Homework for the Holy Land: Day 5: Connecting the Dots

Today felt like a particular day of connecting the historical and Biblical dots.  My brain has been experiencing bells chiming, ringing, clanging, as in hearing a piece of information and then thinking, "Oh, yeah.  That rings a bell."  But so far the bells have been sounding solo, not in much synch or harmony with each other.  Gradually all this incredible history has been coalescing into the story it tells, but let's be honest.  We're going back centuries before Christ was born to denote pinpricks on the timeline that will signify significance in the life of Christ as relayed through the Bible AND how these then line up (or don't) with historical fact, defined by some sort of but mostly archeologic documentation.

You'd feel like you're getting your bells rung, too.

The day started on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem.

Here I am, astutely pointing out the Old City from the Mount of Olives.  Right after this, I checked my watch and was stunned to see that I was up, dressed, out and engaging in activity at 8:20 a.m.

From here, our guide told us the background behind the story of Jesus and the moneychangers.  Turns out that when people came to Jerusalem and wanted to visit the temple, they were required to change their currency into shekels because they would need to purchase an animal for sacrifice as you couldn't enter the temple without sacrificing an animal to the gods.  And like being in any foreign country, you need to use the local currency.  The moneychangers were charging an exorbitant interest, which pissed Jesus off and you can read the rest here .  You can also find it referenced in the gospels of Luke and Mark.

At the left of the city walls, you can see the stairs Jesus would have climbed to come into Jerusalem and where he would have met the moneychangers.  Dot connector.

We then entered the Old City of Jerusalem via the Lion Gate.  There are 8 gates entering into the city. 

Before I left, former visitors to Israel told me to expect to see plenty of armed police around the country.  We saw none in the Galilee and have seen very few around Jerusalem.  We have, however, seen a TON of these around Israel.

They are allowed to roam freely in an effort to keep the rodent population at bay.  And they are everywhere.  They are street people and most appear to be happy and well fed.

First we went to the Pools of Bathsheba, where Jesus cured the paralyzed man.  Historical evidence documents that Jesus was here and probably miraculously cured this man.  Dot connected for me.

Look how deep these pools are.

Onto the Church of St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that commemorates Mary's birth.

Sorry, no evidence that Mary was born in Jerusalem.  But we'll go with this.

The Old City is divided into 4 quarters: Arab, Christian, Jewish, Armenian.  We moved next to the Via Dolorosa, the path Jesus allegedly took to his crucifixion, located in the Arab quarter.  To say that it was sensory overload is an understatement.  The pathway is narrow, cobblestone, lined with stores, teeming with the faithful from every corner of the world.  

 

I didn't get pictures of all the stations.  The one that gave me great pause is Station 4, where Jesus meets his mother.  To tell you the truth, the whole thing is pretty overwhelming.

This gives you a small sense of what the streets along the Via Dolorosa are like.  The diversity in dress and culture and religion in this photo are reflective of what is happening on the streets.

Isn't this a great picture?  Bill Smith and I wondered if these women are paid to just walk up and down the stairs all day so that tourists can photograph them.

If you know your Bible at all, you know that Jesus ends up at Golgotha where he is crucified.  We stopped at the Church of the Condemnation and this was another mind boggler, also connect the dotter for me.  In this church are stones which show games the Roman Centurians might have been playing during the crucifixion event, which evidently Romans really enjoyed.  Remember the Bible story about the Centurians playing games/gambling to divvy up Jesus's clothes?  These stones show evidence of this game being played.  Jesus very well may have walked on the stone.  I did, too.  Just...wow.

From there it was on to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus's tomb is located.  The church was packed with people so we walked around the Aedicula, a 19th century shrine that encloses the tomb.  It is located in the Greek Orthodox part of the church.  No fewer than 6 religious sects share property over the church, not always without rancor.  See exhibit below:

One sect owns the balcony.  The other owns the area on top.  That ladder has been sitting there for well over 100 years because the sects can't let it go.  And we wonder why  peace is at a premium in the world.

Here are a picture of the Aedicula on the Greek Orthodox side

And a picture on the Catholic side of an altar celebrating the two women who came to Jesus's tomb on Easter Sunday--Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James.  This one got me, probably more than the tomb did and that certainly might be because the tomb was teeming with pilgrims while this altar area was quiet.  And the names, too, right?  Dot connector, bell ringer.

The final stop at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was seeing part of Golgotha where Jesus was crucified.  No one knows if or where the true cross exists.

In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, there is a marble slab where Jesus purportedly was laid after he was taken down from the cross.  As you can see from this photo, many visitors venerate this stone.  The slab where he was laid could be in the location, perhaps beneath this stone, but this is not THE slab since marble was not used in 1st century Jerusalem.  History and the Bible intersect.  Dot connected.

As we walked to the Western Wall in the Jewish quarter, we passed a spot where you can see the spires of the 3 major religions in Old Jerusalem.  Look closely, left to right: a cross atop a Catholic church; a minaret atop a mosque; a synagogue in the foreground.

Final stop of the day was the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall.  Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that I would be standing there, pushing slips of paper into the cracks of the wall, imploring God to hear my prayer.  Yet there I was.  Dot connected.  Heart overflowing.

We weren't able to take photos at the Western Wall because it was the Sabbath and photos are forbidden.  The wall area is separated between men and women by a divider.  Both sexes can stand or sit in plastic chairs to pray.  Another overwhelming event.

So.  There we go.  Bells ringing, dots connected, sort of like Friday Night Lights: Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. I mean, if that's not connecting the dots, then what is?  I have a feeling I will be processing what this all means for a long, long  time.