This city just feels different. Driving through it on the way to our first destination, you could just sense that this city is important. And our first stop was a stunner.
This is the sight of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives, FYI, was where David fled from his son, Absalom. Jesus spent a lot of time there, teaching, traveling over it, and according to the book of Acts, it's the place from which he ascended into heaven after the resurrection. It's ringed by an enormous, dense Jewish cemetery. It's believed in the Jewish religion that when the Messiah appears, it will be at the Mercy Gate of Jerusalem, and that the dead who rise from this place will have only a short way to travel to reach him.
they place rocks on the tombs instead of flowers...remember the end of Schindler's List?
THIS is the Dome of the Rock. You've probably seen it, but in case you don't know exactly why it's called that...it is literally built around a giant slab of exposed rock - the rock on which Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. It's also the place where Muslims believe that Muhammed ascended to heaven to bring down the tenets of Islam. It's got a ton of history, but right now, it's under Muslim control. Jews are not allowed to worship at the site of their temple, nor have they been able to for the last 800 years (the closest they can get is the Western Wall.)
We wound our way down a steep and winding road, to the foot of the Mount of Olives. To the Garden of Gethsemane.
This place is maybe 200 yards from the gates of Jerusalem. Jesus would have seen Judas coming with the soldiers the minute they left the front door. It was small, fenced off, and crowded, but THIS WAS THE PLACE. Jesus was here on the hardest night of his life. Where he prayed, wept, beseeched his friends for support, and asked his Father for the strength to suffer his fate.
If you stop long enough amidst the gnarled and ancient olive trees, if you realize he knelt in the place where you stand, if you wonder how he got through that night, how hard he cried, how much he sweat over his coming suffering...it's a bit like standing in the Sea of Galilee.
The thing about this day - about Jerusalem in general - is the density and the scope of the history in front of you. I'm not even CLOSE to giving you a history lesson here, but a little context...
Only recently discovered, in fact, archeologists have unearthed the palace of King David himself.
yes, it's underground...kind of
There are two things that seem to appear on every block in this city: cats and ancient ruins. Yes, there are SO MANY CATS. And basically, old stones everywhere! Have some Roman ruins!
the "broad wall" that Hezekiah built...I think
Roman stuff, like columns and mosaics
Anybody here claustrophobic? Besides me? No? Well, have I got some tunnels for you. Herod's tunnels, drainage system for the water in the city, they snake their way right under the Western Wall...
like a movie, huh?
it got narrower than this
new adjacent tunnels took us to the foundations of the Western Wall
look at those seams!
...and emerge by the gargantuan structure, the outskirts of the temple. This is one of two places where Jesus would have flipped the moneychangers' tables.
Romans started to tear it down but then were basically, "never mind, that's too hard"
that long stone in the middle? 240 TONS
the marketplace
Around the corner, through the Umayyad (one of the Islamic caliphates...Jerusalem changed hands a lot) palace -
- and to the old gates of the city. On one side, the up stairs. On the other, the down. We were sitting on the down stairs. The down stairs where Jesus walked every time he left Jerusalem.
Let that sink in.
these steps
there used to be a gate on the left
us!
From there, we walked into the city itself. We really stuck out as tourists, but we must have passed a dozen other tour groups throughout the day - and this is the OFF-season. We made our way to the Wailing Wall, where we had to pass through metal detectors and have our bags x-rayed. There were cops seemingly everywhere.
The Wall is segregated into a men's and women's side. Dozens of people leaning into it, heads and hands pressed against the cool stone that towers over them. They read from prayer books, murmur their entreaties, and pray fervently. Several of our group went to the wall to lay a hand on it and say a prayer. It's quite a profound sight of faith and devotion, of history and longing.
From there, we went for lunch in a plaza. Yes, tour guides, when you release your herd into a strange city and tell them try any restaurant you want, but I'll be eating at this one, you know they're all going straight for your spot.
waiting like hungry lions
A short walk brought us to our last destination of the day: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This one...I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it. The place was built way back in the 300s, damaged and reconstructed, fought and argued over for centuries (you can read all about it on Wikipedia). Why? Because it's purported to be the site of Calvary.
Built to encompass the place of the Cross, the place where Jesus' body was prepared for burial, and the tomb itself, it's shared by the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic, the Roman Catholic, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox, and the Syriac Orthodox. Sound confusing? Yeah, it is. They literally share the building, making the interior a strange mishmash of styles and rituals. I've never felt lost so quickly.
It's opulent, ancient, and staggering in its grandiosity. It's also a bizarre and sometimes alienating experience for Protestants, who don't relate to the relics and ornamentation of those factions of Christian brethren. Hard to know what to make of it. For those expecting to see Jesus' tomb safely ensconced in a quiet hill, or to look upon the sight of Golgotha - the place of the cross - atop some deserted hill...will be in for quite a shock.
There's a podium on the second story of one part, where you can crawl under and touch the rock where it's said that Jesus' cross stood. In another part, a huge wooden hut sits in the middle of a cavernous stone chamber. It houses what's apparently the tomb of Christ. At the front of the church is a replica of the slab on which it's believed Jesus' body was washed and prepared for burial. The worshippers at the church touched, kissed, laid their heads on, and prayed over these items with intense reverence.
(not my photos, but I want to give you a sense of the place
under that table at the front is where people crawl to Golgotha
real Orthodox monk, lookin like a painting
the washing slab (replica)
this houses the alleged tomb of Jesus
Of course, you can't really confirm the locations of Jesus' death and burial. Personally, I wish the site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial was untouched, unblemished, and perfectly preserved. It's jarring to find it all so occupied with iconography, relics, and rituals. This trip is a profoundly significant one for each of us, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. We all have different backgrounds, different thoughts, and different reactions. I can only express what I've thought and felt, or relay those that others have communicated to me. If you've been to these places you're reading this: please chime in with a comment below. Make yourself heard.
The grandeur of all these places we've seen, the epic scope and staggering architecture and breathtaking beauty of civilizations past...just doesn't have the same effect as the simplest things. At least for me, the deepest, most powerful moments so far have been moments with the land.
Looking over the valley where David defeated Goliath.
Standing in the Sea of Galilee.
Walking in the Garden of Gethsemane.
More tomorrow.
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