Saturday, June 2

It is early morning on Sunday.  Yesterday was the first day I did not have a chance to summarize the day at the end of the day since John took us all out for ice cream at his favorite spot so this summary may be words only until I can get pictures uploaded.

We started discussing and tracing Jesus’ last days yesterday.  We started the morning at the top of the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem.  

Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives

This is where Jesus stopped and told his disciples to go down into the city and bring back the donkey for him to ride into the city on.  That is what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday.  Evidently the Jews believed that the Messiah would arrive on the feast of Passover and there had already been people who claimed to be the Messiah show up on that day.  That is why Pilate was in town at that time.  Normally he would have been at one of his more luxurious homes.

Probably not the same Donkey

Not even close

From there we began our walk down the hillside.  We had a great discussion about the Last Supper and then came to the garden of Gethsemane.   

It may not have been the place where Jesus prayed that night but would at least be very close.  It is one of the few placed in Israel where there are old trees.  In 70 AD the Romans came through, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and cut down every tree as they totally destroyed the area.  It is thought that these trees were not cut down because Titus made his camp here. 

As with most significant biblical sites there is a church at this location.  I went inside briefly and found it was just at the end of the consecration and stayed to pray the Lords Prayer.  Again most of the people said it in a different language but this one is easy to follow along with.  Jenny will understand how glad I was to have stepped in at that point.

 

Entrance to cave

Not a block from here there is an old olive press inside a cave.  Many scholars believe that this is actually where Jesus spent the night with his disciples and that he prayed just a short distance from that entrance. 

We continued down the hill, across the valley, and up to the gates of Jerusalem.   The bible says the Messiah will enter Jerusalem through the Golden Gate (the East Gate).  As an example of the deep animosity which has existed in this region for ages, the Muslims, when they had control of the city hundreds of years ago, walled up this gate and then used the area in front of it as a Muslim burial ground, knowing the Jews would not be able to enter the area for religious reasons then.  There are not such overt tensions now but there still is not a sense of cooperation either. 

 That afternoon we passed the location believed to be where Mary was born and raised.







Not far from there is a church to St Anne, her mother.  The unique thing about this church is that it has perfect acoustics!  As we were coming into the church there was an oriental group up near the alter singing Holy Holy Holy in their language.  The sound filled the church and was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes.  We also stood at that spot and sung amazing grace.  Even we sounded good in there.  I lit a candle for Mom there.

The steps are where people sing

St Anne and Mary

Just outside are the pools of Bethesda.  This is where Jesus met up with a man who had not been able to walk for 38 years and when He commanded him to stand up and walk, he did. 

We had the rest of the afternoon to do what we wanted.  I choose to find the Via Dolorosa (way of the cross) and follow that along to the church of the Holy Sepulchre.    It is considered by many to be the path Jesus took after being condemned to death out to the crucifixion site and also his burial site.  I had expected it to first of all be much better marked but also to have a more devotional feel to it.  Instead it is lined with shops making it difficult to walk along here without being pursued by people trying to sell you things.  The stations themselves are obscure and there were a few I never located.    In a way it gave me a sense of how along Jesus might have felt as those around him were caught up in the Passover preparation and did not notice yet another prisoner on his way to death. 

Altar of the Crucifixion

The church itself suffers from the same problems as the church of the Nativity in that it is under the control of 3 churches (Greek Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic) and they cannot seem to agree on how renovations should be carried out.  The result is the feel that the church is chaotically laid out and unfocused.  That said, it was still very moving to kneel at the locations thought to be where Jesus died, was prepared for the tomb, and was buried and rose.  I did not go into the actual burial location due to the long lines waiting to get there.  Instead I wanted to participate in a procession through the church lead by the Catholic priest ending with mass in a side chapel.  This time I think the language was Italian – still not much help for me.  As I followed along with the crowd through the church I read the passion of Christ from Mark, Mathew, and Luke (long procession).  

Place they prepared Jesus for burial

Tomb entrance

As always, the order of the mass was familiar even if the words were not and I found great peace in participating in this very holy location.

A couple of other side pieces of information…  The Romans used to play a ‘game’ called the kings game where they would take a new army recruit (these were not volunteer army members) dress him up like a king and then play a dice game where they would gamble away his lands, palace, clothes, etc. eventually ending in killing him.  Eventually they were forbidden from using fellow soldiers and instead used condemned prisoners.  It is likely this is what was described when they dressed Jesus in a robe and gave him a crown of thorns.  We saw one of these game boards etched in the floor of the old Roman barracks area at the start of the Via Dolorosa.