Sept 16, 2022
Hello From The Holy Land:
Today was our last full day in the Holy Land. It’s hard to believe this part of our trip is coming to an end, but soon we will bid farewell to Israel.
We started the day by visiting St Anne’s church in Jerusalem which the Crusader’s built in the 12th century. Anne was Mary’s mother, and according to church tradition, Mary was born and raised in Jerusalem. The church is built over the cave that was Mary’s home. I did not know of this tradition, and it’s one that speaks to many a faith but not mine. The Mary I have read about in the bible lived in Nazareth. The angel Gabriel appeared to her there, and she was betrothed to Joseph in Nazareth. One has to allow for the possibility that Mary’s family moved to Nazareth from Jerusalem, and I believe it is important to respect a church tradition that comes along and presents things differently, but I can’t imagine Mary being anywhere in her life but Nazareth.
Our next stop was the Via Dolorosa - the way of the cross, or the way of suffering. The path we walked upon was not the exact route that Jesus took from the governing palace of Pilate to Golgotha, simply because of the infrastructure and buildings that have been constructed in the area since the 1st century. Our tour guide did assure us that it was the same direction to that hill of the skull. The 14 stations of the cross are encountered on the way. Some of the stations are biblical. Some of the stations arise from Catholic Church tradition. The last 5 are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the places laying claim to be the place of the original crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Yes, there is more than one site.
I was hoping symbolically walking the path that Jesus walked upon toward the cross and his death would be a spiritual experience. It was not. The Via Dolorosa is filled with people, some of them doing the walk with us, but others going about their daily business selling wares from their shops. It’s a market area for most people, and since they are trying to earn a living, they will encourage you to buy a souvenir or two as you walk the way of the cross. Then, there is the traffic. The way is open to vehicles, so quite often as you are walking, you will hear the horn of a car or a motorbike, and you need to get out of the way to let them pass. All of this makes it difficult to focus on the spiritual. I couldn’t hold the sacredness of the place, and simply became a tourist dutifully marking each station of the cross on the Via Dolorosa.
When we got to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it was crawling with people. It was a 30 minute wait to get in to the traditional site of the tomb of Jesus. It was a cave. It did not look like a tomb carved out by Joseph of Arimathea that I had read about in the bible - or pictured in my mind. 7 of us were allowed in at a time, and before you could open your thoughts and heart to the possibility that Jesus was crucified and buried on this site, we were being ushered out because their were many pilgrims waiting to come and see. I left the church feeling depressed. I felt like I had failed to make the spiritual journey I was longing for. I always believed a Holy presence would walk with me should I ever get the chance to walk the Via Dolorosa, and see the tomb of Jesus. I was not wrong. I was just at the wrong site for me.
The last stop we made was the Garden Tomb. This place is the non - traditional site of Golgotha, the crucifixion, and the tomb of Jesus. It looks like the garden you imagine Mary Magdalene went to on Easter morning to anoint Jesus’s body. The local tour guide showed us where in the garden Golgotha, the place of the skull, was, and then the tomb, complete with a stone, and a cave clearly chiselled out to look like a tomb made for a family, exactly what Joseph of Arimathea had done. This site spoke to my soul. No one knows exactly where Jesus’s tomb is, but the garden tomb touch my soul more than the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
I imagine for many people, the reverse would be true, and that’s why I am okay with two sites. It’s not important that we know the exact site. It is important that their is a site that affirms your faith and your belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is it not possible for God to stir the heart of a pilgrim to belief in either site? I believe so, and I pray that God will continue to use both sites to bring pilgrims to belief and faith in Jesus Christ.
We ended the day with a church service in the Garden Tomb. What a blessed setting to worship God. Kim and I were given the privilege of serving communion. Through song and Word, the spirit ran through us to a small group of pilgrims gathered to break bread and drink wine as a community of believers in Jesus Christ. It was a blessed way to end the day and our time in Israel.
Tomorrow is a long day. We are boarding the bus at 3:00am to get to Tel Aviv, where we will catch a morning flight to Munich. Then we will get on a bus, and drive to Salzburg, Austria for a couple of nights. So I better get a few winks before this ordeal begins.
Talk to you soon.
Take care and God bless.
Ed