(Israel/Palestine) Saturday, January 10

Katie: We woke up this morning to a blanket of snow everywhere in Bethlehem. It was beautiful, especially knowing that they only get snow about once per decade here – how special to be here while it was happening! Unfortunately, we got a late start this morning due to the snow – most of the roads were iced over. In fact, our guide lives up a mountain and was not able to get down the mountain to even meet us until 10 am. I don’t think y’all can even understand how much it is killing us not to be able to upload pictures!!

We spent the whole day in Jerusalem, starting at the Church of the Ascension. It is on the Mount of Olives and is on the spot traditionally thought by early Christians to have been the site of Jesus’ ascension (Luke 24:50-53). Constantine’s mother built the original church on that site and it has been controlled by Muslims since the Crusades.

From there, we walked up the street to the Church of the Pater Noster, which is built over a cave where early Christians say that Jesus taught his disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer. The courtyard was filled with hand-painted ceramic plaques that bear the Lord’s Prayer in 162 languages. Our group prayed the Lord’s Prayer in the cave in four different languages (English, Korean, Spanish, and Arabic). What a beautiful reminder that we are part of a worldwide community of believers.

We then walked up to an overlook near the 7 Arches Hotel (where Mom and Dad stayed when they were here in 1998), which gives you a fantastic view of the walled portion of Jerusalem over the Kiddron Valley.

While we were still outside of the (present day) wall, we traced the steps of Jesus leading up to the crucifixion. We visited the Upper Room, which is the site dedicated to Jesus’ last supper. There is no indication (either traditionally or archaeologically) that it is the correct site, so it just stands in dedication of the event.

We took a detour off of our Passion walk to go next door to King David’s tomb. This tomb is thought to be the burial place of King David, but the tomb has not been opened. It is a very holy place for Jews and because we visited on the Sabbath, we saw many of them praying in front of the tomb. Because it is an Orthodox site, there were separate entrances and prayer areas for men and women. They were praying the Psalms that David wrote. It was a neat experience to see, but I felt a little like a peeping tom watching them pray.

We also visited the Garden of Gethsemane. This is the actual garden where Jesus was arrested. It has 8 olive trees that are 2.000 years old and still alive. I know that is hard to believe, but they were the most amazing, gnarly things I’ve seen! Mom read the scripture about Jesus and his disciples going there to pray, and I stood there and tried to imagine what Jesus must have felt- the agony and isolation. It was a great reminder in the midst of our touristy agenda that we are tracing the steps of Christ, who loved us all so much that he died for us.

We tried to go to St. Peter in Gallicantu, where Jesus was brought for trial after Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14), but it was closed because of the snow and ice. So from there we entered the Old City of Jerusalem through Lion’s Gate.

Our first stop was another small detour off of the path of Jesus. We visited the Church of St. Anne, which was built in the crusader period (13^th century) in honor of the Virgin Mary’s mother, Anne. This church (and many people, though not many historians/archaeologists) believe that this is the site of Mary’s birth. Regardless, the church had the most amazing acoustics. We stood under the dome and sang Amazing Grace and it echoed back to us in a otherworldly way. As we were leaving, a lone women sang a Gregorian chant and it immediately transported me in my mind to what it would have been like to have been there 800 years ago.

Next door to the Church of St. Anne is the Pool of Bethsaida, where Jesus healed the man that had been lame for 38 years. Bethsaida means “house of healing”. The ruins of the pool, identified by the descriptors in John’s version of the story, were incredible. You could imagine what it would have looked like 2,000 years ago.

After that, we walked back out onto Lions Gate Street and began walking up the Via Delarosa (“Way of Sorrow”), which is the path of the 14 stations of the cross. Only seven of the 14 are mentioned in scripture – the other come from tradition of the early Christian church. This is also not the exact route that Jesus followed, though it does overlap in some spots. Jerusalem has been destroyed and rebuilt so many times that the walls and roads are not laid out the same way as they were 2,000 years ago. The first seven stations are inside the historical wall (the current wall surrounding Jerusalem is only about 500 years old) and the last seven are outside of the historical wall (though still inside of the current wall). Jesus was crucified and buried outside of the wall of the city, so the path leads from inside where his last trial was to Calvary, which was outside of the city gates. Part of the historical wall was found by archaeologists at the site of the 7th station.

The Via Delarosa is a narrow pathway (almost more of an alley than a street) which is lined on either side by cafes and shops hawking cheap souvenirs. It is a somber walk for Christian pilgriams, but the shopkeepers don’t seem to care. As frustrating as this is, it is actually an interesting replication of what it may have been like for Jesus to walk on his path to the cross. There would have undoubtedly been markets and citizens of Jerusalem in the streets who wouldn’t have stopped their day for Jesus’ trial and crucifixion – for them, life went on.

The last few stations of the cross are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church, which the Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Coptics all share control of, is enormous. It has multiple sanctuaries/chapels in it.  All of the areas depict icons, but the Catholic areas are more modest.  The Orthodox areas (particularly Calvary Rock, the anointing stone, and the tomb) are beyond ornate. It seems unfitting for the location, but having grown up Methodist, I have not spent much time in churches that are decorated this way.  I also know that I don’t understand the full symbolism of the icons and decorations.

The station representing Jesus dying on the cross marks the spot where early Christian tradition actually says the cross was placed, though there is no archaeological evidence to support it. There is a long stone that is said to be the place where Jesus’ body was anointed before burial, and there were many people there praying on the rock. Again, there is no archaeological evidence for this. The last station is Jesus’ tomb. This one is interesting because it seems the most historically plausible location. When Jerusalem was leveled by the emperor Hadrian, he built temples on top of places Christians were worshipping, attempting to destroy their sacred places. On top of the site of the tomb (which writings dating back to 66 CE say was the site), he built a temple to Aphrodite. So, by marking it with his temple, he accidentally saved the location for later historians.

One more interesting fact about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: in the Greek Orthodox sanctuary within the church, there is a rock that dates back to the Byzantine era, which was used to measure distance. The distance to every city in the world was measured from that stone.