You’ve probably heard of the little town.
It’s famous for healing and anointing, resurrection and ascension, but it’s infamous for something else today. The little town is called Bethany, and it’s home to a Palestinian couple we love dearly.
Tunnel-eyed tourists make a b-line for the holy sights.
“Jesus is thought to have ascended into heaven over there,” a tour guide says. “Lazarus is said to have been raised to life over here,” another points. The tour group shuffles away to the next stop, with eyes only on the past and away from the haunting reality of Bethany’s biggest landmark: the separation wall.
Today, it’s the wall that defines and symbolizes Bethany’s reality far more than the holy sights. Today, this little resurrection town is one of the most oppressed and policed Palestinian communities on the West Bank, and it’s a place we visit on every immersion trip.
The Palestinian Christian couple hosts our teams for a backyard celebration, and on every trip we sit in that wall’s shadow because the couple’s backyard runs right up against it. Laughter and storytelling stop as an Israeli military patrol passes.
On one visit, the couple stopped the party to unveil a banner pinned to the dividing wall that said “Golden Hill Garden”—a gesture of friendship and a reference to our cofounder Jon Huckins’ neighborhood. Then, when the Palestinian couple visited the United States, Jon hosted a party for them in his Golden Hill backyard and renamed it “Bethany Garden.”
Don’t miss the subtlety! As Jesus once challenged people not far from this wall: “Whoever has eyes, let them see!” We refuse to only look at the past, only see what makes us comfortable and confirms our preferred reality, and when we lean into the discomfort and face the walls we’ve helped build and the harm we’ve done, new life becomes possible. New gardens, with new names, thanks to new friendships, giving birth to new understandings that lead to Shalom peace!
When you support this work, you support a movement that is so subtle many will miss it, but it is powerful. Bethany’s wall represents tremendous suffering, and it’s only when we reject our assigned separation and gather in gardens to celebrate unlikely friendships that those stories of ascension, resurrection, and anointing become true of our lives.
Author: Matt Willingham
Matt Willingham is a writer, photographer, and content creator with over ten years experience living and working in some of the hardest-hit conflict zones in the world. He and his wife, Cayla, are now based in San Diego where they’re raising three little peacemakers and working to promote empathy and understanding in their community.
@matt.willingham