Today, we had our first official introduction walk into the Old City. We visited various places such as the ruins of a Herodian Citadel, the first Protestant church in Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre, the pools of Bethesda, and we scoped out the Mount of Olives from the walls of Jerusalem.
The Herodian Citadel was the first site we visited, which is located on the west side of the city and has a pretty sweet view of all the city. This place wasn't super significant biblically but the museum inside seemed to trace the events of history in the city of Jerusalem fairly accurately, especially in regard to the Old Testament and the reigns of David and Solomon.
Next, we went right next door to the first Protestant church in Jerusalem called Christ Church. This was a very unanticipated, yet moving event in our day for me. We went into the church, sat down in our chairs, and listened to a deacon of the church explain to us the whole history of the church and how hard it has been to actually get a church inside of Jerusalem. It has taken years upon years and man after man convicted by God to take the Gospel to the Jews. However, once having the church established, it does not mean that the mission is accomplished. In fact, he described the difficulty involved in trying to actually preach and live the gospel to the Jews. He showed us some of their windows in the church and the reason for certain designs on the windows that would help the Jews understand Christianity. It was this part of his sermonette that was very interesting to me. In one window was a picture of an olive tree that had one branch to the right in the shape of a menorah and another branch to the left in the shape of the cross. This is to symbolize what Paul illustrates in Romans 11 conveying the concept that Christian Gentiles are simply joining forces with this very Jewish religion. Another window had three different names for God in Hebrew to help portray the concept of the Trinity. The top window described God as God using Adonai and Elohim. The second window contained the name Immanuel, meaning "God with us" referring to the fact that God came and dwelt among us as a man, Jesus Christ. The third window gave God a name meaning "God is breath" signifying the Holy Spirit. Seeing this in the church and also hearing a brief testimony of a woman, once orthodox Jew but now Messianic, made me realize how our faith is a very Jewish faith and we simply have been grafted in, as humiliating as that sounds. I now feel more burdened to pray for this church inside of a very lost city.
After this, we had some lovely pizza and made our way to the Holy Sepulchre. This was another interesting site, which I have never known much about. This place is traditionally the proposed location where Jesus was crucified and buried; however, it is impossible to know for sure. Nonetheless, there are many reasons to believe that this could be the place where sin was atoned for and death was conquered by our Lord and Savior. With this, we walked inside and I was amazed to see all that had been done to this location. Not only had an enormous church been built on top of Jesus' possible burial site; but, it was sickening to see all the religious paintings and icons, which probably took years to adorn this church. It made me wonder if people really thought that this is what Jesus would want. All these people gathering day after day and year after year to kiss the stone he was possibly laid upon and go into his possible tomb just seemed so contrary to Jesus last words for us to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. So on one hand, it was awesome to think that I might have walked where Jesus became the propitiation for my sins, but on the other hand, it was sad to see all the traditions and rituals that have now become "honoring to God" in the eyes of some. I am still taking in what I saw and praying that God would direct me to honor Him truly from my heart and not just my lips as Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 29:13.
For the next hour or so we walked upon the walls of Jerusalem until we got to the east side of the city and had a clear view of the Mount of Olives. Here we read Zechariah 14:1-5 speaking about the return of Christ on the Mount of Olives to make war against all the nations of the earth. This was another amazing thing to hear as someone read from God's Word and picture happening on the mountain yards away from me. The image of Jesus splitting the mountain in half forcing half the mountain to move south and half the mountain to move north was comforting considering the Mount of Olives is where he ascended into heaven after his life on earth.
Finally, we checked out the pools of Bethesda were Jesus healed the invalid in John 5. This was pretty neat to see and once again very reaffirming to know that Christ was ministering in this same place. In John 5, verse 4 is omitted in some translations because it is thought that a misled scribe inserted a verse speaking of how the pool would randomly be stirred and heal whoever would go in it. Our teacher was sharing that this was probably a common misconception and superstition during that time. As a result, Christ sought to crush this superstition and set Himself up as the Almighty Healer, with whom nothing is impossible. This was very encouraging and reassuring in the sense that Jesus alone heals us, not our strategies or intelligently contrived medicine, but Christ.
After climbing around in these pools for a little while, we walked back out of the Jerusalem on the Via Dolorosa, which was very standard and normal. There was one interesting point where there was a big chunk taken out of a wall and it has been said that Jesus fell there and put his hand on the wall. It was at this point that Simon of Cyrene helped him carry his cross. Once again, this is not certain but it was peculiar, nonetheless, to see.
Well, that was our day in Jerusalem and hopefully some of the pictures in the slideshow help, even though I wasn't able to necessarily label or caption them. Thanks again for all your prayers! Love you and miss you all!
