Old City Adventures (Part 1)

Arriving in Jerusalem mid-end of September was a bad idea. It has been holiday after holiday here beginning with Rosh Hashanah, then Yom Kippur, followed by Sukkot with Sabbaths in between. So on many of the weekdays, things are completely shut down. However, as I mentioned in my other blog, we discovered that things in the Old City are up and running. This seemed to be a perfect time to go discover the touristy areas. Not only that, but our friend, Tricia, had been living in India for the past two months and made a weeklong pit stop in Jerusalem to visit us on her way home. So the three of us discovered the Holy Lands together.

Tricia arrived on Friday evening and we got right into it on Saturday. Our new friends, Teranne and Niek invited us to go to church with them, it’s a Baptist/non denominational church, but since Saturday is the Sabbath, and Sunday here is the equivalent to USA’s Monday, they have church on Saturday morning. Veronica and Dan have also been going to the same church, so we all met up and walked to church together. AND this is definitely worth mentioning…IT WAS IN ENGLISH. I love Germany with all my heart, but man oh man did I miss hearing a sermon in English! That will be one nice thing this year!

After church we headed to the Jaffa Gate of the Old City. We had some ambitious goals of what we wanted to see, but we didn’t make it past the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is where the Catholics believe Jesus was crucified, laid to make sure He was dead, and was buried. The reason we didn’t get much further, other than a lot of walking around in the narrow streets and allies of the Old City, was because it was absolute CHAOS. Mobs and mobs and mobs and mobs of people. All fighting to see, touch, pray and be where Jesus died for our sins.

First we walked in and climbed up some extremely steep steps to the rock where Jesus’ cross was. It was hard for me to envision this being Golgotha. I know it was 2000 years ago and things happen, and they need to preserve it. But it was all inside a church, so I guess the hill that would have been Golgotha was now the steep stairs. We entered a small room with an extremely large and pushy crowd. I don’t exaggerate when I say extremely. This was a pretty huge distraction. It made it nearly impossible to try to have a religious experience or even concentrate on the meaning. As you slowly get hoarded through while trying to keep your spot in line, which is also nearly impossible, you eventually come to this altar. You bend down get under the altar and stick your hand in a dark hole to touch a small area of the rock they believe that Jesus died on. You get about 1.4 seconds before someone else squeezes in. Then you get up and get out, and that is that. You can see the rest of the rock under a glass case built around the altar.

Next we walked past the “bed” they laid Jesus on to make sure He was dead. People were kneeling at it, laying their belongings on it- such as jewelry, rosaries scarves, etc, kissing it and saying prayers.

Then we went into another room with a big…dome thingie. It had guards and a GINORMOUS line wrapped all the way around it. This was Jesus’ tomb. I about keeled over. I was already having a hard time because inside I felt a little disappointed that it looked NOTHING like how I pictured it from reading the Bible all my life. Not that that should matter, I’m not sure why I was expecting for it to look the exact same for 2000 years, especially with all the crazy things that have happened here since then. But it wasn’t even similar. I had to just think of it as a shrine to Jesus that was built on the site. I felt like leaving. But this was as good a time as any and even though I felt disappointed it was still important to see it. It wasn’t just the fact that a huge church was built on the site that bothered me. All the people behaving the way they were in such a Holy site was also really bothering me-- pushing, shoving, cutting, rushing-- it’s fantastic that Jesus is this important for so many people, but really? I’d rather be in a gym full of elementary students hyped up on sugar. The whole reason behind Christianity is that Jesus LOVED everyone. “For God so LOVED the world that He gave his one and only Son….” “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” “Love thy neighbor”. But apparently, in the most Holy place on earth, the place where Jesus, who brought us these teachings, DIED for our SINS, we push and shove and demand to be first. Because somehow we’re more important than the people in front of us and it’s more important for us to touch the rock before everyone else can. Maybe we think God will return before we have a chance to touch it? I don’t know, but this really, REALLY bothered me.

Anyways, we stood in line for about an hour (in a hot stuffy room shoulder to shoulder, back to chest with others) to see the tomb. The tomb is protected by guards at all times, and every two hours they change to a different denomination of Christianity. I don’t know much more about this but I was told it was quite the compromise for the different religions. The guards aren’t nice. I think the Greek Orthodox guards were there when we went in. They yelled at us to hurry even though there was a line of people in front of us and we couldn’t move. Then they let you stay in for about 20 seconds before you have to move on. It’s a small room with a marble altar and silver décor hanging everywhere.

That whole process took the entire afternoon, so we would have to revisit the Old City a few other times to see the rest of it.

The Old City is really cool, and the sites are still pretty amazing even though the set up may not be ideal. It was also great to have Tricia along with us!

Stay tuned for more “Old City Adventures” blogs!

Inside the Holy Sepulchre

In the room where the cross was on Golgotha

Where they think the cross was, just above the altar where you stick your hand in the hole

This is actually in the room just below, where Adam was thought to be buried, but the rock in the frame is part of the rock above, which is where you stick your hand in the hole. So supposedly this is the rock where Jesus' cross was, at Golgotha

Where they laid Jesus to make sure He was dead

Jesus' Tomb

The front of Jesus' Tomb

Walking around in the Old City, on Via Dolorosa

We have to walk through a fancy outdoor mall to get to the Old City, so we had fun with the sculptures.....