The village which stands where the Bethany of our Lord’s time is supposed to have stood, is composed of a few poor cottages. Bethany lies on a slope of the Mount of Olives, and in times gone by was a fruitful spot, as the meaning of its name, House of Dates, indicates. The olive, the palm tree, and the fig tree, used to grow in abundance on the slopes of Mount Olivet; the almond and the pomegranate also, and thick and shady woods covered the mountain’s sides. Bethany is but a short walk from Jerusalem, and our Lord often went thither. Some of the dearest memories of His life and ways upon this earth are connected with this quiet little village among the palm trees.
Here it was that the house of Martha was situated. Here, too, was that of Simon the leper. Jesus loved Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus, and the village of Bethany saw His tears of sympathy at Lazarus’s grave, and His almighty power in raising Lazarus from the dead. But who can tell what the Lord’s heart felt as He returned to Bethany during those nights prior to His last griefs, and His suffering, even to death. He was then looking forward to His passion and His cross, and then it was that those who loved Him in Bethany gave Him a resting place; and after His death, and when risen from the dead, it was as far as to Bethany that Jesus led out His disciples, that they might see Him leave them for the heaven whence He had come to bless us. The hands of Jesus had been stretched out upon the cross, nailed to the accursed tree, for our good; there He wrought out our salvation, and by His death we are blessed with forgiveness, and peace, and everlasting life. And when the Lord had reached the place on the Mount of Olives ordained by God, He lifted up His hands and blessed His disciples, and even as they looked upon Him, He was taken up out of their sight.
They saw the Lord go back to heaven, they saw Him enter the cloud of glory, and then they steadfastly looked up into the heavens till the two men spoke to them. It was joy to see those uplifted hands, once nailed to the tree, blessing them, and joy for His disciples to wait awhile on earth and work for Him, till He should come again.
The time is at hand when Jesus, who went away from this world blessing His people, shall come again in like manner. And the day is not so far distant when His once-pierced feet shall stand once more upon Mount Olivet (Zech. 14:44And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. (Zechariah 14:4)), and when this earth shall rejoice at His coming. When He comes to this earth to reign over it, poverty and sorrow shall flee away, and the wilderness shall blossom as a rose.