19. Jerusalem, Israel

On Friday, we left the port of Ashdod in a light mist, although we could see clear skies to the East, Soon we were rolling toward Jerusalem under bright blue skies with white puffy clouds. From the coast to the hills of Jerusalem, we made our way gradually inland and upland, as Jerusalem sits on a relatively high plateau. We passed through the area where former Prime Minister Rabin had been murdered in the mid-1990’s. Several military vehicles were evident as a roadside memorial. Our guide explained that each year since, there had been a memorial ceremony with everyone singing a sad song about his death – until this year. The family had asked for there to be a more joyful remembrance going forward. As we approached the city of Jerusalem, it became more and more apparent that all the buildings reflected the same color. The stone is called Jerusalem Stone, and by law, all new buildings must use this stone. When the sunlight reflects off the buildings, the effect is to display a very bright image of a city of light. Our bus took us first to a an overlook on Mt. Scopus, near the Mount of Olives, where we were given a beautiful panorama of the city, with the gold colored Dome of the Rock standing out like a jewel. Other landmarks were also visible within the walls of the Old City, especially the sizable dome over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The walls of the Old City gave a clear indication of how small the old city is, compared to the rest of the modern, very large City of Jerusalem surrounding it. From this view, we could also see the Garden of Gethsemane below us, with its olive trees and the Church of All Nations, situated in the middle of the Garden of Gethsemane. After leaving the lookout point, we proceeded to descend down to the Garden. We left our bus to walk the short distance to the church, and had a close-up view of several of the Olive Trees that have been cared for over the years. The guide indicated that some of the trees located here are over two thousand years old. As we made our way into the church, there is a stone outcropping just beside the structure, with a painting just above it showing Jesus kneeling in prayer, leaning on a rock that shaped like the one we saw. It is easy to visualize Jesus kneeling in agony on the night before his death, as he prayed there in that garden. Upon entering the church, visitors find an almost dark, somber mood inside, with beautiful mosaics all around the inside walls, and a massive, huge mosaic behind the altar. Then, your attention is directed to the floor in front of the altar. A large, room-sized area is left uncovered by the marble flooring and shows a relatively flat rock surface. Many worshippers paused to touch or kiss this rock in an act of devotion. Even with the very crowded nature of the room, there was still a hushed reverence about the place. The mosaics around the main worship room reflected many different nations, as the implication that the message and ministry of Jesus was intended for all mankind. The Church of All Nations is just that. We left the Garden of Gethsemane and rode to the Zion Gate, one of several openings in the Old Walled City. A small area just outside the gate is known as the City of David, although historically, the whole of Jerusalem has also been known as the City of David. The city’s history predates David by many centuries, as the Dome of the Rock is believed to be the site of Abraham’s “almost” sacrifice of his son Isaac. But Jerusalem achieved its primary significance when David selected it for his capital city, as he united the tribes of the North and the South into the single nation of Israel. That period is represented as the Golden Age of Israel’s life on the world stage. But before many generations had passed, other nations around Jerusalem overtook the city and its surrounding territory, and it became only a pawn in international affairs until the Roman period shortly before the birth of Jesus. Inside the Zion Gate, we visited an upper room believed to be a place that might have been used by Jesus and his disciples for his Last Supper, the night before his crucifixion. It is a Muslim church today, but has been regarded for many years as the place where Jesus passed the bread and the cup to his disciples, instituting what we know as the Lord’s Supper. Afterwards, we visited the Tomb of King David, Just outside the structure was a life-sized statue of an adult David, holding a harp. It is a truly striking bronze sculpture. Then we walked down a straight street known as Cardo Street, which was described as the Main Street through the Old City. It served as the Highway #1 right through the heart of Jerusalem, as the city lay on the primary highway of antiquity for much of the commercial traffic moving North and South between Asia and Egypt. Our current medical specialty of Cardiology shares its name with this street. Several Roman columns have been excavated adjacent to the street, and another archaeological find in Jordan indicated that commercial stalls, or stores were located between the columns in Jerusalem. The mosaic found in Jordan has been moved and positioned nearby the columns in Jerusalem, providing a validation of the commercial nature of this Cardo Street. Some of the rough hewn stones of the passageway have been determined to be from First Century Jerusalem. So once again, I could feel as though I were walking “where Jesus walked in days of long ago.” We returned to the bus to find another panorama view of Jerusalem, similar to that we had seen from the Mount of Olives. Then, from the lookout we rode to another Kibbutz, where we enjoyed another buffet lunch similar to the one we enjoyed the previous day in the north of Israel. On the way to the Kibbutz, we saw the village of Bethlehem just a few miles distant from the City of Jerusalem. After lunch, I walked to a hillside overlook and looked again at the village of Bethlehem in the distance. The primary geographic insight from this trip, for me, has been the awareness of how small is the area that Jesus traveled, once he left Nazareth. Still, to have traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem during that period, with only a donkey to east the travel burden of a mother in her ninth month of pregnancy, is part of the mysterious and miraculous nature of the Incarnation of God in the human form of a baby. After lunch, we left the Kibbutz to drive to the Jaffa Gate, where we began our walking tour through the Old City, concluding at the Dung Gate, located near the old Western Wall of the Temple structure. Inside the Jaffa Gate, we walked through the narrow lanes that took us to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Since the era of Constantine, the traditional sites of both the Crucifixion and burial of Jesus have been encased within the very large structure known as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In a lower level, some rocks are displayed that appear to have blood stains from the upper level where the cross is believed to have stood. Then, on the other side of the main entrance, a cupola covers the area of the tomb in which Jesus is believed to have been buried. Several altars and shrines are positioned all through the huge building, and crowds are ever present as visitors wait in line to visit each of the shrines. Since the late 1800’s, an alternate site has been offered as the place believed to be the actual location of Calvary, at “the place of the skull.” The location’s name is due to the rock’s appearance as somewhat like a skull. The alternate location has taken on the name of the English man who found it, and it is called “Gordon’s Calvary.” He also associated a burial site nearby that has taken the name of the “Garden Tomb.” Both locations have their strengths of preference. And since there is no way to determine the accuracy of either claim, I am glad to have been exposed to both. We continued our walking tour by progressing along the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Suffering. Several “Stations of the Cross” allow some religious traditions the opportunity of pausing and reflecting on the various moments of Jesus’ agonizing journey from the place of judgment to the place of the Crucifixion. Several stops along the way memorialize the difficulty of that journey, such as the stumbling of Jesus, and the conscription of another to help bear the cross. As we made our way past the Temple Mount, we passed an entrance to the Dome of the Rock. However, due to the Muslim holiday on the day of our visit, it was closed to visitors. As we entered the Western Wall Plaza, there was a surprising security check, as we had to pass through metal detectors before entering the large plaza in front of the Western Wall. Formerly known as the Wailing Wall, it represents the closest point that the Jews could approach the Temple Mount, and the entrance to the Temple. For centuries, they were prohibited from entering the temple area. For much of that time, they were prohibited from even entering the city. But since the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel re-claimed the entirety of the City from the Jordanians, the Wall has been known as the Western Wall, which is all that remains of the Second Temple (Solomon’s Temple was the First). We finished our walking tour at just about Sundown on Friday, the beginning of the Sabbath for the Jewish people. So the Western Wall became very busy. I saw one man, apparently a father with his two sons, dressed in black, actually running to arrive at the Wall at the beginning of their Sabbath. There are two areas for prayers, a larger area for men, and a smaller area for women to pray. At least one explanation is that the men did not want the possible distraction of women to keep them from being focused on their prayers. I chose to make my way to the wall and offered a prayer for the day when all persons might come to know the freedom and the joy of the Christian life. While our guide spoke often of the ability of Jews, Muslims and Christians to live peacefully with the city of Jerusalem, I would certainly not regard the arrangement as “peace and harmony.” A striking “Green Wall” outside the city defines the Palestinian area with a physical border that slashes across the hillside, and the latent hostility between the non-Christian groups reflects anything but a spirit of peace that was at the heart of the ministry and mission of Jesus while he lived and walked and taught in that part of our world. We boarded our bus for a quick drive through the modern part of the City of Jerusalem. We saw the Knesset, or their Parliament building, a fountain park which was a gift from Germany, and several other commercial and residential buildings, before returning to the Port of Ashdod and a return to the ship. After our lengthy Day Tour, the ship was ready to sail away shortly after the final tour bus deposited its passengers on the pier. It was a long day, but somehow the energy level was maintained, surely at least in part, by the awareness of many of us that the visit to Jerusalem was the culmination of a lifelong dream. So it was for this Traveler.