“The Final Ascent”

Today was a day of bitter-sweet lasts for our group. The last land-line we will probably hear ring for a while (our 6:30am wake-up call); last hard-boiled egg from the breakfast buffet; last fill-up of our 2-liter water bladders; and our last hours in the rich beauty of Jerusalem.

It is amazing to wake up to a city so rich in religion, history, and culture. We began our final hours together with a walk through the Armenian Quarter and out the Zion Gate to the Mount of Olives, where we spent most of the morning reflecting on the final days leading up to Jesus’ death.

In the midst of the hubbub of the busy city, tour groups with matching hats, and a tired-looking camel, we were surprisingly able to find a few quiet spots - one atop the Mount overlooking Jerusalem…

Quick aside: on the way up, we saw some tombs and talked about how people put “standing stones” on them as a way to visually represent their desire to build their lives upon the lives of their ancestors and loved ones. The term Jesus uses to describe the Pharisees, “white-washed tombs”, came to life (no pun intended) as we talked about how Jews in Jesus’ time literally washed the tombs white so that no one might accidentally touch one, thus becoming ceremonially unclean. Jesus was spanking the Pharisees pretty hard here - you get the picture - look good on the outside but are dead on the inside. It is hard to hear that without some sort of self-examination… Also, a few noteworthy prophets are buried on the hill, including Zecheriah, who prophesied that the Messiah would come to Jerusalem in humility, riding on a donkey [Zech 9:9], which is what Jesus did from this precise hill (not just any donkey, but an unridden colt - another picture of Jesus bringing Shalom from chaos). So cool! Okay, that was a LONG aside.

From near the overlook, we were able to gaze back upon what’s left of Herodium (see yesterday’s post!), now essentially reduced to a big mountain of dirt, a good reminder that “all men are like grass, and their glory is like the flowers of the field”. And after our review of our journeys through the Shephelah, the Desert, the Galilee, and finally Jerusalem, we made our way down to a quiet spot in the middle of some olive trees in the area of Gethsemane (a derivative of the phrase for olive press), where we reflected on Jesus’ final hours before he was betrayed, arrested, and crucified - we had some quiet moments to ourselves, took communion, and worshipped together in the stillness of Gethsemane. The Mount of Olives was the setting for Gethsemane, but it is also the place where Jesus ascended to Heaven AND where he will return!
After this meaningful morning, we ascended the hill to the Old City, where we took in some amazing sites, including St. Annes, where the acoustics made us sound like a choir of angels as we sang a few hymns; the Pool of Bethesda; the Church of the Holy Sepulcher; and finally to the edge of the Temple Mount, where we saw some of the massive original stones Herod had laid to the foundation during his “super-sizing” of the temple mount. Some of the stones the Romans threw down in the destruction of Jerusalem are still piled in a heap today. We’re not sure what was more impressive - Herod getting the stones up there, or the Romans systematically throwing them down.

We finished on the southern stairs, the entrance to the temple mount that would’ve been used by the average joe. It is in this vicinity that the miraculous events on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) took place, where 3,000 people are saved, and where we see the dawn of the new “temple” - the insula of believers - start to be lived out [Acts 2:42-45]. God has changed His address, and it is an awesome privilege to think about our charge as the church insula to make his name known to the world.

After this time together, a chunk of time to pack and check out, and one last “Shema" on our way to the bus, we shared a delicious Lebanese farewell dinner, drove to the aiprort, and said our good-byes.
And as we ascend above the Mediterranean (on an airplane - not in a cloud) and begin to process and reflect and remember all the ways God touched our lives in these last few weeks in Israel, we are grateful to be able to leave Israel with much more than information; we have a deeper confidence in who we are as a people following our Shepherd, and what it means to be the city gates, the choice vine, the standing stones, the mayim chaim, and the city on a hill to the world around us that is desperately longing to know the true King.