His City Within

Last time I checked, a day is comprised of twenty-four hours…I feel like I have just lived at least forty-eight today! We are encountering so many incredible things one after another, and they just keep coming!

Departing from our Jerusalem hotel one final time, we traveled on foot to experience the Temple Mount as it stands today. The air was reverent as our guide informed us of the history of the space and gave us a basic history of Islam. It was really eye-opening and helpful to gain such understanding of a place that is holy to more than one faith. The Dome of the Rock Shrine was breathtaking with its dizzying geometric patterns and iconic golden dome.

From there, we moved on to St. Anne’s Church in the Old City, where we were able to go in and sing as a group, taking advantage of the incredible acoustics. Seeing the other people in the church, from several corners of the world, joining in worship was so moving and beautiful. Next, we made the short walk to the pool of Bethesda and heard from God’s Word about Jesus healing a long-time paralytic there. It was once again unreal to be in the exact place of a Biblical event. How humbling and such a good reminder that Jesus is alive and still healing the blind, the lame, the paralyzed, the depressed, the addicted, the disease-stricken, the heart-broken…to this day.

As if that wasn’t enough potent, life-changing experience for one day, we briefly left the old city to head to the Mount of Olives to begin our Passion Week Journey. We surveyed the whole city of Jerusalem, hearing from the text about Jesus weeping over the city. We made our way down on foot and continued our journey, stopping briefly at the Church of All Nations, a place that commemorates Jesus praying in Gethsemane. From there, we journeyed down the traditional Via Dolorosa, or “the way of the cross”. Uphill through the bustling streets we climbed, warm, tired and growing in hunger, which provided even more solidarity with our Savior.

We ultimately found ourselves at the Church of the Holy Sepelchre, the centuries-old church that is believed to be in the place where Jesus was crucified. Ben and Stacie led us to the lower level of the church, to a specific spot where exposed bedrock dominates a small room…this is the place where archeologists believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. This is where He made the sacrifice that took away the sin of the world. Amazing. Humbling. Moving. In some respects, it still felt like I was just staring at a big chunk of rock, and that bothered me.

It has been this way with many of the sites here in the land they call holy. We see so much and that is awesome, a gift entirely! I am feeling the gut-level change take shape from being here, but it is not coming in the ways I expected. In the place our Lord was born, I see billboards advertising Coca-Cola and beauty products. In the valley where David fought Goliath, I must contend with the site of power lines and the hum of traffic. In the place where God gave up His only son so that we may be called His children and be eternally inseparable from Him, stands a cavernous building filled and decorated with shrines and man-made ritual. It is beautiful, but it keeps me from being right in the moment of the story.

I lamented all of this at first, but upon wrestling with God and hearing His still, small voice yesterday afternoon, I have perspective that offers freedom from my expectations and allows peace to blow through my soul here. “I will not allow you to become dependent on this land.” This is what I felt God impress upon my heart. Yes, God’s incredibly epic story of love and redemption for us became flesh in these places. It is amazing. Even more amazing yet is the fact that the story continues in each and every one of us. God’s Holy Spirit dwells within us and can be felt just as potently and meaningfully in Grand Rapids, Michigan as it can here in His Holy City. This is the miracle. This land has opened my eyes to that more than anything else and it has done so in a way I wouldn’t have expected.

May His Holy real estate in your heart thrive in grace and peace.

-Hollie Bernard