Jerusalem
Day 8
June 1, Saturday, The Sabbath
We are on the Mount of Olives
looking down on to the Kidron Valley and out over Mount Moriah...the Holiest
place on earth! Here it begins, we are
at the beginning. Laid out before us a
thousand handbreadths of God…more; these places steeped in His word, the people
of His heart, the tombs of the saints, all of it; everyone, everything looking
up to God…Jerusalem, His Holy City on a hill.
Before us the Old Jewish cemetery
ever stretching down and down spanning far left and to the far right where it
reaches to touch the Garden of Gethsemane.
We see the old city walls and the pools of Bethesda. We see the Golden Dome that marks the place of
Abraham binding Isaac, of Solomon’s Temple, the rebuilt walls of Ezra and Nehemiah,
the place of Herod’s Temple Mount and marking too the place where Jesus made
His way up the southern steps, it all happened here in this same place, spread
out before us…saying, welcome to God’s house!
From here, on the Mount of Olives,
we see the city of David, His palace, the ophel where King Solomon joined the
temple to his father’s palace; we look out to the home of Caiaphas where Jesus
is judged, we see the double domes that mark the place of His crucifixion, the
church of the Holy Sepulchre; pointing up we see the tower of Mount Zion and
the grey roof marking the place of the last supper; We see the closed up gates
where Jesus entered in to the temple and we see the grey dome that marks the
place where Jesus turns the tables. We see
the western wall, remnants of the places that were destroyed by the Romans,
changed by the Muslims and protected by the Catholics, left bare by the wars,
the ‘hell’ where children were murdered in the Gedron Valley. We see it all; we see too much…we want to see
more.
We will soon be up close, seeing these
Holy places, touching their walls and gates. We begin our decent down, walking
where Jesus walked, down the cobbled stones of the narrow road; walled on both sides, winding,
turning, until we reach the Basilica of the Agony, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the
bedrock where Jesus sat and wept and prayed.
We make our way along to the pools of Bethesda, a public mikveh, a
spiritual washing place. A place where
Jesus knew He would have an audience and here on the Sabbath He performs a
miracle…
“Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish
festivals,
near the sheepgate, a pool which is called Bethesda. He saw a man lying there and asked
‘Do you want to get well?’
‘Sir’ the man replied ‘I have no one to help me get in to the pool’ then
Jesus said to him ‘get up, pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was
cured.”
John 5:1-13
Jesus heals on the Sabbath and so
it starts; the start of His mystery, the beginning of His controversy.
We enter the beautiful acoustic Church
of St Anne, marking the birth place of Mary, the mother of Jesus; we take a turn
to sing in this amazing place that rings out sound as if from heaven itself...beautiful.
Taking a rest, we stop at a nearby Palestinian café for lunch; lamb kabobs, pita bread, fragrant dips and beer, before heading out to the
Shepherds field, a side trip to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity.
Walking along the entry path, we
notice a familiar scent…pine trees, the air filled with the scent of them and
the trees loaded with pine cones; bringing a familiarity to how we celebrate
this event at home with this same tree and the scent of it. I did not imagine this landscape in the fields
where the shepherds watched their sheep, I did not imagine the small cave like
huts where the shepherds lived and I did not know that these simple Jewish shepherds
would be memorialised in such a beautiful way; this place where the birth of
Jesus was announced by a star and heralded by the voice of angels singing…
Glori in Excelcus Deo.
Bethlehem is not under Israeli rule but under Palestinian authority, this seems strange to us, but true.
Bethlehem, mentioned the first
time when Rachel gives birth to Benjamin, is the home of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz;
and it is the fulfilment of Micah 5:1-5…
“But you Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of
Judah
Out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over
Israel whose origins are of old
from ancient times…He will stand and shepherd His flock in
the strength of the LORD
For then His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth
And He will be our peace."
From here we
make our way back to the hotel, dine together, talking of everything we have
seen and what is yet to be seen...sipping tea infused with fresh mint leaves and flavored with lemon slices...here in Jerusalem.
I love that.
