Lazarus,
Martha and Mary, where Yahshua was with his disciples. There, also, in the house
of Simon, the leper, Yahshua was anointed by Mary, with a pound of perfume of
spikenard, very costly, John 12:3. Near Bethany, in a place of the Mount of
Olives happened the Ascension of Christ, but it will also be in a place of this
mount where in the end times the return of Christ – Yahshua,
will happen, Zechariah 14:4, as the Lord himself reviled to John in Revelation 1:7 being in
the Isle of Patmos.
As the life of our Lord was reaching its summit, in His ministry of three years,
the Mount of Olives, and its key places would become the back bone of His
pilgrimage, since the beginning and after raising Lazarus in Bethany, until
drinking the Cup of the New Covenant in Gethsemane, until the Ascension of Jesus
Christ in the high part of the Mount of Olives. As it happens this mount is not
to large and these places can be visited in minutes, one of the others. In four
events of these four places were four cardinal points of the Way of His
ministry, which together with those occurred in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and
Galilee have a spiritual meaning for our lives.
BETHANY. THE HOUSE OF LAZARUS, MARTHA AND MARY
According to Bible Dictionaries, Bethany means “house of dates or of figs” not
bad for a place of rest and restoration on the way. If we look at it spiritually
we find two basic foods. Dates are the food of the desert, small, but very
nutritious, like a verse of the Word of God, that will feed us in the way of our
life. Figs are the fruits that Yahshua did not find when He came to Jerusalem,
but however He would find in his friends of the village and in His disciples,
in those who believe in Him and receive Him as Lord and Saviour, the rich food,
suite and abundant of the brotherly love in the Holy Spirit.
In the house of his friends preaching was taking place as well as the story of
Martha and Mary, pointing out how listening to the Word is more important than
labouring with the labours of life. A breathtaking miracle takes place. Four
days after Lazarus had died, Jesus commanded to open his tomb and called the
dead raising him, proving that He is the Life. All the system of religion and
faith of His time was overtaken and His fame now known to all.
Finally, in the house of Simon, the leper, Yahshua was anointed by Mary with a
pound of perfume of spikenard, very costly, that according to Jesus himself was
the preparation for His sepulture. This happened six days before the Passover when
the Lord would give His life on the Cross for us.
Yahshua knew the family of
Lazarus, Martha and Mary
before the event of the unction. “Now
it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a
certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister
called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was
cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care
that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou
art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary
hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Luke
10:28-42.
GETHSEMANE – THE CUP
OF THE NEW COVENANT
Gethsemane is the
orchard where Yahshua drank the cup of the sin of the world. The spiritual place
where we give ourselves to Christ in our intimacy to receive Him as Eternal
Priest and Saviour, for there, in
Gethsemane, every day in our prayer,
everyone who receives Christ through the Gospel, meets the Son of God who has
drank the cup of our sin, interceding for us once and for ever, and every day,
being in us intercedes for us through the Holy Spirit of which we are born
again.
The name of that
orchard means press of oil. When Christ drank the cup of our sin, His soul was
"pressed" like the olive that distils oil, allegory of the unction, that lights
our lamps, our souls, and gives us the pouring of the Holy Spirit. Through
His suffering, we have the anointing. An angel from Heaven appeared to Him to
strengthen Him. Matthew 26:36, Luke 22:39.
...and kneeled
down, and prayed,
42Saying,
Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will,
but thine, be done. 43And there appeared an angel unto him from
heaven, strengthening him. 44And being in an agony he prayed more
earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the
ground. Luke 22:41.
THE MOUNT OF OLIVE – THE ASCENSION
This mount is truly meaningful at a
spiritual level, and in the experience of Yahshua–Jesus Christ and may be or our
own, if we understand the meaning of the events that occur there, like those
that occurred in Bethany. Like Jesus, we must live with our friends in Christ,
like He did with Lazarus, Martha and Mary, for it is with them that the Lord
manifests, will give us life and we will receive the light to understand the
signs of the Bible, the miracles and the prophecies, as well as enjoy the
brotherly kindness amongst brothers, something vital for all of us. But it is
the main point for us to go in spirit, in our prayers to the
place where Jesus Christ was glorified and
ascended to sit at the right
hand of the Father. This means that when we are in the place of ascension we
have double hope, that of knowing that Jesus rose, defeating sin and death, and
that we, too, will be raised. To affirm this is easy to write, for also it is
Biblical, but it must be made one in us, in our heart and in our mind by faith.
Only this way we will have a spiritual relationship with our Lord and Saviour Yahshua, our Friend Jesus, in Whom we trust and Whom we serve. Do you believe
this?
Luke 24:50-51
“...And
he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed
them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and
carried up into heaven.”
THE RETURN OF
YAHSHUA
Finally and in the same way as we shall
believe in Ascension, after the resurrection of Yahshua, we must also
consequently believe and await His return to establish His kingdom. The Bible
reveals to us that Yahshua will return to the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14:4, a
Text that shows part of the vision that the prophet received about the return of
Christ in the Mount of Olives: “...And His feet shall stand in that day upon the
mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east;...” This event is
related with the rapture of the Church in 1Thesalonians 4:13. The Christian who
prays with this faith in mind, experiences a relationship with Yahshua without
precedents. A deep relationship with Yahshua is not possible if one doubts of
His resurrection, His ascension and His return. But having faith and confidence
in these events –the first as occurred, and the last as to come and to wait for,
so much for Yahshua as for us, being saved by Him– our faith is sane and true,
awaiting the
coming of Christ, who comes for His Church as we are waiting
for Him.
CONCLUSION
When we pray we must live the experience of Bethany and of Gethsemane, and of
the Mount of Olives. We must pray like Yahshua prayed, remembering His great
love when He took the Cup of the New Covenant in His blood for us. We must pray
remembering Jesus amongst his friends and brothers in the faith with Lazarus,
Martha and Mary, and how He was anointed with perfume in the house of Simon, the
leper, because this changes our perspective to treat others and our vision of
the Lord. Let us pray with faith that Jesus was in the Mount of Olives before
the brothers, being ascended to the right hand of the Father, but also with the
conviction that He is about to come, and not much is left for such event that
puts the world to an end, to begin the one to come, the Kingdom of God for
eternity. And the angels that were with the disciples when Jesus was taken up,
told them: “...Men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11.
Amen!
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