Paul’s First Day in The Holy Land
Day one in the Holy Land. Sunday 15th February 2009
The day started with a get up at 7am, and lavish breakfast. It was time to depart at 8.10am. I was ready for a very big day of travelling and new experiences.
St Stevens Martyr Gate.
Our first stop was at the gate of where St Steven was stoned to death, The Lions Gate. The gate itself was further back from where it is now, but it still has some merit as where the gate stands now might actually be where he died. I noticed thou before all the Muslim graves outside the walls (e.g. blocking the ‘Jewish messiah’), also all the rubbish, it was actually quite bad, as people dump stuff of the wall, just one of my many things I was a bit mad about throughout this tour of the old city, but the positives massively out weighted the negatives as I was not going to allow things that are going on in this Holy City to change my perception that this is where Jesus’ proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven. Anyway back to the first day….
Pools of Beth-zatha
We went through the gate and entered the pools of Beth-zatha, where Jesus in John chapter 5 healed a man that had been sick for 38 years, it was a great place to start and I instantly gained a new insight in what this story was really about. As that this man wasn’t a ‘man’ as such, being sick for thirty eight years and not being able to get into the pool when the spring bubbled once you have to start to question what this story is all about. I found out that the 38 years was used in another story, the desert wandering of the Israelites in exodus. This man was someone that was either just lost in a cycle of sickness and needed a saviour to pick him up or he represented a people that where back in the wilderness and in need of a savour for healing and redemption. On the site there are two Templar churches, one that’s buy the pools that has been destroyed and the other one close buy that was saved my sal-ahden, why? The church had good acoustics for music and chants. We sang a song inside and it was quite amazing, it felt like there was a huge amount of people singing with you.
Via Dolorosa
From the pools we started doing the 12 Stations the cross; this was a truly spiritual time for me. The first two stations, Jesus ordered to die and Jesus taking up his cross was in the same areas where the massive roman fortress would have been (close to the temple). All the rest of the stations up until the 10 were on this narrow pathway called the Via Dolorosa. I and another pilgrim read out reflections at each spot up until the 5th place. For me I though our pilgrimage through the city would have been easy and nice. But it was quite the opposite thou we where the only group doing the stations at that time, the Via Dolorosa is through the Muslim quarter in the Old city and it was business as usual, people wanted us to buy stuff (even thou they knew we where praying!! And Christian party’s go past them like us everyday!! – Another negative point went onto the list) But our amazing Palestinian Nazareth Arab Israeli Catholic, revelled to us at one of the stations that it would have been exactly the same when Jesus himself was carrying the cross, people trading around him, not wanting to know who this man was or even care if he was innocent, he was just in their way, and we were in their way on the 16th of February 2009, 10am in the morning. We just kept on going. We finished up at the church of the Holy Sepulchre with the last five stations. Jesus striped of his clothes, nailed to the cross and his death where in the same area within the church. Touching the rock of Calvary was an amazing humbling experience of thankfulness of the grace that was given to me and also to the whole world when he breathed his last breath. Close by this is the 11th station where Jesus was taken and laid on a stone to be prepared for burial, and the 12th and last is the tomb where he was buried and rose from the dead. The cave is covered by a small structure that is very old, so old that it is falling to pieces. But I went inside to this little place, and thanked him for having conquered the grave and giving me new life. Also within the Holy Sepulchre we were given a place in which we celebrated Sunday mass with our priests and Bishop on the pilgrimage tour.
The Western Wall
After having lunch in a great little place, we made our way down through the markets to the western wall, now this is the only part were the Jewish community has access to the temple mount, so when to get to it you can clearly see that they claim every inch of the area they are allowed to have. I had a weird feeling about the western wall, amazing as this wall at its base was the same wall in which Jesus knew and maybe touched, but this place wasn’t for me. There wasn’t a sense of joy in the area, it was heavily guarded my Israeli guards, Israeli flags everywhere and watching the people praying, hopelessness was quite prevalent. For me as a Christian the reality that they have missed out on their messiah 2000 years ago was even more real.
Mount Zion.
We continued onto (via our bus) to the Church of Domitian of Mary and the upper room of the Last Supper. This area is where the first Christians had their community and Jesus and his community gathered when in Jerusalem. The Church of Domitian of Mary is a place that is recognised at the place where Mary the Mother of Jesus died and the Upper room being a place where Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and the Holy Spirit was poured upon his disciples at Pentecost. Now this place isn’t a church, but it was… a church from the first Christian Jerusalem community, a mosque created by Saladin and also at the moment it is claimed by the Jewish as the burial place of King David. (But if my biblical knowledge is right, the book of Kings doesn’t even place David buried in Jerusalem, but in his home town. Bethlehem) So we have a bit of a problem here, one of the most holy sites for Christians as it was the last time Jesus was with all his followers before his death and where the Christian Church was born, is not even allowed to be given as a place for what its meant to be….but yes this is the story of the Holy Land and this old city, claims and counter claims. Help!! I think we need a saviour to sort all this out!!!
The Garden of Gethsemane.
This place was truly an eye opener to the reality of which Jesus faced before being arrested and killed by the Jewish authorities. The Garden is amazing with olive tress that would have been their when Jesus sweat blood, asked for this ‘cup of suffering to be removed, and that the Lords will be done.’ So if these trees could talk, what a story it would be. so the area has a church in it Jesus prayed, and inside it is very dark and quite a sad place, the atmosphere of the church truly gave the aspect of Jesus full humanity in which he allowed himself to be given up to the authorities to die for us, but he knew that it was for something much better than death, but what happens three days later. Anyway for me I truly felt this sense of desertion and loneliness that he might have felt praying for the strength to carry on with his father will and to forgive Judas, one of his own disciples for betraying him.
Dinner @ 7pm
Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Centre
This is a centre which was build to support pilgrims coming to Jerusalem, and not just Roman Catholic ones. We were invited to see a detailed presentation about the famous shroud of Turin and after given a tour we where invited on top of the roof of the centre to oversee the Old City in its night time lights.
