Sehet, wir geh'n hinauf gen Jerusalem in C minor, BWV 159

Bach wrote the cantata in Leipzig for Estomihi. The Sunday, also called Quinquagesima, is the last Sunday before Lent, a period when Leipzig observed tempus clausum and no cantatas were performed. In 1723 Bach had performed two cantatas on the Sunday, Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn, BWV 23, composed earlier in Köthen, and Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22, audition pieces to apply for the post of Thomaskantor in Leipzig. In 1729 the cantata was the last one performed on a Sunday before the St Matthew Passion on Good Friday of that year. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were taken from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, "praise of love" (1 Corinthians 13:1–13), and from the Gospel of Luke, healing the blind near Jericho (Luke 18:31–43). The gospel includes Jesus announcing his suffering in Jerusalem. Whereas Bach's former cantatas also considered the healing, this work concentrates on the view of the Passion.