The Last Day

Family, friends, other curious individuals – Shabbat Shalom! This is Brent, writing here from our kibbutz overlooking both the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Today was our last day here in Jerusalem, as well as our last day in Israel. We had the fantastic opportunity to venture deep into the Old City today and uncover a world that is so different from the modern environment so many of us have grown up in.

The day started out with a quick bus ride over to the Mount of Olives. This mountain stands just south of the Old City on the other side of the Kidron Valley and provides one of the most spectacular overlooks of the entire walled in city. From this vantage point, we got the best view of the Temple Mount, which we unfortunately did not have the chance to go up and onto. Craig taught from this place and he brought a lot of interesting insight into why this location is important and what Jesus did here. It is said that the Mount of Olives is where Jesus returned every night during the week of Passover leading up to His death on the cross. From the Mount of Olives, we caravanned north and into a place called the Garden of Gethsemane. This was one of the few times on the trip where we were able to carve out a solid 25 minutes to just reflect on what we had experienced over our time here. After this, we walked down the Kidron, up the other side, and through St. Stephen’s Gate, into the Old City.

Almost immediately upon entering the Old City, we were submerged into a completely different time period (except for the crazy cars driving down these thousand year old streets). The limestone buildings really give Jerusalem the feel that we are stepping back into a time past. The first site within the City that we visited was the Pool of Bethsaida. Here, Jenae talked to us about the supposed healing properties this pool had and told us the story of a crippled man that Jesus healed at the poolside. Moving on from this area, we joined a path called the Via Dolorosa (which stands for “Way of Suffering” in Latin). This series of roads is the path through Jerusalem that Jesus walked on the way to the cross. Along this walk, we got to interact with the full multi-cultural experience this city has to offer. We passed by colorful Islamic clothing shops, fresh juicing shops, secret alleyways – we were barraged by a constant state of noise. Ronen explained to us that the loud noise and constant chaos was exactly what it would have been like back in the time of Jesus, without all of the car horns. This walk through the city led us directly to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

For many Christians, across the world, this is the holiest site. This is represented by the mere fact that the property on which the church lies is split between six different denominations – from Catholic to Greek Orthodox. The plaza before entering the church itself is bustling with hundreds of people, all speaking different languages and buzzing with anticipation to enter this place. When you walk into the church itself, you are immediately met with a siege of senses. You hear the chanted prayers of devout believers, you taste the hot Israel air that blows eerily throughout the building, you see the thousands of candles illuminating beautiful mosaics and art pieces, you smell the sweet incense burning, and you touch the hundreds of people all shuffling their way to a staircase. This staircase leads steeply up and at the top is the crest of Golgotha – the place that Christ was crucified. On the other side of the church is the place where Christ was believed to be buried, the donated grave of Joseph of Arimathea. While the church itself is beautiful and the concept surrounding it is a cornerstone of our faith, I could not help but feel out of place. It felt like a lot of the people I was so closely shoved into proximity with were there merely to worship the ground that Jesus possibly shed blood on. But to me, it feels like the point of following Jesus is less about worshipping a site that Jesus died at, but knowing in our hearts that Jesus rose from the dead and loving others wholeheartedly, just like He does. The church was a spectacular place, full of so much beauty, all dedicated to the King of Kings; but it felt a bit different to me.

After our time in the church, we enjoyed a delicious lunch of kebab meat and had some time to shop on our own in the Christian quarter. This led us to walk out towards the outer part of Jerusalem, where we climbed atop the outer rampart walls. At the top, Graham shared to us about how Jesus taught us to love our neighbors. We then spent some time walking the walls, praying for peace in the city. When we exited out of the Zion Gate, we left the Old City of Jerusalem for the very last time. The echoes of the millions of stories, the millions of people who lived inside these walls, blew soft on the warm, Middle Eastern wind and wafted into our ears. Jerusalem is a beautiful place and to have an opportunity to step inside its walls and see the world of Jesus’ culture is incredible. We are all so thankful that you have supported us in our adventure to this land.

We got onto our buses and headed over to the Israeli museum, where we got to see this giant model of what Jerusalem looked like in the first century, as well as some of the scrolls from the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was incredibly fascinating to see the scrolls of the Old Testament with my own eyes, especially with all of the knowledge that we have acquired over this past year. From there, we came back to the hotel to officially end our last day touring Israel.  The time we have spent in Jerusalem has been amazing and really has opened up all of our eyes to the world of the Bible. The echoes of stories past and stories present still ring in our ears and encourage us to remember, and not forget.

Here are the links to track our flight home

Turkish Airlines flight 811 (this flight departs at 9:30 pm Pacific Standard Time on May 3^rd)

http://he.flightaware.com/live/flight/THY811/history/20140504/0430Z/LLBG/LTBA

Turkish Airlines flight 009 (this flight departs at 2:45 am Pacific Standard Time on May 4^th)

http://he.flightaware.com/live/flight/THY9/history/20140504/0945Z/LTBA/KLAX

1 day ago.

2 days ago.