Walking Through Jerusalem

This morning both our tour bus groups were able to gather together at the Mount of Olives for devotions. Our backdrop was a spectacular view of Old City Jerusalem. Mike spoke about the Sermon on the Mount. We then took some time taking pictures of the view and then walked down to the Garden of Gethsemane. The walk was extremely steep and everyone walked nice and slow and arrived safely.

When we arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane which means “olive press”, Jim read Matthew 26 where Jesus prayed in the garden. Tim led us in a time of worship through song and then we were given time to pray. The garden was very peaceful with old trees and paths. There aren’t as many flowers as I expected. We were able to tour the Catholic Church that was there at the garden. Our guide is a coin collector and showed us a pouch full of 30 pieces of silver from the same period of Jesus’ time on earth, the same amount as Judas was given to betray Jesus.

Our next stop was Saint Anne’s Church. It is probably one of my favorite places in Jerusalem. The courtyard is well kept and very pretty. Inside the church we had an opportunity to sing. The acoustics are simply amazing! Our group sang “Great is Thy Faithfulness” and the doxology. It was a chilling experience for everyone. Tito showed us the Pool of Bethesda. There is no longer water in the pool. It’s now filled with rubble. He told us the story of the paralytic man found in John 5.

We walked down the Via Dolorosa briefly. I enjoyed seeing the designs of the doors, many green and blue and some with arches. They were beautiful on the small street. We stopped and ate lunch at the foot of the Via Dolorosa at an Arab owned restaurant and coffee shop that I’ve had the privilege of eating at before. Our guide informed us the shop had the great pizza and some enjoyed plain, mushroom, and pepperoni. I personally don’t believe in eating pizza outside of Southern New Jersey which worked out because I was able to eat my second shawarma of the trip! The restaurant had chicken shawarma and it was delicious! The rest of the group enjoyed falafel. Everyone tried a nice treat of lemonade with mint, it was very tasty!

The Davidson center was our next stop. It shows off the ruins of Herod’s temple. The most striking thing for me was as we sat on the stairs to the temple listening to Tito, he mentioned that Jesus probably sat on these stairs with His disciples when He saw the widow who gave all she had (Mark 12:41-44). Tito also showed us the excavation of a first century street alongside of the Western Wall. We can see rubble from when the Romans destroyed the temple. We were then shown a virtual tour of what the temple would have looked like. I was amazed by the intelligence in the architecture.

We were given a few hours back at our hotel to rest, refresh, and dinner. After dinner we returned to the Old City for a tour of the tunnels under the Western Wall. Our guide showed some of the stones used to build the wall. Many are hundreds of tons and taller than me. It’s mind-blowing that they were able to move such stones 2000 years ago!