The Mount of Olives

One of President Hunter’s legacies is the impact he had on the Church’s efforts to have a presence in Jerusalem.  One of the projects that he was involved in was the creation of the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden on the Mount of Olives.  Apparently in 1972 the First Presidency asked him to “begin looking for possible sites to construct an Orson Hyde memorial in Jerusalem,” and President Hunter was instrumental in the negotiations with the city (see here).  How incredible that he was able to get the Mount of Olives as the place for the memorial!  It is a hill that overlooks Jerusalem from the east and is a very peaceful place compared to the business of the city that it stands next to.  What better place for the Church to have an edifice than this location that was so central to the Savior’s life?  It was there that Elder Orson Hyde in 1841 dedicated the land of Jerusalem, and it is there that the Savior will return again.  

                The Mount of Olives was a very important place for the Savior during his life.  It is likely that He went there often during His ministry when He was in Judea.  For example, John wrote on one occasion (without any more explanation), “Jesus went unto the mount of Olives” (John 8:1).  During the last week of His life it was from there that He sent two of the disciples to get the colt upon which Christ would make His triumphal entry into the city (see Luke 19:29-30).  Luke recorded, “And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen” (Luke 19:37).  During that last week Luke wrote that “in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives” (Luke 21:37).  So He would return to the Mount of Olives each night, and it was there during that week that He gave the Olivet discourse (what is recorded in Matthew 24 and Joseph Smith Matthew) to His disciples (see Matt. 24:3).  Sitting there on the hill overlooking Jerusalem He prophesied of the destruction that would come in 70 AD as well as the difficulties of the last days.  Finally, the last night of His life Matthew recorded that after singing a hymn with the disciples, “they went out into the mount of Olives” (Matt. 26:30).  It was there that the great suffering of Gethsemane took place and where the atonement was wrought.  How fitting it was then that many days later after Christ’s resurrection and visits among the disciples He would ascend back to His Father from the Mount of Olives (see Acts 1:10-12).     

                Just as He left from the Mount of Olives, we know that He will return there as part of the Second Coming.  Zechariah prophesied of this long ago: “And 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” (Zechariah 14:4).  Modern day revelation confirms the reality of this future event: “And then shall the Lord set his foot upon this mount, and it shall cleave in twain, and the earth shall tremble, and reel to and fro, and the heavens also shall shake” (D&C 45:48).  The Savior also alluded to it in the appendix to the Doctrine and Covenants: “For behold, he shall stand upon the mount of Olivet, and upon the mighty ocean, even the great deep, and upon the islands of the sea, and upon the land of Zion” (D&C 133:20).  The mount of Olives should hold enormous significance for us as believers in Christ as we consider the Savior’s triumphal entry, the Olivet discourse, the suffering in Gethsemane, the ascension into heaven, and the future return of the Lord.  I wish that when I was blessed to visit the Orson Hyde Memorial gardens many years ago I had realized how sacred the ground on that mount really is!