Our Last Day

Today was our last day. We woke up to pouring rain and high winds. We had to juggle the schedule a bit to account for the weather, but our group continued on. We focused our day on those final moments in the life of Christ.

We began our devotion by discussing those moments during the Last Supper. Terry read from Matthew 26:30

And when they had all sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep and the flock will be scattered.' But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee."

The disciples sincerely responded by assuring Jesus they would not fall away. They would die before they would do such a thing. But then Jesus was arrested and the circumstances changed drastically. The circumstances changed in a way they didn't understand, and their faith was not strong enough.

We read in verse 56:

"Then all his disciples left him and fled."

But through it all, we see that Jesus is patient with them. After the resurrection, he goes ahead to Galilee and there he restores them. We learned about this earlier this week as we visited Tabgha, the place on the Sea of Galilee that Jesus prepares fish for the disciples and commands Peter to "feed his sheep."

We were challenged this morning about whether or not we have enough faith to carry us through the hard circumstances of life. It often is in those circumstances that our faith is built to begin with, just like it was with Peter.

Terry said, "Trust that God loves you in the hard circumstances, just like we love our kids in the hard circumstances." If you think about how you parent in the midst of adversity, it is often easier to understand what God truly wants from us.

We then went to the Mount of Olives. The garden of Gethsemane is on the foothills of the Mount of Olives. This is where Jesus had drawn away to go and pray the night that He was arrested. It was here that Jesus said, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." (remember this cup / drink imagery for later in this blog post)

As we mentioned earlier, the Mount of Olives is directly east of the Temple Mount. It is a beautiful place. Based on how high the Temple was constructed at that time, it is most likely that Jesus was actually looking up at the Temple while He was praying. From that garden, Jesus could see where He would be tried. It is difficult to describe just how massive the Temple would have been. If you look online at pictures of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, just double the height of that building, then add another half. It would be a tall structure in our day today. Which makes the claim of Jesus even more incredible to the ears of the religious leaders of the day when He said he would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days.

We then visited two sites that are possible options for where the crucifixion and resurrection could have taken place. The first place is now a Church known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There is incredible history of this place that was originally built in the 4th century AD after Constantine gave the decree (he had sent his mother Helena to Jerusalem to determine the location of the tomb). And like many Christian structures in Israel, was modified / enhanced during the Crusader period. The art in the Church was incredible.

We then traveled to the Garden Tomb. Based on the text in the Bible, this place also could have been the site of the crucifixion and resurrection. The Bible refers to the place Jesus was crucified as Golgotha, which means "Place of a Skull". As you look at the rocks in this location, it looks just like a skull, especially before the stone that formed the nose fell a few years ago. This place was up high and by the main road. The Romans always wanted many people to see their executions, this would have been the perfect place for people passing by on the road and people gathered below to witness the crucifixion. Also, there are tombs very nearby and evidence of a garden from 2,000 years ago outside the tomb area, which attests to the description of the location in the Bible. We were able to go into the empty tomb, inside the rock, that could have been the place Jesus was buried. We don't know for sure, but it seems more likely than the first location based on the archeological evidence.

We gathered for our last lesson, in a cistern chapel within this garden, about 20 feet away from the tomb that Jesus could have very well risen from. It was here that Terry taught us a lesson on communion that tied in everything we have learned on this trip. If you have ever taken part in our Maundy Thursday service at Crossings, you will understand what Terry was trying to explain to us.

He started by explaining the covenant God made with Abraham, retold the story of God's people becoming slaves in Egypt, how God sent Moses to bring His people out of slavery, how God used the desert to get Egypt out of His people and teach them to trust in Him, how the law was established to guide the people and defer the consequence of their sins through the sacrificial system, and then ultimately how Jesus fulfilled the covenant and ushered in a new covenant in His blood.

As Terry got to the portion of the lesson where Jesus and His disciples are having the last supper, he reminded us of what we learned in the village of Chorazin. He reminded us about the groom going off the build a room and once that room was ready he would return for his bride. Part of the culture was to have a wedding feast and the groom would drink from a cup as a symbol of his life long commitment to his bride. The cup would then be passed to the bride, and if she drank from the cup, she would also commit her life to her groom. If she did not drink from the cup, the cup would pass, and they would not get married.

Jesus consistently refers to His church as his bride and refers to Himself as the groom. Think about that imagery of what "taking the cup" means in the terms of a wedding feast when He says this to His disciples during the Lord's supper:

"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said. "Take, eat, this is my body." And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

After Terry finished his lesson, we took communion together, eating of the bread, and then drinking from the cup. We prayed together and we prayed alone.

On this trip we have learned so many things, but maybe most importantly, I think we have learned more fully what it truly means to take the cup. If we drink from the cup, we are committing our lives to Him, the one who died for us, when we were still fallen, sinful people.

When we drink from the cup, we are committing to love others the way He says to, we are committing to use our time the way He desires, we are committing to use the difficult circumstances in our life to strengthen our faith, we are committing to raise our children with Christ at the center of their lives, we are committing to make our faith active in our communities, we are committing to complete surrender of our lives to His will.

Thank you for reading these blogs and thank you for your prayers. May God use the wisdom we have each obtained from this trip for His glory and for His purposes.

If you would like more information about Crossings Community Church please visit our website at https://crossings.church. If you would like to listen to more teachings from Terry Feix, you can visit https://crossings.church/teaching-series/terry-feix-teachings/