We began our day early, leaving the hotel at 6:45am. We had a quick walk over to the Temple Mount.
We were told that much of our day was was going to be spent in the Muslim Quarter. This means: no Bibles, no Christian jewelry, no holding hands or putting your arm around your spouse or smiling is ok, but not joking...I will be honest my first response was offensive...to show them! But quickly the Lord turned my mind to scripture, the early church, the disciples and Paul. They lived in a time that became increasingly hard on Christians. There were time that they could speak freely and other times they met in secret. I began to think what would life be like if I no longer could have my Bible? My response, for the day at least, was "I have hidden your word in my heart..." They could tell me to leave the Bible, but I know God's Word! The stories of my faith! The words of encouragement. So we spent most of the day without a Bible in hand, yet considered more scripture than if I had spent time scrolling through pages to find a verse! You see, when Satan tries to oppress us, then the Spirit brings a freedom that we don't use when we are living an "attack free faith!"
Now, back to the day, after making it through security we made our way up the mount. Although it is the area that once held the temple of the Jews, Muslims have taken control of it and placed a "sanctuary" over the place where the Temple once stood, and a grand Mosque just South of it on what used to be the temple courtyard. It was an amazing view and I have many details to share with you, but what struck me as funny was the fact that where the Muslims built their Mosque was on the same location where Jesus would have turned over the table of the money changers for making God's house something other than what God intended it to be. I thought to myself, "not much has changed, still people with the wrong motives operating in this place."
After the Temple Mount we went to the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the lame man who was trying to get into the healing waters it supposedly had. Well, on our way there we passed a protest. Again interesting, but because of the protest the Muslims shut down the Temple Mount right after we got in, so most of our day was not crowded!
Now back to Bathesda, or the Sheep Gate. This was beautiful! I found myself stuck by the natural awe of the place and as I looked at the earth where hope went from man to the Son of Man!
From there we walked the Via Dolorosa. The path that tradition has it, that Jesus walked on the way to Golgatha. I had looked forward to this the most! Yet as we walked it...it was neat, for certain...but it didn't have the impact of the places I KNOW that Jesus was. Honestly, I couldn't wait to get outside the walls of Jerusalem..those places that Jesus loved to hang out!
After walking the Via Dolorosa, we drove out to the garden tomb. A possible site where Jesus was buried.
Before we got there, we had a suprise stop overlooking the Judean Desert outside of Jerusalem. Where we stopped we could see the desert and all the way to Jericho! Of course my mind raced from Jesus being tempted in the desert to the story of the Good Samaritan that used this scene as its backdrop! It was definitely in my top 2 of the day!
Then we went on to the garden tomb. It was much more true to the condition it would have been in during the first century than the places inside the city. Even if this wasn't the place Jesus was buried and resurrected, it sure gave us a feel for the environment where it must have happened! It used to be a grape vineyard. I thought, how amazing it would be that Jesus' first miracle involved wine, his new covenant involved wine, and the place of the resurrection may have been in a vineyard! The pictures were thought provoking and after seeing the tomb we took communion in the garden.
We walked through the Jewish quarter on the way back to the west wall of the Temple Mount. We were able to walk throughout the West Wall tunnel. It spread almost the entire width of the wall, pretty cool.
All in all it was a great day! Tomorrow we head to Bethlehem! I really am ready to leave the city and see where Jesus was born and ministered to the people of Galilee!
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