Jericho's 10/10/10 Celebration

Most Americans will be unaware of a Holy Land celebration on 10/10/10. Well, almost the Holy Land if one realizes that Jericho is not technically in modern Israel. Ceded to Yassar Arafat as a capitol for the potential Palestinian State, Jericho has had to make do with the ups and downs of hopeful statehood punctuated by intifadas that periodically choked off the thriving tourist trade.

Jericho is said to be the oldest inhabited city in the world—some 10,000 years old—and to emphasize this conveniently round figure, massive celebrations are set for 10/10/10, that unique date coming only once every hundred years.

Tradition says that it was on the precipitous slope to the west of Jericho that Christ was tempted for forty days as the Gospels outline. A cable car lifts modern-day tourists above the tortured foot climb. Reports suggest that 800,000 people visit Jericho each year, if not the Temptation commemorating monastery above. So popular and strategic is Jericho that eager local dreamers imagine an airport built there sometime in the future. It’s unlikely in the short run as air travel over Israel is extremely limited because of security concerns.

Jericho is significant because of its Bible history, a solid apologetic for the veracity of the Bible. Biblically, Jericho dates back to the invasion by the desert-weary pilgrims who crossed the Jordan after 40 years of wilderness wanderings, marched around the doomed city 13 times and rushed into the stricken city over miraculously-collapsed walls. The harlot Rahab gained respite for herself and family by receiving and sheltering the Israeli spies and later became a lineal progenitor of Christ (Matthew 1:5). The ruins still abound, and one can find flint knives, a recall of the circumcision of the new generation of Israelites after the above-20 crowd had died off (Joshua 5:2).

It is a city under a unique curse of death to any who seek to rebuild it as Josh 6:26 warns: “At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: ‘Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates.’” (Joshua 6:26-NIV)

In Old Testament times, it was a crucial pathway for Elijah and his successor, Elisha, as the whirlwind chariot exodus approached (II Kings 2:1-15). A “school of the prophets” was established there (II Kings 2:15), and Elisha miraculously sweetened the city’s undrinkable waters (II Kings 2:19-22). “Elisha’s Spring” is clearly seen from the mound of ancient Jericho.

In the New Testament, it is the city of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2), the blind man Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46). It is mentioned in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30), and it is a waypoint on Christ’s final journey to Jerusalem (Luke 19:1).

Mentioned over 70 times in the Bible, archaeological and biblical truth abounds at Jericho. When we visited there on one of our ten trips to the Holy Land, our guide stooped down and retrieved a flint knife from the dust of ancient Jericho. Then he recounted how his own father had lost his firstborn son, and stated that it was probably a tragic fulfillment of Joshua’s forecast. Nearby, he walked to an obscure lane and cut a sprig of a plant called the “Plant of Hell,” the genuine crown of thorns Christ wore. Its spines were so sharp and poisonous that a mere brush against my skin caused pain and inflammation.

Jericho has also been a source of biblical scorn by unbelievers. Comparing Matt. 20:29 with Mark 10:46, they imagine a contradiction for how could Christ be leaving and entering Jericho at once in the same story. It is no problem when one considers that there are really three, possibly four, cities called Jericho in the vicinity.

Modern Jericho is a bustling town with a thriving sycamore tree recalling the story of Zacchaeus. But outside, the ancient “tell,” or hill, abounds with shattered clay walls, and an excavated 10,000-year old structure is visible a few layers below. About a mile away to the south is the broken remnant of New Testament Jericho where some of King Herod’s palace still stands. Some think it was here that Herod gave the word to behead John the Baptist. When we were there, we could see a small abandoned cluster of houses forming another very small Jericho slightly to the north. Obviously, one can be entering and leaving a Jericho at the same moment without contradiction.

So 10/10/10 will see Jericho celebrating lots of things but not the visit of the Lord Jesus Christ, who made His way up the steep ascent from Jericho at 820 feet above sea level to Jerusalem at 2,000 feet. Moving with a newly sighted man, a converted tax collector and the resurrected Lazarus, Christ made the trip from Jericho and entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on His way to the Cross, the empty tomb, the ascension and the Great Commission. Most celebrants will pause to recall that “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down,” but the greatest collapse was the breaking down of the walls between God and man, between man and his neighbor, and even between Jews and Palestinians:

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” (Ephesians 2:14-16)

Dave Virkler