Shalom Sweet Friends!

It’s Saturday, so most of the new city is closed for the Sabbath. There are no trains or buses and the city is eerily quiet. It’s like walking downtown on Christmas morning. Everything is closed and everyone is home enjoying the holiday with their family.

After breakfast, I showered and headed to the old city where I was told the Christian and Muslim quarters would be open for business. My tour of the Mount of Olives was not until 2 PM so I had some time to kill. I returned to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to tour the inside. As I said, it is believed by some that this is the site where Jesus was crucified and buried. Here is some info from Wikipedia:

The site is venerated as Calvary (Golgotha), where Jesus was crucified, and also contains the place where Jesus is said to have been buried. Within the church are the last four (or, by some definitions, five) Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of Jesus’s Passion. The church has been an important Christian pilgrimage destination since at least the 4th century as the purported site of the resurrection of Jesus.

Today it also serves as the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem , while control of the building is shared between several Christian churches and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for centuries. Today, the church is home to branches of Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy as well as to Roman Catholicism. Anglicans and Protestants have no permanent presence in the Church and some have regarded the Garden Tomb, elsewhere in Jerusalem, as the true place of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

For Protestants and Anglicans, Golgotha is located further outside the city at the foot of the Mount of Olives. I’m not sure either of the sites is correct, but the faithful return here every year to pray and be blessed. The church is dark and ancient, lit by candles and smelling of incense. Monks from various religions walk the halls moving people along and at certain hours, chanting and praying. When you walk in, you will see many people gathered around a slab of rock enshrined on the floor. This is supposedly the rock that was rolled away from the tomb where Jesus was buried. People kneel and kiss the stone, praying and placing pictures of loved ones or pieces of cloth on the stone to bless them.

To the right as you walk in are stairs that lead up to the top of the hill where Jesus was crucified. You see, the church was built on top of the hill and completely covers the site. You can climb up the stairs to the shrine and reach inside and touch the rock, or alternatively, you can go underneath the stairs and see some of the rock behind plexiglass barriers. Again, the faithful believers climb to the top and kneel at the shrine, placing their hand on the rock and and leave notes asking for blessings.

As you come out, you walk to the opposite side of the church, not far from the crucifixion site, to yet another shrine that encloses the tomb where Jesus was buried. I did not go inside since the line was so long, but I could see a small space that looked like the entrance to a cave. You really can’t see much of either site since the shrine completely covers the sacred spaces. While I was there, I heard chanting and then several monks began to clear a path to the shrine. Apparently it was time for prayer and monks from all religions, were chanting and making their way to one of the shrines. The Greek Orthodox were on one side, the Catholics on another and I guess the Eastern Orthodox were somewhere. There were not all together; they stayed in separate parts of the church but were all chanting, singing and praying at the same time. It was beautiful! They were all holding candles and walking through the halls to their designated spot for morning prayer.

Afterwards, I walked out into the sunlight and realized I was famished. I grabbed a falafel and hummus plate at a local cafe and polished it off with a Turkish coffee. Thank goodness for falafel and hummus, cucumbers and tomatoes, and olive oil!!! I lived off of these when in Israel! And I came to love Turkish coffee, the thick, boiled coffee that is dark and strong. YUM!

I walked back to Jaffa Gate to meet my tour guide for the Mount of Olives tour. As I said before, tourism is way down right now due to the fighting, so there were only four of us on the tour. This was to be the magic number for most of my tours. We took a car to the top of the mountain (more of big hill really) and then walked back down.

Like everything else in Jerusalem, this holy mountain is surrounded by controversy and fighting. It has been ruled by many different countries and cultures and continues to attract vandalism and terrorist acts. The Mount of Olives is mentioned many times in both the old and new testament and is the site for numerous holy pilgrimages from different religions. The Jews believe that when the Messiah comes, he will come to the Mt. of Olives and this is where the dead shall be raised. An apocalyptic prophecy in the Book of Zechariah states that Yahweh will stand on the Mount of Olives and the mountain will split in two, with one half shifting north and one half shifting south (Zechariah 14:4). Many Jews have wanted to be buried on the Mount of Olives since antiquity based on this scripture. Today, there are more than 3,000 Jewish graves on the mountain, some of which have been vandalized and desecrated by non-Jews. During Jordanian rule, many gravestones were torn down and roads were paved over parts of the grave yard. Today, Jews can be buried there but the sites are hugely expensive and you risk being desecrated later when the site is likely taken over by another country.

Our guide took us first to the Church of the Ascension. This is the site from which Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after the resurrection. The original Byzantine church built by Constantin’s momma Helen was destroyed centuries ago and subsequent churches built by other Christians including the Crusaders were also destroyed. What stands now is actually a Mosque and is operated by the Muslims. Go figure. But it is open to anyone for a nominal fee. There is a rock inside that supposedly contains the imprint of Jesus’ foot. Like I said, nominal fee.

The Mount of Olives is where Jesus began his entry into the city of Jerusalem (Palm Sunday), it’s where he wept over the city (Church of Tears), it’s where he recited the Lord’s Prayer to his disciples (Church of Our Father), and it’s where he was betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is also one of the purported sites of the Tomb of Mary and her parents. Each of these sacred spots now houses a church or temple or mosque where pilgrims can visit and pray. We of course visited each of these during the course of our trek down the mountain. It’s amazing to see history unfold in this way and to walk along the same path as Jesus, Abraham, Jacob and David. Whether you are a believer or not, it’s still amazing! Are all these sites the real deal? I have no idea. That’s why it’s called faith I reckon.

We reentered the old city taking the path that Jesus walked to his crucifixion, the Via Dolorosa. It was the perfect ending to our walk through ancient history. Darkness had fallen and the city was magically lit like a star atop the Christmas tree. It showed no signs of conflict or fighting. It was peaceful. How nice it would be to have this peace everyday.

I wish you a peaceful night with sweet dreams my friends. Pray tonight for peace around the world.