The Olive Tree: The Jesus Tree – part 2

A copy of an ancient olive press

If I look out over the valley where our crops of wheat, barley and flax are growing, the first piece of land between me and the valley floor is the land which belonged to Jesus and now belongs to his cousin. Joseph’s family have a tradition that every time a child is born, they plant a new tree on their plot of land. When Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee and remain in Egypt until King Herod died. When they returned Joseph marked out the middle of his plot, and planted an olive tree. It is now a beautiful, mature tree producing a wonderful crop of olives each year.
I have sat here and watched Jesus up a ladder with one of Nathan’s baskets slung around his neck on a woven grass strap, picking olives by the handful and throwing them into the basket. When the basket was full he would take it down to Mary, who would transfer the contents into another basket, which she would then take down to the communal olive press. It looks a little like the wine press, but is a lot smaller. It is made of stone, and is key hole shaped. It has a groove cut in around it, which allows the pressed oil to run down the spout into a jar placed in a pit below it. On the raised area in the centre of the stone, the olives are placed, and then a heavy stone is rolled over them until they are crushed and the all of juice is extracted. It is really hard work, rolling the stone, but I guess no harder than the daily grind for bread flour. The olive oil is stored in an amphora until it is needed, for food or lamps to light our houses or if Rabbi David wants some for a religious ceremony. The green olive oil tastes a bit like new mown grass, and when you swallow it, you think is is going to be mellow like a preserved olive, but it bites you in the back of your throat and makes you cough. But we are told that it is good for us, so we dip our bread and eat.

Jesus made his own ladder, and lent it out to Jonathan so that he could pick our olives. One year Jonathan fell off and luckily got away with just a sprained his ankle. He blamed the ladder. Nathan blamed the picker for trying to reach too far. Jonathan missed Jesus when he started to travel around preaching the word of God. He had travelled for a while before that, going to other towns to find work, or to take commissioned pieces to their new owners. He would always come back with wonderful stories of things that had happened to him. I was never quite sure whether to believe him or not. Jonathan was never sure what to make of Jesus when he went off preaching. He knew of course that he was a deep thinking and thoughtful man, and that he could speak well on the scriptures, when Rabbi David asked him to. I suppose that when you have grown up with someone, and shared childhood adventures and confidences, it is very difficult to see them as a Son of God, which is what Jesus followers now proclaim he is. In most respects Jesus was just like Jonathan and every other Jewish young man, except that while we went to the matchmaker and found Jonathan a wife, Mary never did. When I questioned her about it once, she just said ‘Jesus will tell me if and when he is ready for a wife.’ That time never came. If it had come, she would have helped Mary preserve some of the olives from the Jesus tree, for eating. Those olives are prepared and put in a jar with a mixture of water and salt. The jar is then sealed and left for several months to foment. When they are wanted for a meal, the jar is opened, enough olives removed, washed and put out to eat.

Talking of serving, I had really better get back to work. Jonathan and his family will join us tonight for the Seder meal, as will Mary. We will, as we have been commanded by God, tell the story of the Exodus of our ancestors from slavery in Egypt. I will instruct my Grandchildren in the meaning of the story, and they will learn. In their turn they will pass the story and its meaning on to their children, as I learnt it from my mother and grandmother. But tonight I know that we will also remember last year’s Passover, and the stories which were told about Jesus’ last Seder meal. I am sure that when we take and eat the matzos, the unleavened bread, we will be thinking about Jesus, and when we drink the four cups of wine, we will remember his instructions to his disciples who were present at that meal. The Jesus movement has lasted for a year, I wonder how many more years it will last. Joseph planted that olive tree not only to provide his family with food, but also so that those family members who look at it, would remember Jesus long after he is gone, as they remember Joseph through the almond tree planted over there. There are olive trees around Galilee ,which it is said, have been around since the time of Abraham. I wonder whether Jesus will be remembered in 2000 years time, as we remember Abraham, and whether this olive tree, the Jesus tree, will still be here, and the story still be told of Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, Son of God, who died on a Roman cross and rose again to tell us all about the Good News of the kingdom of God.

The Olive Tree: The Jesus Tree – part 1

A copy of an ancient olive press

It has been a long hot day, so I have slipped away from the house, for a minute, and the preparations for the Seder feast, to come out here and sit under an olive tree. All around me is the land which my husband Nathan and I grow the vegetables, which our family eats. I made the excuse that the melons needed some water, and I brought a jar full from the well, but I haven’t watered any of the plants yet.

I have been sitting here thinking. It is almost a year to the day, during the Passover last year, that Jesus, our son Jonathan’s childhood friend, was put to death by crucifixion, by the Romans, in Jerusalem. Not a day has gone by when I have not thought about him, not just because of his death, but because of his miraculous resurrection. On the third day after his death, I was with his mother Mary and other women friends of Jesus, when we discovered that his body no longer rested in the tomb, where we had seen it laid on the eve of the Sabbath. I was there when Mary of Magdala told Jesus’ closest friends, that she had seen the risen Lord and that he had sent her back to them, to tell what she had seen.

We left Jerusalem soon after the news of the resurrection became talked about on the streets of the city. We had our work in Nazareth to get back to. We were not there when Jesus’ followers became filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and began to preach the message about the kingdom of God that Jesus had taught them, and the good news of his resurrection.

This last year has not been at all easy for any of us in Nazareth. I think that both the Roman and religious authorities hoped, that once Jesus was dead, his message would die with him, but that has been far from what has happened. His followers, not just his close friends, have been energised and enthused, and have been brave in confronting the authorities, to the point of regularly getting themselves arrested. They seem to think nothing of being in prison, and take the opportunity to talk and pray with other prisoners, and convert them as well. Over the last year we have regularly had reports of what is going on in Jerusalem and elsewhere, from Marco and other passing merchants, as they travel around the country.

We have also been subject to regular visits from the Roman military, sometimes on behalf of the Sanhedrin, sometimes on their own account. We Jewish people have never been completely subdued by the Romans, and rebellion lurks under the surface of our lives, ready to break out if the Roman authorities offend our religious sensibilities. Galilee has had more than its fair share of rebels. On one occasion the soldiers rounded up all of the men in the village for questioning, and eventually took Nathan, Jonathan and Rabbi David away. I had no idea whether I would ever see them again. I could scarcely manage to make myself get out of bed and keep the land and the crops growing, while they were away. It was weeks before they all returned, pale and thin from their time in prison, and bruised and battered in body and soul from the questioning. None of them has shared what went on, but they must have managed to convince the authorities that they were not about to foment a rebellion in Jesus name. But I must not dwell on that, they are home now.