Ein Karem, Yad Vashem & The Garden Tomb – Day 7

Today is our final day here. First thing this morning we stopped to take a group photo and a couple of people took camel and donkey rides.

Then, we traveled to southwest Jerusalem to Ein Karem. According to the Bible, Mary went "into the hill country, to a city of Judah" when she visited the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1:39). It's believed that the present day village of Ein Karem is where Elizabeth was when she gave birth to her son, John, the cousin of Jesus. John was anointed by God to be a prophet for The Lord.

In Ein Karem is the Church of St. John the Baptist. Inside are the remains of an ancient mosaic floor and a cave where, according to tradition, John the Baptist was born. Some remnants below the building suggest the presence of a mikveh, a Jewish baptism bath, which is dated to the 2nd temple period.

We traveled to Yad Vashem which, according to its Web site, is the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust. It is a simple modern structure with a pyramid of glass running down the length of the building as a skylight. It sits in a peaceful wooded area. It is filled with pictures, stories, artifacts, memories of a tragic, gaping wound in our world's history.

I think it's important for all human beings to hear and see the story of the Holocaust and know how easy it is for evil to take control. How easy it is for people to get caught up in group-think. And to know the power of the human spirit and the steady comforts hand of God. I also think it could be easy for people to ask where God was when this was happening. In my simple opinion, He was there in every person unafraid to claim the God they loved, in every person who lent aid, every person who prayed for a land they would never be in and in every person who walked out proclaiming their God had not forsaken them. God was everywhere. Unfortunately, evil was too. Fortunately, God remains in the healing.

After the museum we took time to reflect and then went to lunch. After lunch, we headed to the Garden Tomb, located outside the old city walls and close to the Damascus Gate. It is a rock-cut tomb considered by some to be the site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus, and to be adjacent to Golgotha. Earlier in the week we visited the traditional site for these at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Our guide at the Garden Tomb (run by the British, as a side note) explained why they believe this spot to truly be Golgatha – it’s street presence, the fact that it looked like a skull and that stonings historically happened on this location – and why they believe the tomb is the true tomb – it has 3 rooms, with the burial chamber to the right (not typical of the time, but also stated in the Gospels, including Mark 16), is on a property with a wealthy owner and is carved into the cave, not naturally made.

We were able to view the tomb and see the tracks where a large stone would have been rolled in front. Then, Rev. Bruce Hay led us through a devotional and he and Dr. Dale Hunt served us communion. We ended our service by passing candlelight, and Rev. Becky Walker asked us to consider how the light of this story has touched us and how we would let that light shine to the world.

Our guide then said something that really helped put a lot of this trip into perspective. He said, ultimately it doesn’t really matter if this is the true location of the tomb, or the Holy Sepulchre is, or someplace else, although he believes it to be. If this is nothing more than a good visual to help tell the story, then that’s wonderful. What does matter is that it did happen. Christ was born the son of God. He walked among us sharing the message of love and a New Covenant. He came to deliver us from our sins – the ultimate sacrificial lamb. He died on a cross and then rose from the dead. That’s what matters. Looking around the peaceful, serene garden, I found there to be much joy in the place. And joy there should be. Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!

For more photos, click here.

Judean Wilderness - Day 6

Today was a nice day of relaxation for our minds and bodies. We drove out through barren lands and saw shepherds in the hills and wild animals roaming. Ibex and Hyrax climb about the Negev Desert and delighted us like we were driving through a wildlife park.

We took the cable car to the top of Masada, and ancient city build by Herod the Great in 74 BC. The city, stationed 1,400 feet above the Dead Sea, was barely accessible to outsiders. Almost all historical information about Masada comes from the 1st-century Jewish Roman historian Josephus. The walls of the fortress were breached in 73 AD. According to Josephus, when Roman troops entered the fortress, they discovered that its 960 inhabitants had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed mass suicide by stabbing each other. Josephus wrote of two stirring speeches that the Sicari leader had made to convince his fellows to kill themselves.

Next we drove down to the Dead Sea, which is the lowest place on Earth, 1,388 feet below sea level. Due to the extremely high salt and mineral content of the water, people literallt float instead of swim. And  the mud is believed to have great cleansing properties, so floaters took a chance to lather up and take the years off, or at least the day off.

After playing in the water and on the beach for a while, we returned to Jerusalem and to the Passion. We went to the House of Caiaphas. From this spot you can see the Valley of Gehenna, often referred to as Hell, and the Field of Blood, where Judas committed suicide. The Gospel of Matthew states that Jesus was taken to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together (Matthew 26:57). Below some steps is a courtyard where tradition says Peter denied Jesus 3 times (Luke 22:52-62).

We went to the caves beneath this location which now houses St. Peter in Gallicantu Church. We went down into a rock pit walled around with a whole in the roof.

There are 2 physical places where it can be confirmed that Jesus was, according to our guide. One we went to yesterday, the teaching steps next to the Western Wall. The second is this dungeon. It was used as a cistern originally. Jesus was lowered down into it before being removed for trial. Here he sat, waiting for what he knew would come, the cup he'd asked to have taken from him.




Later in the evening a Board of Global Ministries missionary, Alex Awad, came to talk about the Bethlehem Bible College. This college offers Christian education, created first public library in Bethlehem area and has various community programs. More information is available at www.bethbc.org. He also spoke on the Israeli-Palestinian history and conflict, including his own story. His site is available by clicking here.

Click here for more photos.

Old Jerusalem - Day 5

The day started very early as we had to get in line with pilgrims from all over to see the Temple Mount. Currently, land is worshipped on by the Muslims, and they close the site to non-Muslims at 10 a.m. in order to allow for worship. So, the lines gets very long, very fast to visit. While in line we were able to see a bar mitzvah celebration processing by.

First, we came to the Al-Aqsa mosque was built between 709 and 715 AD, where money changing tables were set that Jesus turned over (Matthew 21:12).

Then, the beautiful Dome of the Rock at Temple Mount. Called Mount Moriah in the Bible (2 Chronicles 3:1) this was the site of the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod. It is also one of the most holy places to Muslims, only behind Mecca and Medina in importance, as it is believed that Mohammed went to heaven from this spot.

We then walked to the Pool of Bethesda outside the Church of St. Anne, still located in the Muslim Quarter of Old Jerusalem. This pool is associated with the healing of the crippled man in John 5, when Jesus told him, "Take up your mat and walk."

(Disclaimer: To put words to the rest of today is quite difficult. Each of us had a different, personal, maybe meaningful, maybe spiritual experience. The locations signified along the Via Dolorosa are historical proximities, as the city of Jerusalem from Jesus' time was destroyed. And even many of these spots are now debated as to being where they truly should be. The most powerful moment for me lay outside of the Via Dolorosa, the traditional path of the Passion. That moment fell beneath the Antonia Fortress on an unearthed stone road which Christ walked on in his final hours.)

The Antonia Fortress was a military barracks built around 19 BC by Herod the Great named after Mark Antony. This site is now connected to a convent called Notre Dame de Sion. We climbed down to the basement to see large cisterns that laid beneath ancient Jerusalem and supplied water to the city. Then up some steps to a space just below the cistern vaults. Above the vaults lays a beautiful pavement made with huge stones. This road is believed to be the "lithostrotos" (the Pavement), which is mentioned in the Gospel account of Jesus' Passion (John 19:13).

To think that Jesus walked down this road, cross on his back, tears in his eyes, sweat and blood on his brow. He walked down that road for you. He walked down it for me. And it made me crumble to the floor. I held the floor because I could not hold him. I knelt on that stone and just kept thanking him over, and over.

(This site is listed out of order from our day's journey. It was visited after stations 1 and 2, but I'm taking editorial license to keep the Via Dolorosa together.)

Via Dolorosa, or the Passion walk or the Stations of the Cross, originated in pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Early on, a set of seven scenes was usually represented by the current numbers 2,3,4,7,9 and 14 from the list below. The standard set from the 17th to 20th centuries has consisted of 14 pictures or sculptures depicting the following scenes:
1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus carries His cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets His mother

5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the cross

6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7. Jesus falls the second time

8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation)
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.

Stages 10-14 are all inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The site is revered as Golgotha (the Hill of Calvary, shown above), where Jesus was crucified, and is said also to contain the place where Jesus was buried (the Sepulchre, shown to the right). We will visit another place believed to be Golgotha later.

An Upper Room chapel is on the site believed to be where Jesus and his disciples shared the Last Supper. Here we read aloud the story of the Last Supper and sang "Let Us Break Bread Together". 

We returned to the Temple Mount and crossed a courtyard, passed the ritual baths, to the steps that took people up to the Temple entrance. Visitors in Jesus' time had to pay a half-shekel tax to enter and make their offering. Jesus sat on the steps of the Temple frequently and spoke to his disciples. These steps are now referred to as the Teaching Steps, where rabbis and teachers frequently sat and taught while other gathered around. Several of the original steps from the time of Christ are still there today and we were able to sit there and reflect on his teachings. (Matthew 22:34)

 

Just passed these steps is the Western Wall, known as the Wailing Wall. A portion of the wall was left after the Romans destroyed the city. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D., Jews were not allowed to come to Jerusalem until the Byzantine period, when they could visit once a year on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple and weep over the ruins of the Holy Temple. Because of this, the wall became known as the “Wailing Wall.” Now, known as the Western Wall, it is a place of rejoycing and prayer, as the last accessible relic of the last Temple. People come here to pray, to remember the oppression of the Jewish people and to leave that pain and their prayers behind.

People write prayers on paper and place the between stones in the wall, knowing that they will be prayed over by God and all those who come to this place. To stand there, to hear the prayers being spoken aloud in dozens of languages, to watch those placing prayers and to place my own. It was like being caught In a thick presence of God. I was, in a word, overwhelmed. The sight of women weeping. One woman held her phone up to the wall as I imagine the voice on the other end sent prayers of their own.
 

When we arrived back at the hotel we had a short lecture from the hotel's Israeli manager on his view of the Israeli-Palestian conflict. He explained the political views and that the wall was built for protection of Israel.

Here is a link to more photos.

Bethlehem & East Jerusalem - Day 4

We began the first day of the new year in the place where it all began. Bethlehem. To a manger where a child was born. A child who was Christ The Lord.

Church of the Nativity is considered to be the oldest continuously operating Christian church in the world. It was built originally in 339 AD on top of the cave housing the stable and manger where Joseph and Mary stayed. Most of the churches from this time were destroyed by invading armies, but when the Persians invaded in 614, they did not destroy the structure. According to legend, when their commander saw the painting inside the church of the Three Wise Men he thought they were Persian, and commanded that the building be spared.

Stairs inside the simple basilica take you down to the cave where Jesus was born. A star on the floor marks the spot. A nook displays a manger where it is believed they laid him after birth. To touch these stones was like touching the presence of God.

The Nativity church shares land with the Church of St. Catherine, which houses sacred places below it's floors as well.

Below St. Catherine's is the tomb of St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek to Latin. Also housed there is the Chapel of the Innocents where the tomb of infants slain by Herod the Great was discovered. (Matt. 2:16) This tomb is feet away from where Christ was born, just on the other side of the wall. Moisture still comes up from the rocks of the tomb and since it has been covered with glass it looks like tears still poor from that earth.

Just down the hill from the place when Jesus was born is where the shepherds who were in the fields were greater by angels proclaiming His birth.

Wi'am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center where they work to teach conflict resolution and spread principles of a civil society throughout Palestine. We sat in the shadow of the wall in a place where children come to play, to learn how to talk about their fears and to help spread peace. We heard just a bit about what they do at this center and how they work to made resolution from a social aspect. We asked questions, because many of us do not have a good, present-day grasp of this very complicated issue.

When one of the directors was asked who the Palestinians are, he answered, "We are people who seek peace." Then another from our group said, "So, I'm a Palestinian." Here is a link to the center we were at, if you would like more information. www.alaslah.org

After lunch we journeyed to the Mount of Olives. Where Jesus sat, overlooked the city and wept (Luke 19:28-44). We then had a devotional before heading down the hill to the garden. We took a moment to pray and reflect on our connection to this place.

The Garden of Gethsemane is where Jesus prayed to His father and then was betrayed by Judas and turned over for trial. (Matthew 26:36-56) In the garden, though it has surely changed with time, sit several trees which would have been in the garden while Christ was. One is over 3,000 years old and still bears fruit. Seeking solace in this place is difficult. Large crowds like those of our own are streaming through one after the other. But solace is why Jesus came here. He knelt down on this very soil, prayed to God and rose up with the weight of the world on his back.

For more photos from today, please click here.

(Disclaimer: This was a very emotional day for me personally. To visit the place where my savior was born and then to quickly go to a place talking about the immeasurable hurt of a people seeking recognition, is to simply be swept up in the same type of emotional turmoil and fear around during the time of Christ. And then, caught in the dichotomy of the moment, we were swept off to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane, to the final desperate hours before the passion.

It's a world of strife and heart ache and yet a world filled with redemptive joy.

A world filled with sin and conflict, grace and salvation.

Please, pray for peace.
- Kat)