Israel Day 12 - The Pool of Bethesda, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Garden Tomb

We started out our last day in Israel entering by the Sheep's Gate and going to the Pool of Bethesda. This was the place where Jesus healed the man who could not walk in John 5. It was an amazingly beautiful dig. I had never pictured it as anything like what it is. Take a look for yourself:

Just imagine the people who needed healing climbing down the stairs into the water to have their infirmities healed. What a picture! There is a church right next to the pool that is called the Church of St. Anne. It is a church to honor the mother of Mary. While I am not big into ornate churches, this church was amazingly simple and beautiful.

While we were in the church, I totally felt the presence of the Lord. Not really because of anything to do with the church itself but rather with what was happening inside. When we walked in, there was a church group singing worship hymns. We sat down and were able to sing a few songs acapella in the amazing acoustics of the church. Another group then came in and started singing the tune of amazing grace with the word Shalom (Hebrew for peace) incorporated into the song. It was truly beautiful and it made me realize more than ever that we are all one body (the church) made up of many parts. Different Christian denominations may not all worship in exactly the same way, but we all worship the same Messiah.

We then walked through the streets of Old Jerusalem to the place marked by the Catholic Church as the beginning of the Via Delorosa or the street which the Catholic Church believes is the street Christ carried His cross down on the way to His crucifixion.

This was in the Muslim Quarter and you can see that the city is nowhere near as well as preserved as in the Jewish Quarter.

As part of our tour down the Via Delorosa, we were able to observe a stone that was actually from the Praetorium where Christ would have been scourged.

The Roman soldiers would have used the games on this stone to gamble much like Russian Roulette. They would have done this to blow off steam. When Caesar found out that these games were resulting in the death of soldiers, he decreed that they could no longer gamble with their own lives but rather the prisoners. Our guide told us that this game could have contributed to the way Jesus was abused during His scourging.

We then continued on to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is the traditional location of Christ's crucifixion that is held by a wide number of scholars and the Catholic Church. We got a short history lesson on the top of the church and then went down to the entrance.

The church was founded by Constantine's mother upon her visit to Jerusalem to establish holy sites. The problem with that story is that she was supposedly told of the location by a Jewish guide. At the time of her visit though, Jews were not allowed in Jerusalem. Oh well.....

The church is run by four different sects of the Orthodox Christian Church. They can't agree on anything including whose responsibility it is to move a ladder. The ladder has been there for 100 years because of that lack of cooperation. Each of these sects controls a portion of the church. It was quite the site. By the way, the church has some of the smallest doors I have ever seen :o)

We walked down to the entrance and amazingly enough, even with the hordes of people around, we got a picture of the entrance without a soul in it.

You can see on the bottom of the right-hand pillar that it is amazingly shiny. As we walked in, I found out why. The "devout" who come to the church rub their hands on the pillar and kiss it as though the church itself were something to worship. There was one cool thing about the pillar though...there were carvings all over it that were in the shape of crosses. This is one of our favorite pictures:

Immediately upon entering, we were shocked by the number of people, the amount of relics and the trappings of a "religious" devotion to material objects. Right at the entry way, there was a stone that the Catholic Church believes is the stone on which they dressed the dead body of Jesus. People were rubbing their faces on it, kissing it, and rubbing necklaces and relics on it.

Needless to say we did not stay long. To be completely honest, it kind of made us feel uncomfortable. We left with this weird feeling of emptiness. While I am sure there were lots of people who were there with right hearts, it felt as though there were people there who were so stuck in the "religion" that they couldn't spend time in relationship with the center of the religion...Jesus Christ.

We took a little time to gather ourselves by having lunch atop a cool little cafe. A group of us then went to the Jaffa Gate and took a short tour of the wall. For a few bucks, we were able to walk up on top of the wall and walk part way around the city.

After lunch, we met back up with the rest of the group. Some of the members of our group had lunch with a Palestinian man who accepted the Lord and started an underground church. He was found out and other Palestinians attempted to take his life by shooting up his car. He survived and has since been working underground to spread the Word. Pretty amazing!

We walked as a group through the Muslim Quarter. The streets there are only wide enough for a couple of people at most. Pretty much everyone in our group was uncomfortable. You could feel people trying to pick pocket you. I was ok because I could see over everyone. People in the Middle East are definitely the opposite of tall. All these teenage Muslim girls kept coming up next to me and giggling with their friends because they were so amazed at my height. It was pretty funny. You can see how dark and dreary the streets are though and everyone was happy to emerge out of the mass of humanity.

We crossed over the street and through more pick pocketers to get to the Garden Tomb. This is a tomb that was discovered in the late 1800's by English archaeologists. This is the other location that some Christians and scholars believe Christ may have been crucified and buried. We were met by a tour guide named Ken. This small Englishman was a total blessing. Everything he said had the gospel written all over it. He took us to overlook the rock of Golgotha. Many of us felt (I may hazard a guess that our whole group felt this way too) that this was definitely "The place of the skull". Here are some reasons after you look at the picture:

• First, it looks like a skull. There are two indents for eyes and a cave for a mouth. The inset picture shows a view from straight in front of the rock.
• Second, it was at the north side of the city. Levitical law states that the sacrifice needed to take place at the north of the city. Since Christ was our ultimate sacrifice, this would make perfect sense.
• Third, this was the place associated with death. In the early days of the city, this was the rock quarry to build the city. When the rock proved useless, they made it a place to stone criminals.
• Finally, in the gospels, it states that they took Jesus "out" to crucify Him which could mean that they took Him out of the city.

Regardless if this was the actual place though, we were not there for historical reasons or site seeing but to worship the Lord by remembering His sacrifice.

Our tour guide gave us a few more points of historical fact that makes many people believe that this is the true garden of Joseph of Arimathea. First, they know historically that this was a garden or grove. Second, they know that the garden was owned by a rich family. They know this because they uncovered two items. First, they found that there was a wine press. Second, they found the largest cistern in Jerusalem (seen in the picture the tour guide is holding).

Then there is the tomb. We were able to walk up to and inside the tomb. It has a track for a rolling stone and two places to lay the dead. Two, you might ask? Yes, the tomb has two places to lay the dead on the right side of the tomb. Only one was used though. The reason they know that is because back in the time of Jesus, they would carve a basic rectangle into the rock. Then, when the person would die, they would carve out the necessary rock in the area where their feet would go, making it the right length for the body. In this tomb, only one of the two burial beds has this portion removed.

As you leave the tomb, there is a sign on the door that states "He is not here, He is risen." We left tomb and were able to have a communion service in the garden. We worshiped the Lord and remembered His sacrifice. He died for us while we were yet sinners so that we would not have to face the penalty for our own rebellion against God, and thus, we will be with Him for eternity. Regardless of the location of the site, we ended the trip knowing that the Lord had blessed our journey and as Brett summed it up, we walked away with three things:

• Substantiation of our faith
• The fact that Christ was the intercessor for sinners
• And anticipation for the future, that we will ever be with the Lord because....
  

HE IS NOT HERE, FOR HE IS RISEN!