Day 11 - Walking with Jesus

For the past ten days, we have walked the Land with Bible in hand.

We have traced the story of Scripture from Genesis through the Torah, the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and Wisdom literature. We have stepped into the Gospels and listened again to the voices of the early Church through later New Testament writings. We have walked archaeological ruins, stood in the midst of current excavations, and reflected on recent discoveries that illuminate the biblical world.

But today was different.

On our final day, we did not focus on kings, cities, or empires.

We simply walked with Jesus.

We began the morning on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus mounted a donkey in a deliberate, physical, prophetic declaration. This was no accident. It was a claim. A king had come, not to conquer with violence, but to save. Humble, intentional, and obedient to the Scriptures.

From there, we reflected on the rhythm of His final week.

Back and forth between the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount.

Teaching. Confronting. Calling. Warning.

we stepped into a grove of olive trees, remembering the account of Gethsemane, where Christ’s sorrow deepened, prayers intensified, and resolve was tested.

Here He was betrayed.

Here He was arrested.

Here the path narrowed.

We walked the story forward through beating and flogging, through crucifixion outside the city, through death and burial. The weight of the week pressed in as the geography itself bore witness to love poured out fully and finally.

We ended our journey at the Garden Tomb.

This tomb may not date to the first century. But, there are few places that carry the heart into the first century as powerfully as this one. A garden. A tomb. And, silence broken by hope.

There, as a group, we gathered around the Lord’s Table. We took communion together, reflecting not on a sealed grave, but on an empty tomb. Death did not have the final word. The stone was rolled away. Resurrection broke through.

As the trip comes to an end, the study concludes, but a question now remains.

How do we live into the resurrection of Christ in our own lives?

How do we take the Word that has been planted in us and allow it to bear fruit in the places where God has planted us?

The study tour is ending.

But the journey is just beginning.

And as we often say, “the journey is the destination,” and the One we walk with along the way, is Christ.

Shalom,

Jerrell