By Silvia Holgado

I have sometimes wondered why Jesus uses the plural in this phrase in the three synoptic gospels, because when he finishes pronouncing it he says to his disciples: “The Son of Man will be delivered […] they will condemn him to death […] and after three days he will rise again”; he speaks only of himself, of what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem. So why this insistence: “Look, we are all going up to Jerusalem”? It would seem that in this moment of profound decision he wants to emphasize that “you also go up with me to Jerusalem.”

Lent, which has now begun, reminds us that as Christians we too are invited to “go up to Jerusalem with Jesus Christ.” It is not a journey we undertake alone or without purpose, but in the company of Jesus, and because he first traveled it for our salvation. Just as in his public life—from his Baptism in the Jordan to Mount Calvary—the Christian also follows a path of identification with Jesus, starting from our own baptism. And as in the life of Christ, the last word is not the Cross but the empty Tomb, not death but life.

But what was Jesus’ way of going up to Jerusalem?

Every pilgrim who comes to the Holy Land has the opportunity to experience the concrete, almost physical, realities that Jesus Christ lived here. One of the most meaningful is precisely this “ascent to Jerusalem.”

The visit to the site of Baptism, even with the possibility of immersing oneself in the river, recalls and renews the faith of one’s own Baptism. It is fitting to remember in this place that Our Lord chose to stand in the line of sinners, in the lowest place on earth, the depression of the Jordan, about 400 meters below sea level.

From there the pilgrim ascends through a completely desert landscape, in continuous ascent, following the route of the ancient travelers from the time of Jesus, alongside the Nahal Og, which provided water, until they reach Jerusalem, more than 700 meters above sea level.

Halfway there, you will find the site commemorating one of the most beautiful parables of the Gospel: the place of the Good Samaritan. It was precisely on this road that a man traveled in reverse, from Jerusalem to Jericho. The site, located in an ancient inn from the Herodian period, still preserves a large cistern, remains of buildings from that time, and the remains of a Byzantine church with beautiful mosaics. But above all, the pilgrim can remember here that on life’s journey (often so fraught with danger), there is a Good Samaritan who has healed our wounds: Jesus Christ.

This path is already mentioned in the Bible as the one King David traveled fleeing from his persecutors, after Absalom declared himself king (2 Sam). And Zedekiah, king of Judah, also tried to escape from the Chaldeans who would end up destroying the First Temple in 587 BC (2 Kings). It was a road also frequently used by the Roman legions, as the historian Flavius Josephus tells us.

Continuing the climb, you reach the Holy City through the eastern area of the Mount of Olives, where Bethany and Bethphage are located. Here, the memory of the holy days begins—days during which Jerusalem embodies a sacred mystery, as the place of the most solemn events in the history of salvation.