Students excavating newly discovered areas in city of David

We visited the old city of David today which dates back some 3500 years.  We saw Hezekiah’s tunnel and wall and saw why he was able to keep the Assyrians at bay.

Our next stop was the newly discoverd Pool of Siloam where Jesus told a blind man to wash in order to gain his sight.  We sat on steps that surrounded that pool when Jesus was there.  The amusing part is that the site was discovered when Israeli authorities were rerouting a sewer pipe.

Steps down to the pool, not yet excavated

We spent some additional time in the old city of Jerusalem where it is especially easy to see how ancient civilizations built on top of previous civilizations.  Many of these historic sites are like layered cakes–the further down you go the further back in history you go.

Our final stop was the Garden Tomb.  While the Church of the Holy Seplucher is the traditional site of Jesus’ burial, in the 19th Century a British officer discovered another place where the resurrection may have taken place.  While visiting W. Spafford, who wrote “It is Well With My Soul” this British officer looked out beyond the city and saw in a rock outcropping the image of a skull.  Because “place of the skull” is the meaning of Golgotha, he began to investigate. He found nearby a garden tomb cut out of the limestone rock.  Archeologists have confirmed that it is a tomb from the 1st Century period.  There is no way to know if this was THE tomb, but it is as close as we will ever see.

Is it the place of the skull?

An authentic Jewish tomb of the 1st Century; is it The tomb?

Outside the Garden Tomb

I’m glad to report that it’s still “empty.”  But I’m filled!

At the Jordan River

Today, we met and heard from four very intriguing people. One was a secular Israeli educator and political scientist who explained to us how different Israeli democracy is from US democracy. In a nutshell…it’s REALLY different.
We met Three Palestinian Christians. One was a lay educator, one a clergyman and the other a tour guide. All spoke of the declining numbers of Christians the West Bank. All felt a strong sense of identity with the Arab world and believed that Arabs and Israelis could co-exist. One, the tour guide who lives in Bethlehem, spoke of “quiet persecution” of Christian Arabs by Muslim Arabs. Christians are leaving the West Bank in large numbers. We also met a Syrian Christian businessman whose faith was contagious. He recited the Lord’s Prayer for us in Aramaic…but I have no way to verify that.

Manger Square

We visited Bethlehem today and I saw the fields where the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night. We saw the wells of King David and the tomb of Rachel, wife of Jacob. We also visited the Church of the Nativity which is built on the sight that Helena, early 4th Century mother of Emperor Constantine, identified as the birth place of Jesus. It’s not likely, however, that over 300 years after the birth of a baby that anyone would be able to identify the site.

The Place Venerated as "the birth place"

Not to be critical, but as I go into these traditional sites covered by ornate cathedrals and filled with pilgrims looking for miracles and blessings, I don’t think Jesus would be flattered or pleased by all the images, statues, iconography and the like. I think Jesus would be in the streets or the homes of poor Palestinians or Israelis, sharing bread and life. Should we not do the same?
I’m about ready to come home. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we’ll have a full day and then leave on the “red-eye” flight that departs from Tel Aviv and arrives in the US on Thursday morning. Until then, pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Investing in the Future

Memorial to Holocaust children

Our trip has been an education in ancient Jewish and Christian history. It has also been a study in modern religion and politics in Israel. I have new insights into the complexity of the Jewish state and her relationship to Christians, Palestinians and Muslims in general.
Today, we heard an expert on the Holocaust explain to us why Jews have very different “readings” of that tragedy. Yes, that’s right. They aren’t on the same page even about this. Her explanation was also a framework to understand the various political impacts of that difference.
We visited a Reform Synagogue that runs a preschool for Jewish and Muslim children. There, we learned that the Israeli government subsidizes Orthodox Judaism but no other form. We learned that if you want to get married in Israel as a Jew, the ceremony must be conducted by an Orthodox Rabbi. Christians and Muslims are free to have their own clergy perform their ceremonies. We left that place giving thanks that our tax dollars are not used to support one or any religion in America.
We also visited the Holocaust Museum, and those of you who have been to the one in D.C. know how powerful and tragic that is. Here in Jerusalem, they have a separate memorial for the 1.5 million children who perished. It was haunting and I’ll have to tell you about it another time.
We also heard today from a Major General in the IDF or Israeli army. He happens to be an Orthodox Jew. He spoke of the conflict he faces between his beliefs and his responsibilities as a soldier. His story was something of a microcosm of the challenge Israel faces as a nation that is bound to a specific religion. It’s complicated, and once again, I felt fortunate to live in a country that is not bound to a specific religion.
Tomorrow, we go to the garden tomb and back to the old city of Jerusalem. It is both fascinating and disorienting to meet the place you have read so much about…especially when it doesn’t really look like what you imagined. But I prefer the real and that’s what I’m getting and loving! Peace, Shalom!

Overlooking the Old City

What a great day! We were driving back from the Dead Sea to our Jerusalem hotel after a full day when you gathered for worship.
We began the day on top of the Mt. of Olives where we had a great view of the Old City of Jerusalem. Our guide presented an overview of the city that Jesus knew including best guesses about the location of significant events during the passion.

At Masada

From there we headed to Masada, the ancient fortress built by Herod the Great. Herod was brilliant as a builder and paranoid as a ruler. He built Masada as a place of refuge should his enemies drive him from Jerusalem. It is obvious that he wanted any such life as a refugee to be one of luxury.
Masada is the Alamo for Jews, or at least that’s how this Texan sees it. It was the last stand for the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Long before the end came, the inhabitants of Masada knew they would not survive.
We went next to Qumran, the place of an ancient Jewish sect that gave us the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some believe that John the Baptist was part of this community for a while. Like Jesus, these Jews believed that the Jewish powers in Jerusalem were corrupt. Perhaps some of you have seen the scrolls on display in Raleigh. They verify that the Old Testament Scriptures we have were copied and handed down with great accuracy.

The Caves of Qumran where scrolls were hidden from the Romans

Our day ended at the Dead Sea. Some of us braved the cool “water” of the Sea in order to see if we would actually float as myth suggested. I must confirm that even a thin person floats without need of assistance. I must also report that the mud, spread on the body, leaves your skin feeling great.

The dead clergy float; "nice mud face"

Have a great Sunday!

First Century Olive Press

Gethsemane

2000 year old olive tree

This morning, we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls and other artifacts at the Israel Museum. After lunch we went to the Mount of Olives and the The Church of the Agony where tradition says that Jesus prayed before his arrest. The word Gethsemane in the Hebrew means olive press and we saw one of these in Galilee. The garden could very well have been an olive orchard that contained a press for extracting oil from the olive fruit.
Our guide explained this process to us. The olives would be put on a round stone fitted with a stone wheel. The first process of turning the olives to pulp would be done in this fashion. Afterward, the pulp was put into a hollowed stone where it would be pressed until all the fluid from the fruit came out a hole at the bottom and into a stone reservoir. Here, the liquid would settle until oil and water separated.
I wonder if Jesus prayed in a place where olives were crushed, as he would be in fulfillment of prophecy. I wonder if he knew that like those olives, he would be pressed down by all the weight of human sin until there was not a drop of life left in his body.
I’ve always thought of Gethsemane as a place that overlooked the city, but if tradition is correct, the eastern wall of the temple is high up above looking like a impregnable fortress.
After this sight we visited the Pool of Bethesda and then walked the Via Dolorosa. We concluded the say at an Ethiopian monastery and then the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. While in the Church, our tour was interrupted by an Armenian worship service. Of course we saw the spot where the eastern traditions hold that Jesus was crucified, anointed for burial and then placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

Blessings!

Keeping the City safe

I have just returned from an extraordinary experience at “the wall.” Thousands of Jews from all over the world were gathered in that massive courtyard, saying or singing their prayers aloud. While most of them were praying in Hebrew, I heard other languages as well. This made it a very Pentecost kind of experience for me.
As the crowd thinned, I made my way to the wall and placed your written prayers in cracks. It wasn’t easy to find room for them, so many were placed there probably using knives because the cracks were so thin.
Then I offered my prayers and as I did my tears came unbidden. I don’t know why they came. Perhaps it was the grief of those around me whose Temple is no more. Perhaps it was being overwhelmed that I am the first in my family that I know of who had come there to pray. Or maybe it was just being in the Holy City. Extraordinary!
Sorry, no cameras allowed at the Wall, so no pictures to share of that event. But we sure felt safe knowing that teenage girls with automatic weapons were watching over us.

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Most of the Golan is fenced with these signs

Where the Syrians were defeated

We went to one First Century site today: Caesarea Philippi. This place is known best as the location where Simon Peter confessed “you are the Christ, the son of the living God.” The ride from the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee to the Caesarea Philippi took us 40 minutes by bus and must have been a very difficult two day walk for Jesus. The Sea is 700 feet below sea level and Caesarea Philippi is over 3000 above sea level. It is located in what is known today as the Golan Heights.
The balance of day was an engagement in modern day Israel’s struggles with security. A former colonel in the Israeli army gave us a tour of a former Syrian stronghold that was the location of a major battle in the 1967 war. If my pictures downloaded, there is one of me in front of a former barracks. The Golan Heights is very high and strategic ground from which the upper Hula valley in Israel is an easy target.
We saw two Israeli memorials to soldiers lost in the first and second war with Lebanon, the last of which was just in 2006. We traveled to the Lebanese border at the very Northwest corner of Israel where we say a Hezbollah stronghold (now vacated) within one mile of an Israeli town called Metulla. Many thousands of Israeli citizens are within rocket range of southern Lebanon where Hezbollah is strong in number.
The more I hear about the story of the Jewish State, the more I understand why peace has not been achieved. Most of us would not live in such conditions of chronic threat.
On a lighter note, do you know where Golan Burgers come from? From cows that get loose in the minefields. Yum!
Tomorrow night….JERUSALEM!