1“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. 4He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went their way. 5Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle. He said to them, ‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’
7“They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
“He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.’
8“When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.’ 9“When those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. 10When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius. 11When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household, 12saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’
13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius? 14Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you. 15Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’ 16So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
17As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, 19and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.”
20Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him. 21He said to her, “What do you want?”
She said to him, “Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom.”
22But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
They said to him, “We are able.”
23He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
24When the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.
25But Jesus summoned them, and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26It shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 27Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant, 28even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
29As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 30Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!” 31The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, “Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!”
32Jesus stood still and called them, and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”
33They told him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.”
34Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed him.
It is certain Jesus traveled the road from Jericho to Jerusalem several times on his trips between the Holy City and Galilee, as Jericho was a major stop over on the way through the Jordan Valley between the two. Although by no means the easiest route, the Jordan Valley-Jericho-Jerusalem road was the one of the only ways to travel from Galilee to Jerusalem without having to go through Samaria. Many Jews famously avoided the Samaritans.
The road from Jericho to Jerusalem in the first century A.D. was a steep one, rising from 770 feet below sea level to 2,500 feet above sea level in only about twenty miles, a grade of about 3%. It was also located in an arid, rugged desert with few sources of water.
The route followed the Wadi el-Qelt, running along the ridge above the canyon. Herod had built several aqueducts along the way to channel water from the springs in the wadi to Jericho, including the spring of Parat, a few miles from Jerusalem. He also built several bridges to aid travel along the wadi.
As shown by Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, the road could be dangerous, with the wilderness areas between Jericho and Jerusalem a perfect place for brigands. The area was very difficult to patrol with so many hiding spots among the canyons and hills, and it remains so to this day. Sometime after Jesus’ time, the Romans paved much of the road and built a fort along the route, at a place referred to in the Bible as the “Ascent of Adumim” (Josh 15:7), a pass in the mountains about thirteen miles east of Jerusalem and a strategic spot on the route. As a testament to the area’s lawlessness, there has been some fortification there ever since, including a police station there today watching over the extremely politically sensitive East Jerusalem area. It was also in this area that early Christians remembered Jesus’ story about the Good Samaritan. In about A.D. 480 a monastery was built on an earlier pilgrimage site, the ruins of which are in the courtyard of the modern police station.
Also along the route is the ancient monastery of St. George. Although the monastery was built in the fifth century by John of Thebes, it was first occupied much earlier by local desert hermits. It is named for a sixth century resident of the monastery – George of Koziba. It is built into the cliffs of the Wadi el-Qelt, and is said to be the spot where Elijah stayed on his journey to the Sinai. It was destroyed in the Persian invasion of A.D. 604, rebuilt in 1179, abandoned after the Crusader era, and finally rebuilt from 1878-1901.
See also Jericho
Jack Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992), 145, 152. Finegan discusses the road from Jericho to Jerusalem and the ruins along the way.
Todd Bolen, “Jesus’ Final Journey to Jerusalem” Jerusalem Perspective Online, March 17, 2004. Online: http://www.jerusalemperspective.com/Default.aspx?tabid=27&ArticleID=1850 (accessed April 27, 2010).