Jerusalem (New Testament Remix)

On Wednesday this last week we embarked on our New Testament walk into Jerusalem.  To begin our day, we visited the Temple Mount since it is only open at certain times in the mornings and afternoons.  So, we made our way up to the Mount I was surprised initially to see how much bigger it was than I thought, while the Dome of the Rock appeared smaller than I thought.  Our teacher, Abner Chou, then talked to us about the significance of this place throughout all of redemptive history.  We traced back to Genesis 22 where Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on top of Mount Moriah, which is the Temple Mount.  He also reminded us that this was the same place where the presence of God dwelled in the Ark of the Covenant, which was in the Holy of Holies of the Temple.  Then, we turned to John 2 where we read of Jesus cleansing the temple area.  Then, Abner gave us some info about the details of the Temple Mount.  The Temple Mount is 300 acres in size or 1,000,000 square feet.  So when we were reading that Jesus cleansed "the temple area," it brought a whole new picture to my head of Jesus sprinting all over this track of land turning over the tables and whipping those who were treating lightly the dwelling place of God.  Our teacher reminded us that Jesus was powerful and strong- he must have been in shape to run all over this area and cleanse it.  This was not only awe-inspiring to picture my Lord accomplishing all this, but even more so, what He said after doing this in John 2:19, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."  In the following verses, we see that the Jews instinctively thought Jesus was speaking of the physical temple when John makes it clear that Jesus was speaking of His body.  This means that Jesus was claiming to be the same Temple where God had dwelled for numerous years in the Ark of the Covenant.  Jesus was claiming to be the presence of God.  This fits perfectly the emphasis of John's gospel, which preaches the Deity of Christ.  Therefore, I was amazed to be standing at the place where God dwelled in the Temple and in the bodily form of His only Son, Jesus Christ.  

Next, we visited the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu in the City of David, just south of the Old City.  Gallicantu is a latin word meaning "cock-crow" commemorating Peter's triple rejection of Christ.  This byzantine church had a dungeon and a decent view from where it stood.  We only stayed for a little bit and then headed off to eat our sack lunch somewhere in the Old City.

On our way to find a place to eat, a couple friends and I encountered an elderly Jewish man whom I had met a couple days earlier and briefly talked with.  I felt convicted after talking with him the few days earlier because it was just superficial and I didn't mention Jesus.  So, this time when I saw him, I just couldn't pass it up and knew that I couldn't have another interaction with this man without him knowing what my life is all about.  So we started to dialogue about God or "Yahweh," which he said over and over again.  I found out that he was a preacher in the States for quite some time and he used to be a Church of Christ evangelist.  Therefore, as the conversation moved, I found out he knew Scripture very well, both the Old and New Testament.  He was constantly quoting Scripture the whole conversation and at many times, it was very difficult to track with him and actually understand his thoughts.  As we discussed more and more, it became more and more discouraging because he loved the sound of his own voice and talked the whole time.  We rarely had an opportunity to say anything, and whenever I did say something, I felt like I was cutting him off.  It was weird that he believed in Jesus and knew quite well the writings of the Old Testament but he did not believe Jesus to be God.  This was the hardest and saddest part of the conversation because whenever we mentioned obvious statements on the Deity of Christ from John and Colossians 1, he would respond and say things like, "It doesn't say that..." or "The New Testament wasn't written in Greek..."  So, all that to say it was a difficult time but I do not regret it at all.  I am glad that I was able to give a reason the hope that I have within me, and that is Christ.  I am so thankful that Christ was not just a man but so much more and in fact God or Yahweh in flesh, the God-man who established forgiveness for sins and freed me from the bondage of my flesh.  After talking, my friends and I were able to pray for Claude, which was definitely a good time to be humbled and realize that, as always, this soul is in God's hands.  After seeing this man's knowledge, I have been challenged to, "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," as Peter says in concluding his second letter.  I look forward to what other opportunities may lie ahead in the future and hope that I will be better prepared and equipped to represent my Lord.

After eating lunch, we visited a museum containing some remnants of houses that were partially burned during the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. by the Romans.  It was so interesting to see the difference in housing and how small the "upper class" homes of the time compared to our homes now.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures because we were not allowed to take any.  Even so, our teacher did point out something cool in showing us some large stone water jars that were present in these houses when they were discovered.  He said that these were probably the same stone jars that were used in the wedding where Jesus turns water into wine in John 2.  However, he explained to us the significance of these stone jars being used rather than standard clay pots, which they also had at the time.  Apparently, clay pots were used for all types of liquids and drinks, but stone jars were only used to hold one type of liquid.  Thus, to the Jews, they used clay pots all the time and these would be easier to consider contaminated.  Stone Jars, on the other hand, were considered impenetrable and set apart for holding whatever substance they were to hold, and nothing else.  As a result, when Jesus turned these stone jars full of water into wine, He was penetrating something that was considered impenetrable.  No one could say, "Maybe there was left over wine in these jars that made the water taste like wine..."  That was completely out of the question and therefore, no human explanation could suffice for what Jesus had done during that feast.  

The final location we stopped by was the Garden Tomb, which is just north outside the Old City.  This spot has been claimed to be the location of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection because there is this hill that looks like a skull and the location is outside the city coinciding with the gospel accounts.  However, this location was not proposed until more recently and there are a couple reasons why it probably isn't the exact site.  First, the tomb itself is not the standard style of a 1st Century AD tomb.  Second, people have suggested that in front of the tomb there was a degrading in the ground to prove that a stone was rolled in front of the tomb; however, this was in fact a water channel.  On top of that, if this water channel was to be an indicator that a stone was rolled in front of this tomb, then it would have to be much deeper to support the stone that was to be rolled in place.  Nonetheless, it was still great to focus on the gospel message as Paul succinctly put it, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures."  

Well, I love you all and hope you all have a great Super Bowl Sunday!