The significance of the Mount of Olives

“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.” (Matthew 24 v 3)

He spent a lot of time on this mountain and as he was sat there on this day I wonder what he was thinking? It has been a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and at the centre of conflict many times. From this vantage point the vista over Jerusalem is breath-taking.

From this moment he would begin to prophetically warn the disciples of what is to come. But take a step back a moment before they arrive. The Son of God is sat on this mountain again. We know from Luke’s gospel that it was here that he had previously wept over the city. It would be here that he would be left alone as even his closest friends left him. This would be the place where he would descend into a personal dark hell that he had never experienced before and he did it to take our place.

One thousand years previously, King David had made the journey up the same mountain. The story can be found in 2 Samuel 15. This broken man who had sinned before God and whose sin had been passed down generationally within his own family was a king in need of a Saviour. “But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up.” (2 Samuel 15 v 30)

David was rejected as king, pursued by his own favourite son, betrayed by his close friend who would later hang himself (sound familiar?). The whole story is a sad one.

Today, we all escape up a mountain at some point in our life. Rejected, heartbroken, pursued and in fear we look to some higher place, a vantage point of a new perspective that we might understand or gain perspective. We all need a Saviour.

He is here. He came and sat on that mountain for you and me. He is waiting. It is easier now than for King David because not only did Jesus sit on the Mount of Olives, he descended down it for all of us.