Jerusalem – Friday May 23, 2008

In the morning we came to the Western Wall, formerly referred to as the Wailing Wall. After the 1967 war, Jewish pilgrims were able to come freely to this revered place, marking the place where they can pray in an area closest to the destroyed Temple.

As we approach the wall, many Orthodox Jews are praying, a sound of murmuring emphasizing their prayer attitude. In the Jewish tradition, the Temple Mount is the focal point of Creation. No wonder that it’s so special to them.

I go up the wall and stick a piece of paper in the wall with names on it. Adding my own prayer it was a special feeling as I touched the wall.

We walk through tunnels that follow the Western Wall and come to a place purported to be closest to the Temple’s Holy of Holies. There are Jewish women praying against the wall as we walk by.

Glen gathers us in sight of the wall and reads from 1 Peter 2:4-8 – Jesus is the “living stone” and so are we - “being built into a spiritual house”. So within sight of spot where the Temple of Jerusalem used to be, we’re the temple! We’re built on Christ’s cornerstone with our own “stones”.

Tom, our guide, takes us to a presentation area where we can see what the various stages of the Temple looked like, starting with King David, the first temple under Solomon and the second temple built by Herod the Great.

We come up from down below and end up on the Via Dolorosa, the path that Jesus took when he carried the Cross. Today we go to Lithostrotus, Pilate’s judgment hall - the place where Jesus was condemned. We stand on the very flagstones where that event happened.

We pass by a place revered as the tomb of King David.

Moving on, we come to the place celebrated as the spot where the Last Supper was held in the Upper Room. Duke leads us in a Scripture reading – the Last Supper – from Luke 22:7-38 – the place where the first Communion started. Making a powerful point that Christians understand but love hearing again and again and again, Duke reminds us all we need is Christ’s bread and wine, that’s the starting point. Duke also refers to John 13:1-17, where He washes the disciples feet and in that place we passed dishes of water around and dipped our fingers in, serving each other, reminded of Jesus’ servanthood and how the “first will be last and last will be first.”

We walk through the Zion gate and learn that’s not where Mount Zion was. From the conflict between the Israeli and Jordanians in 1948 onwards, we see bullet pock marks – this was the dividing line after 1948.

We stop at the grave of Oscar Schindler, lionized in the movie “Schindler’s List”. As a sign of appreciation, people put a stone on his tomb and we learn that the workers at the cemetery clear many stones. Tom acknowledges Schindler’s courage – a Polish national, not Jewish, taking huge risks to his own safety to protect Jews under Nazi Germany. Tom’s message is not lost on us - what risks are we prepared to take?

We go to the Garden Tomb, which may have been a property owned by Joseph of Aramathea. It was this Joseph who made a tomb available for Jesus’ burial when He was taken down from the Cross. The real place may be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is close to this location. No matter – this place gives us an idea of what the real place might have been like. There was a lot of archeological work done and the excavations revealed a cistern, wine press and the tomb of a wealthy person. We went into the tomb and had a moment reflecting on Glen’s reading of John 20:1-23 when Mary encountered the empty tomb. We also read 1 Corinthians 15:1-11where the Apostle Paul reminds us that Jesus appeared to more than 500 after his resurrection.

The Garden Tomb has chapel areas and Kim celebrated a moving Eucharist service and Glen did some anointing.

After our evening meal, we went to a presentation by Salim Manyer, the Academic Dean of Bethlehem Bible College. He used his own life experience to give us a detailed perspective of the complexity of the situation in the Middle East. Salim is a Christian Palestinian and his only choice for High School in Israel was a Jewish one – the first time Christians in that part of the world were under Jewish authority. He studied in the US and began teaching to converted Israelis and Palestinians. This was not easy with border checkpoints and restrictions. Finding a ministry of reconciliation, he ran wilderness programs with Jews and Palestinian Christians; one of the more successful programs was 15 camels with a Christian and Jew on each one for four days – breakthroughs happened out of necessity and isolation. In this situation, by age 5, Israeli and Palestinian children have formed strong views of hatred and discord. Identity conflicts are hard to resolve and sometimes it’s a comfort to remain or be a victim. Salim remains hopeful and commited to his work even as the Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem have gone from 20% in 1948 to 2% today. He explained that the Oslo agreement failed because it was only diplomats talking to each other, not people. He finished his discussion by advising us to have multiple channels fo information about the situation in the Middle East.