Every Christian pilgrim who journeys to Jerusalem desires to walk where Jesus walked. Every Jewish pilgrim longs to pray at the “Wailing Wall” and sacrifice at the temple. Neither is completely satisfied.
The streets and corridors of the ancient city are not the ones Jesus trod; they remain buried under the debris of successive destruction and rebuilding. Sitting atop the temple mount is not a beautiful Jewish temple to God, but the Muslim’s El Aksa Mosque. The Western Wall or “Wailing Wall” does exist and draws faithful Jews who pray for the coming of Messiah and the peace of Jerusalem.
Around the corner from the Western Wall sit the Southern Steps leading up to the temple mount, but the gates are impassable now, filled in with stone. Overlooking the old city of David and the Kidron Valley, the Southern Steps were a common area where rabbis would teach. It was probably here on these very steps that Jesus, as a boy of twelve, was found by a worried mother and father as He questioned the teachers of the Law (Luke 2:46–49). Almost twenty years later, after His triumphal entry, Jesus walked these same steps when He entered the temple to clear the house of God of money changers (Matthew 21:1–12). And Jesus probably walked by these same steps on His way to the garden of suffering—Gethsemane.
After eating the Passover meal and singing one of the Psalms, Jesus and His disciples left the upper room to make their way to the Mount of Olives (Matthew 26:30). Just before walking down the Kidron Valley, they may have paused long enough at the Southern Steps for Jesus to pray, first for Himself and then for His disciples (John 17:1–19). Finally, Jesus prayed for us—those who would believe in His name though we’ve not seen Him (19:20–26). He prayed that we might experience the same unity that He and the Father have. He prayed that we might be in His glorious presence one day. And He prayed that the same love that flows between the Father and the Son might flow between us.
Whether you have the opportunity to pilgrim to Jerusalem or not, pray as Jesus did—pray for unity among His church, pray for His quick return so we might enter His presence, and pray for Christlike love. If you journey to Jerusalem, walk where Jesus walked, come to the Southern Steps, and read John 17 as a prayer. And while you pray, whether here in God’s city or at home, pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for those Jews wailing at the wall—that they might come to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
