Lent is now half over, and we are rapidly approaching the events of Holy Week. In Jerusalem, Christians will start walking the paths Jesus trod in those last hours. They start with the Palm Sunday procession into the city. Pilgrims re-enact the triumphant entrance to the city – singing as they go.

There are videos online that follow the annual procession – such as the ones on Zahi Shaked‘s channel. They are definitely worth watching because physically seeing the locations gives you much more information about what was going on. All the happenings make more sense when you see the places along his path and see the vistas as sights as they did 2000 years ago.

Mark 11
¹As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

⁴ They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. ⁷ When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

¹⁰ “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Today, the procession starts at Bethphage and then they go up the Mount of Olives past Pater Noster church. They then proceed down the Mount of Olives to cross the Kidron Valley. They stop at Dominus Flevit church where Jesus, with full view of Jerusalem, wept over their lack of faith and predicted the destruction of the city (which did occur only 35 years later after Passover in 70AD).

They pass the the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus would spend the last few hours of freedom before his arrest, and head up from the Kidron Valley to the Golden/Mercy Gate.

The processions today have to go slightly south to the Lion Gate because the Golden Gate is sealed closed with a large cemetery blocking the way. The Golden Gate/Gate of Mercy was long predicted to be the gate at which the messiah would enter they city. It has been sealed/unsealed many times during the centuries.

I found it interesting that the gate has two entrance passages. The two bays of the gate contain the Door of Mercy and the Door of Repentance. I think it’s no mistake that through mercy and repentance, you will enter the new kingdom of God into the heavenly Jerusalem.

When Christ comes in his glory at the end of time, he will come from the east. The Kidron valley was supposed to be where the nations will be judged outside the walls of the new Jerusalem.

Give the video a watch – and many others he has. There are videos from other years after covid restrictions were lifted.