Jerusalem, August 31, 2009:
Jerusalem has pleasant cooling breezes in the mornings and afternoons. What a blessing this time of year.
We started the day on the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley at the temple mount and the old city of Jerusalem. The temple, of course, is gone and the Dome of the Rock shrine and the Al Asqa (sp) mosque dominate the temple mount area. We could imagine Jesus looking across that small valley and knowing that this impressive temple would be so torn apart that no one would recognize that there used to be a temple there.
There is a Jewish cemetery on the west side of the Mount of Olives, facing the Eastern Gate of the city, because the Messiah is supposed to come through the Eastern Gate. When the Messiah returns the dead are expected to be resurrected. Thus, the Jews who can afford to be buried there want front row seats of the return of the coming of the Messiah. The Eastern Gate is blocked until the Messiah comes to open it.
When Jesus left the Upper Room after the Passover/Last Supper, he led the disciples across the Kidron Valley to Gethsemane, which is at the base of the Mount of Olives. Gethsemane is now covered by the grounds of a Greek Catholic church (not a Greek Orthodox church). There are ancient olive trees on the property.
Gethsemane means oil press. It essentially means the olive oil press. Jesus was raised in Nazareth, a name that most likely means town of the olive shoot – the branch of the olive tree that comes out of the stump. Jesus was the shoot of Jesse and he was crushed (as in an olive press) for our iniquities. The olive oil was the oil used in the oil lamps and was necessary for lighting the darkness. Thus, as Jesus was crushed, he became the light in the darkness of this world.
On the back side of the Mount of Olives were the small towns of Bethany and Bethpaige. Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem went from Bethpaige to Jerusalem following a stone road that is still there to this day.
We next drove to the “Garden Tomb.” There are two proposed sites for Golgotha and the tomb in Jerusalem. The first site is under the massive Church of the Holy Sepulcher (CHS). That site was identified by Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, in 325 A.D. She came to Jerusalem looking for the key places of Christ’s life and was shown the location where the CHS is now built. I will discuss the CHS later.
In the mid-1800s, a retired British general came to Jerusalem with Charles Spafford, the hymn writer. This general started walking through Jerusalem with a Bible in hand trying to understand where the events of Christ’s life occurred. It seemed to him that the CHS was inside the walls of the city instead of outside the walls as the Scriptures clearly state. In this he was wrong, because he was looking at the walls built by the Ottomans, not the original walls of the Old City. In fact, the CHS is within the walls of the Old City.
In any event, the General discovered an area not far outside the Damascus Gate that clearly appeared to have a skull like appearance. It was also adjacent to a main road. The top of the rocky area was then (and is now) a Muslim cemetery. The wall of the rocky area had been used as a quarry. Adjacent to the quarry area he discovered that an unused/empty tomb had been cut into the rock. The slab for the body was on the right side of the tomb just as Scripture describes. In addition, he discovered evidence that the site had been used for worship by early Christians based on carvings and markings in the rocks in the area, including an area that was apparently used as a baptismal.
After his discoveries, a group of British people formed a society to purchase the area and transform it into a garden area that depicted the tomb and the side of the large rocky protrusion that could be Golgatha. (The same association controls the Mount of Beatitudes – a well-run and beautiful site). The area is now surrounded by a busy, dirty Muslim area of Jerusalem and a busy bus station. The Garden Tomb area is a peaceful sanctuary in the midst of the bustling city. The Garden Tomb looks like the depictions of the tomb that most of us have seen in movies over the years. The British people who run the Garden Tomb use the site to evangelize and they clearly present the Gospel and challenge people to live it out. If the tomb wasn’t the actual tomb, it was certainly similar to what is shown in the Garden Tomb.
At the Garden Tomb, we listened to a message from Mark Driscoll on the resurrection. It was excellent. Mark presented the evidence for the resurrection. He also distinguished Christianity from the other major religions, in part because of the belief in the resurrection. We had communion after the service. What a blessing! I was very thankful to the Lord for allowing Miles to participate in all of this.
We next went into the Old City and began walking the stations of the Via Delarosa – the way of the cross. Actually, our first stop was the pools of Bethesda/Bethsaida, where Jesus healed a paralyzed man who couldn’t get into the water to be healed. Our guide pointed out how the porticos and structure of the pools are exactly as John describes them in the Bible.
We next went to the area outside the Roman Praetorium (which is no longer there). This is the first station of the cross and is supposedly the area where Jesus was beaten and crowned with thorns after he was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate.
The stations of the cross are primarily based on Catholic traditions (they are extra-biblical). So, we wound our way through the narrow streets of the Old City. The narrow cobbled streets are lined with tourist shops that are primarily run by Muslims. These people have been running these shops for hundreds and even thousands of years. Apparently, the shops are passed down within families from generation to generation.
The tourist trade for pilgrims to Jerusalem started long before Christ, but the Christian tourist trade started in the 4th century and has never stopped. The tourist guide business and Christian trinkets and trash business has been going on ever since. I found it interesting that these Muslims and some Jews in these shops sell and profit in the trade in Christian memorabilia. Regardless who has controlled Jerusalem, there has always been profit from tourists.
We finally made it to the CHS. The CHS has been added to and expanded and remodeled many times over the years. Keep in mind that most Christian churches were destroyed by Persians in the 600s and then were rebuilt by the Crusaders before being taken over by the Ottomans. Britain freed Israel/Palestine from Ottoman control in the 20th century. Thus, many of the buildings, such as the CHS, are a hodge podge of modifications and changes from over the years. The building of religious structures over the place of the cross and the tomb (if this is where those things are) has essentially destroyed the nature of those places – they are unrecognizable. The lesson is that “religion” destroys Christianity.
The CHS is run by 6 different orthodox religious denominations, all of which are in conflict with one another. Their conflicts have involved serious physical alterations between monks/priests that have required riot police with tear gas and clubs to keep these “godly” men from killing each other. This happens a couple times every year. In the mid-1800s, they acrimoniously remodeled the CHS according to a written agreement that was worked out over many years of quarreling. The agreement failed to specify which of the groups was to remove a ladder on the outside of the Basilica. More than 150 years later, the wooden ladder remains propped against an outside window because the groups can’t agree on who should take it down.
On entering the CHS, we were immediately blown away by the gaudy rituals that have arisen around the events of the crucifixion and the burial and resurrection of Jesus. There is a slab of rock at the entrance with water around it. People bow to the rock and kiss it and put the “holy water” on themselves. This is allegedly the rock on which Jesus was laid when he was wrapped for burial. There is an area where the Roman guard gambled over Jesus clothes. It is now a chapel that cannot be accessed, but can only be glimpsed through a thick opening/window.
There is the rock (a very small fragment) of “Golgotha” sticking out through the floor of part of the building. There is a shrine over this and people crawl under the shrine on their hands and knees to kiss the rock. All of this looks an awful lot like idol worship.
In a lower part of the CHS, there is a massive Basilica under which there is a large wooden box with a door. The tomb is allegedly within the wooden box. Hundreds of people were in line to enter it and pay homage to the tomb. Every year, a Greek Orthodox priest enters the box, claims to receive fire from heaven on a torch, and thousands of Greek people crush their way around the box in order to receive fire from the torch and take the fire back to their towns. Our guide says that riot police are needed for that event each year, because the people come in like a stampede and will crush one another to get to the fire if they are not controlled by the police.
Each part of these stations of the cross/death of Jesus is run by a different religious group. They each use their part as an appeal for money. The monks/priests who oversee these operations look as unpleasant and lacking in the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit as you can imagine. The whole operation was extremely offensive to most of our group – it came across as an abomination that lacked any sense of what the Christian life is all about. We couldn’t wait to leave.
If the CHS does cover the real Golgotha and the real tomb, that history has been so covered in religious trappings that what Jesus accomplished has been lost, despite the depictions in the mosaics and other religious trappings. The simplicity of the Garden Tomb, even if it is not the actual location (and no one knows for sure), did a much better job of capturing the spirit of the facts of Scripture.
Unfortunately, nearly every major geographic site that is a material part of the Gospel story has been taken over by orthodox religious groups and covered by large cathedrals that are full of icons and idol-like objects. In other words, the relationship to which we are called with Christ has been covered with the burden of the religious trappings. What a tragedy!
I had an interesting conversation with our guide. He has a Masters Degree in Biblical Archeology from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has great insight into both Scripture and archeology and he puts it all together very well. Despite his clear knowledge of the New Testament, his clear understanding of the essence of the Gospel and the life of Christ, and his clear admiration for Christ, he has not accepted Jesus as his Messiah. I asked him why. He said that because he is a Jew and his family and friends are Jewish, it would be too hard for him to leave those relationships in order to become a Christ follower. So, he prefers to admire Jesus from a distance, agree with Jesus’ values, enjoy the fellowship of Christians, but not surrender his life. Wow! He is so close, yet so far.
Tomorrow, we visit Nazareth in the morning and then cover more of Jerusalem in the afternoon. Nazareth is in Palestinian territory and no Israelis are allowed, so our guide cannot come. We will have a Palestinian guide in Nazareth.
That reminds me that in Jerusalem, the Muslim call to prayer is heard all over the city. So, despite Jerusalem being in Jewish hands, the Israelis allow the Muslims to freely worship, including through the loud and often annoying calls to prayer.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009:
We headed to Bethlehem in the morning. Bethlehem is probably a 15 minute drive from the Old City. However, because Bethlehem is part of the Palestinian territory and there is now a massive wall between the West Bank and the Palestinian Territory, and because Israeli Jews cannot go to Bethlehem, the process of getting across the border and into Bethlehem took 45-60 minutes.
As usual, our first stop was a tourist shop in Bethlehem. We were strongly encouraged that if we don’t buy souvenirs anywhere else on the trip we should be from this shop because it supports the “Christians” in Bethlehem. The shop is owned by Syrian Orthodox Christians who certainly know how to speak with western evangelical Christians. We were in the shop for an hour and most people bought something and a number of people made significant purchases.
We next met our Palestinian Christian tour guide who took us to and through the Cathedral on the site of the birth of Christ. Despite the fact that three orthodox sects run the Cathedral, it had a much more gracious feel than the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church was not destroyed by the Persians, as the other Jerusalem area churches were, so it had a more authentic feel. It was very basic in many respects. Most of the ornate features that were added by the Crusaders were worn away, leaving a feeling that was closer to a cave. The current decorations are simple.
The Cathedral is located near the top of Bethlehem. There is an amphitheatre shaped valley below the site and perhaps a mile away in the valley is the supposed site where the angelic hosts appeared to the shepherds. The manger site is marked by a 14 pointed star in a cave under the Cathedral. Apparently, the site of the Cathedral was marked by the construction of a Roman temple during the second century, in order to keep Christians from making it into a religious site. The Roman temple, however, simply marked the spot.
The caves under the Cathedral looked very authentic. A portion of the caves contained burial vaults where the children killed by Herod, in his attempt to kill the Messiah, were buried. The early Christians also used the caves for worship and the cave walls are covered in early Christian symbols, several of which are very unique. We took lots of photos.
We learned that St. Jerome, who was the first to translate the Bible into Latin (the Latin Vulgate), was a monk at this Cathedral and did his translation work there.
Bethlehem is split between orthodox Christians and Muslims. There is high unemployment and inadequate recreational opportunities for children. The people blame the Israeli government. The Israeli government essentially says that if so many suicide bombers hadn’t come from the area, the Israelis would not have cut it off with the fence. There are disputes over who can go into Israel from Bethlehem.
We had to walk through a maze of security stations in order to come back into Israel from Bethlehem.
We next went to lunch and then headed to King David’s Tomb and the upper room. They are in the same building! Actually, neither is authentic, but the actual locations are believe to be in the same general area (the true sites have never been uncovered) on Mount Zion. We learned that Mount Zion is the highest point in the Jerusalem area, but it is outside the current version of the walls of the Old City. Mount Zion is just a couple hundred yards southwest from Mount Moriah, where the temple mount is located. There is a small valley separating the two. Thus, the disciples and Jesus would have stayed in an upper room on Mount Zion and walked into the city or around the city to get to the Garden of Gethsemane. They probably were able to see the temple mount from the area of the upper room.
Somewhere on or under Mount Zion (from side to side of Mount Zion is only a ten minute walk), lie King David, King Solomon, and other kings of Israel. We learned that the typical practice at the time was to allow the body to lay on a stone table in a cave for a year or so, and then take the bones and break them and put them in either a pit in the cave or in a stone box in the cave wall.
We next walked to the Jewish quarter of the Old City. We saw various excavations and ruins that fit with various Bible passages, such as Hezekiah’s destruction of homes without compensation in order to try to protect the city from a Babylonian attack. Isaiah apparently berated him for trusting his own resources, at the expense of the poor, instead of trusting the Lord.
We walked onto the roofs of the Jewish quarter and looked down on the Western/Wailing Wall. We then walked through security checkpoints down to the Wailing Wall. The Wall is part of the Temple Mount structure, not the Temple. Every stone of the Temple was torn down, just as Jesus prophesied. We watched the observant Jews jam their written prayers into the wall and walk backward to show respect for the wall. They are still crying out for a new temple, after 2,000 years, when Jesus offers them the chance to be the living temple of his Holy Spirit.
We went to the area around the base of the temple mount on the southern side. This is directly under the Mosque – the third holiest site in Islam. We were rushed through the extensive ruins on that side and went to the evening teaching time with Mark Driscoll on the southern steps. These were the main steps up to the temple. They are still there, but the entrances have been blocked off. Again, this is along the wall on the south side of the temple mount, directly below the mosque.
Here, Mark gave a message about how Jesus satisfied the law and destroyed the need for the temple. In his message, he blasted Jews, Muslims and the ritualistic Christians. Most of us were waiting for Muslims in the Mosque above to get out their weapons and open fire. It was a very interesting experience, especially since our Jewish tour guides and Muslim bus drivers were listening. The setting was incredible. The weather here in Jerusalem is really perfect, especially in the late afternoon and evening.
Tomorrow, we are scheduled to go to Masada, the Dead Sea, En Gedi and Qumran. It should be a hot and exhausting day. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth and it will be extremely hot. We will return late in the evening.
Thursday, we will head toward Eilot, Jordan and Petra. I don’t know what kind of internet access we will have there. We are planning to be in Petra on Thursday and Friday nights, then travel to Amman on Saturday and fly out of Amman on Sunday some time.
Thank you again for your prayers. We look forward to showing you some amazing photos.
Tim and Miles.
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