Day 10 - Jerusalem: Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, St. Anne's Church, Pool of Bethesda, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Ramparts, Davidson Center, Cardo, Southern Steps, Farewell Dinner

Lizdawg here. WE MADE IT! After learning about Jesus’s ministry in Galilee and wandering like Moses in the Negev desert, we finally made it to Jerusalem to walk through the passion week of Christ. This was a pretty crazy day, so buckle up and get ready for some BIG sites!!

We started the day looking out over Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (already CRAZY). Here we learned about Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem through the East Gate, also known as Palm Sunday. There, Jared read through Matthew 21 and explained to us the big statement that Jesus was making as he entered the city for Passover. From details like coming in from the east to riding on a colt, Jesus was fulfilling prophecies that were made hundreds of years before his birth and through that proclaiming, “I am the Messiah! I am the one you’ve been waiting for!” We ended our teaching here by singing Joy to the World and reading Psalm 118, looking forward to the day when the Lord comes back and enters into the city of Jerusalem again. 

Next, we walked down the mountain to the Garden of Gethsemane, which means Olive Press in Hebrew. There, in a place where olives were crushed by heavy stones, Jesus sat crushed by the much heavier weight of the sin of the whole world. And he prayed there, sweating drops of blood, not because he was scared of the death that awaited him, but because he knew the immense wrath of his Father. In Job 21:20 it says, “Let their own eyes see their destruction and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.” This cup of wrath is what Jesus knew was coming and yet he willingly drank every last drop of it so that we could drink from his living water forever. Our cup of wrath for His waterfall of grace. That is the great exchange. At the end, we took communion together, reflecting on the unbelievable sacrifice of our savior that saved us from the wrath we deserved. Praise God!

Of course, after the arrest of Jesus came the crucifixion. So next we walked what could have been the same route that Jesus did as he carried his cross, and eventually made our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the believed location of Jesus’s death and resurrection. This site doesn’t look anything like what it might have looked like back then (it was outside of the city walls at that time) but we still got to learn lots about what it would have been like all those years ago. We walked through the description of the crucifixion in Mark and learned how the language in the text is actually paralleling “The Roman Triumph” (too much to explain here, so ask someone you know from the trip lol). This was some mind blowing stuff that just proves how intentional every word in scripture really is! We also talked about the Feast of First Fruits and how much like a seed, Jesus died and was buried, shooting forward with new life for the whole world. 

After a lunch and shopping break, we came to our last two stops of the trip. The northwest corner of the city walls and the Southern Steps. At first, I didn’t really know why we would be going to these places, but they ended up being the perfect places to end our time in Israel. Here we compared Acts 2 with Exodus 24 and found some crazy similarities (you should check them out) that point to the new covenant and how it fulfilled scripture by writing the law no longer on stone tablets, but on the hearts of man with the Holy Spirit. We also learned that this spot on the Southern Steps was actually where Peter baptized the first 3,000 believers who heard his first sermon. Crazy to end our trip sitting in the very place were the Church began, the very sending point of the gospel to all of the world!

And now we head back to Texas! This trip has truly been the sweetest gift and something that I’m sure each of us will treasure for the rest of our lives. There are SO many stories of how the Lord has moved in the hearts of the people who came, so go ask someone to tell you about it! Andddd think about spending your next vacation in Israel. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!