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It is painful to see quite unholy activities taking place on such hallowed ground. This morning, for instance, we were taking in the holiness of the Mount of Olives. Just as Jesus descended into the city mounted on a donkey in an earlier time, we walked down in November of 2008. We, however, unlike our hero, were stopping along the way to honor memories of his lifetime.
You probably remember the shortest verse in the Bible says, "Jesus wept." We stood on that same hillside as Jesus had, looking over the city of Jerusalem and we wanted to weep over the injustices prevailing there in this 21st century.
Just a little further down the hillside, we viewed a Palestinian home with a red tile roof. On Palm Sunday of 2006, we were told, the family residing there went out to shop for food. Returning home after a short time, they found their door keys would not work. They've never seen the inside of their home since, not even for a minute.
Israeli settlers had moved in, installing new sets of locks. Later they installed the red tiles on the roof. We learned that every house with a red-tiled roof is now inhabited by Israelis. They have been taking over such homes since 1967. The hillside is well peppered with red-tiled roofs. Go figure; the entire area was assigned by the United Nations to be Palestinian territory.
And Jesus wept.
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