Day 9
The Via Dolorosa
The Via Dolorosa
June 2, Sunday
On entering the gate to the City of David, we overlook the Kidron
Valley and up to the Mount of Olives. We
are standing on Mount Moriah next to Solomon’s Temple, looking out to the small
city, the rooftops all one above and next to the other. Look, there, could that be the rooftop
where Bathsheba sunbathed; David standing here looking down, seeing her beauty…right
here, King David, falling in love with a woman who would become the mother of
Solomon…the King who builds the Holy Temple.
In this place we explore the ruins of a ‘four room house’, we see the
clean divisions of the rooms and we see the remains indicating wealth…the first
toilet carved out of rock, a piece of a chair made from wood imported from
Lebanon, we see the seals with names inscribed that were found here…believed to
be from the Royal archives. Just above
we see the ophel, the land fill, Solomon used to join the Temple to David’s Palace.
Remains, royalty
and ruin here, in this place, the City of David.
Entering Hezekiah's Tunnel, an amazing underground water system, we
wind down the circular stairway, spiralling down, following the dark, rock
walled tunnel. Down and down again, a
massive tunnel, chiselled, hammered, and dug away by hand; started at each end, nearly a half mile long, the diggers meeting in the middle. An
amazing feat of the perseverance of man, what he can attain in his mind to
build and how it can be accomplished…an ongoing excavation of discovery.
2 Samuel 5:11
and they went down, down, down...
We walk through the waters of the Gihon spring, running clear, flowing through the
tunnel, the whole of its length deeper here than there, clear cool and moving,
always moving. At times the walls of the
tunnel come tight around us, close on all sides. In areas it widens out, taller and deeper
following the lay of the land, the rock itself dictating the tunnel size. Here at the end of the tunnel lies the small pool
of water from the Gihon spring, fortified with walls…
“It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon Spring
and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David”
2 Chronicles 32:30
Hezekiah’s
tunnel, the same water system used by David’s forces to capture the city from
the Jebusites; the same pool where Jesus performs His miracle with the blind
man…
"Go" He told him "and wash in the pool of Siloam"…so the man
went and washed
and came home seeing.”
We step out of the tunnel into daylight, up and out, on to the square
and we sit on the stone stairs that wait, as if standing guard for the pool of
Siloam; the pool that lies hidden under ground and growth and gate; waiting to be excavated…there still.
Leaving the City of David we make our way to begin the walk of the fourteen Stations of the
Cross, the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrows; the pathway that Jesus followed from Pontius Pilate’s judgement hall to Calvary. The first seven stations are on the streets
and the last five are found within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
“So they took Jesus and He went out, bearing His own cross
to the place of the skull,
which is called in Hebrew Golgotha.”
John 19: 17
As we walk the streets with the throng we are in the midst of what
Jesus saw and felt on that day, people everywhere jostling their way through
the cobbled streets, bumping into Him, pushing, talking, doing business and
laughing, possibly at Him. We stop at
the Chapel of the Condemnation where Jesus is condemned to death; the Chapel of
the Flagellation where He receives the cross.
We see the place where Jesus falls for the first time; where He meets
His mother Mary; the place where Simon of Cyrene takes the cross and station
six, the place where Veronica wipes the sweat from Jesus’ face. We look in at the place where Jesus falls for
the second time and at Station eight, where He consoles the women of Jerusalem.
We touch the place where He falls for
the third time. Near station ten, inside the Holy Sepulchre, we see the game etched
in the stone floor, the game the soldiers played to win the clothing Jesus wore,
the ones He was stripped of as they nailed Him to the cross, mocking Him, the
Church of Anastases marking station eleven.
We stand in line to kneel and pray at the place of Golgotha where Jesus
dies on the cross, moving quietly to the
place where Jesus is taken down from the cross and to station fourteen, down to the
tomb belonging to Joseph Arimathea, where Jesus is laid, the Holy Sepulchre.
Under arcs and inside doors, in and out of the streets, climbing sacred
steps up and down, turning into alleyways following the cobblestones leading
into churches, taking in the ornate décor, opulent chandeliers and orthodox candle
sticks. We sat in the church pews built from olive wood and touched the
places carved in stone. We saw the stained glass, the arched windows, the
domes and crosses…the sacred places; all marking the footfalls of our Christ as
He went this way, the way of sorrow, the Via Dolorosa.
I scarce can take it in...
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