Tuesday, June 21, 2011
by Jim and Flora Speed
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| The group arrives at the Dome of the Rock |
Today, we began the day climbing the Temple Mount on the eastern side of Jerusalem. There standing on the wide open surface facing the Dome of the Rock, our guide gave us a careful lesson in the long, complicated history of this special site and thus of Jerusalem. Hebrews, Romans, Greeks, Persians, Byzantines, Crusaders, Turks and various sects of Muslims have torn down and built here on the mount. The present predominating structure, the Dome of the Rock, is a beautiful octagon shaped and golden domed structure sacred to Muslims. By the complicated political situation neither Jews nor Muslims are allowed to worship there at this time.
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| FPC at the Western Wall |
Nearby, by many steps down below is the last remains, a retaining wall, of Herod's Temple, the temple of Jesus' time destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. All that is left is a wide, flat,vertical stone wall, maybe 75 feet high and 100 feet long. This, the Western Wall or Wailing Wall is sacred to Jews, who come from all over the world to pray here and to press scraps paper with prayers in the cracks between the stones. We fulfilled our obligation and privilege to 700 of our fellow Presbyterians. Dividing into men and women - as is the strict requirement - we reverently approached the wall separately, prayed and placed the papers of all the prayers.
Since this place is holy to both Jews and Muslims, it is, therefore, a place of tension and frequent trouble. We had to show passports and pass through security at check points twice.
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| The steps Jesus took |
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| Patty leads our song in the dungeon |
The experience of praying among devout Jews at their holy place moved us all. But the high moment, I think, for most of us was almost literally to walk where Jesus walked. Most of Jesus' Jerusalem is buried 12 feet below the surface of the streets of today, (War and destruction and rebuilding on rubble.) but just by the church that marks the palace of the high priest where Jesus was put to trial and Peter denied him are to be seen the broken remains of the actual steps on which Jesus walked, or rather was forced to walk, up from the Garden of Gethsemene in the Kidron Valley. Just there we climbed down many steps to see the dungeon where he must have been held overnight before he was taken to Pilate. Moved by the powerful emotions in the room, we broke into impromptu song with "Surely the Lord is in This Place". The offering was both haunting and hopeful.
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| Our guide Raymond, and son George |
After leaving Caiphas' palace we passed through the Zion Gate and down through the Armenian, the Jewish and the Christian quarter. Most of us enjoyed lunch at the sandwich shop there operated by the son of our guide.
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Noon sunlight streams down on the
Tomb of the Holy Sepulcher |
Walking through the Old City that day or earlier we all experienced the confusion, conflict, and complicated history of the buildings around the site of the crucifixion and and the place of Jesus' burial and resurrection, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We thank God that Christians from Armenians to Crusaders to Roman Catholics have marked these special places with churches and the like. But the precise spots are obscured not only by big buildings but also by time and cannot be exactly known. Nevertheless, we were there within a few feet from where our Lord was crucified, dead and buried and rose from the dead.
Still the broken steps on which the Lord Jesus actually walked down into Gethsemene with his disciples and back up under arrest was felt by many of us as the most moving event of the day.
Tonight we give a concert at St. Andrews, the only Church of Scotland in Jerusalem.
To see a video from the concert, follow this link:
Order My Steps
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