Next Year in Jerusalem!

Can you believe it’s already our last day in Israel?! Today’s blog entry is being hijacked by yours truly, the Spicy Redhead. This is a very special blog for me because not only is it the students’ last day in Israel, it is my last day as well. I have had the privilege to be on staff for the last six years and to return to Israel year after year. Today marks the end of an era for me. Writing the final blog felt like a fitting way to say goodbye to the tour guides and bus drivers that have become my friends over the years.

We started our morning driving from the outskirts of West Jerusalem through the heart of the city to East Jerusalem. Our tour guides taught us some of Israel’s modern history and geopolitical conflicts that have shaped the borders in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. We drove a main thoroughfare that had been the border between Israeli- and Jordanian-controlled territories up until the 1960s. They pointed out some of the cultural differences between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods and their different approaches to city planning. Ultimately, this drive took us to the top of the Mount of Olives.

We left the bus to scout out a great view of the Old City looking west across the Kidron Valley. I’m sure you will have already seen many of the students taking advantage of the photo opportunity (search the hashtag #jwiisrael17 for more). Then we gathered to hear Craig Hill teach. He highlighted some of the different passages referencing the Mount of Olives and pointed out the theme of triumph and suffering. We see in Zechariah 14 a prophetic vision of the Lord coming in power and the mountain splitting in two and a valley opening from east to west and living waters flowing out of Jerusalem. We see in the gospels Jesus making his triumphal entry into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives but also him being arrested in Gethsemane and brought into the city to stand trial and be crucified. Craig pointed out that triumph and suffering are not mutually exclusive and that they often go together. Are we willing to embrace these two ideas simultaneously?

We moved just a little way down the hill to a secluded olive grove where we set the students free for a few minutes to reflect and pray. If an orchard was good enough for Jesus, why not us too? I encourage you, family and friends of Joshua students, to ask them about this time when they come home for spring break. What did they learn? How did the Lord reveal himself?

We continued down the Mount of Olives, crossed the Kidron, and began to climb once more toward Jerusalem, this time entering by the Lions’ Gate (or St. Stephen’s Gate, or Sheep Gate—it has been called all of those at one point in history or another). We started to walk a path through the city known as the Via Dolorosa, or the Way of Suffering, continuing to contemplate Craig’s illustration of triumph and suffering. The Via Dolorosa is traditionally considered to be the path Jesus walked with his cross to his execution at Golgotha.

Our first stop inside the city walls was at the chapel of Saint Anne’s and the Pool of Bethesda. The students entered the chapel to sing a couple songs. We have talked a few times over the year of the significance of praising the Lord through song corporately. Today we had a chance to put it into practice. Saint Anne’s has flawless acoustics and was designed specifically for prayer and liturgy through song. It’s always a pleasure to sing there.

Rich Ferreira gathered us together to teach on the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda found in John 5. Rich brought up some interesting questions during the teaching. Why did Jesus choose to heal that one man but not any of the others who were also gathered at the pool? Why did the Pharisees get mad about the man breaking the Sabbath by carrying his mat but didn’t make any mention of the fact that he was walking for the first time in thirty-eight years? Why did people look for the coming of the Messiah but call Jesus a blasphemer when he displayed his divinity? Good food for thought. The part that really stuck out to me was asking myself the question, am I willing to remain faithful and trust God even when I don’t understand his plan or it doesn’t seem to make sense?

We picked up the path of the Via Dolorosa and snaked our way through the narrow streets of the Old City. Imagine any movie you’ve ever seen that takes place in a bustling Middle Eastern city—crowded shops spilling out into the streets, colorful fabrics, fragrant spices, noisy people—and that is exactly what the Old City feels like. It is like stepping back in time in so many ways. The twists and turns eventually led us to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter. The church stands on what is traditionally considered to be the site of Golgotha. It’s hard to imagine that under this huge church, which houses six different congregations and can fit 8,000 people inside, is a bit of rocky terrain that used to stand outside the walls of the city and was considered a place of shame and death. The students were given a little time to explore inside and see how worship looks different around the world.

And what’s stepping back in time to a Middle Eastern city without a little shopping in a bazaar? We took the students to a courtyard with a fountain not far from the church and gave them one last chance to grab some souvenirs from the shops that flanked the courtyard and try their hand at some real haggling for prices with the shopkeepers. However, this was only a brief stop in the journey because important things were still to come. Like lunch. We moved from the Muslim Quarter to the Jewish Quarter, where we were taken down to a lower level that had originally been the cardo (or main street) of Sixth-Century Jerusalem. Our caring bus drivers Meir and Yudah procured some lamb kebab pitas for our lunch today. (They really are too good to us.)

The students were then led out through the Jaffa Gate, which is on the western side of the Old City, completely opposite the gate we had entered that morning! They were taken up to the ramparts atop the city walls, where Rachel Savage taught from Psalm 48 and Psalm 122, encouraging and admonishing that we should pray for the peace of this city and that we should not forget to tell the stories of God’s glory that happened here. The students then walked a silent prayer vigil along the top of the ramparts, once again getting to put into practice the lesson taught.

Our last stop of the day was the Israel Museum, where the students were shown a scale model of Jerusalem as it supposedly looked in the First Century. They have been studying illustrated maps and diagrams for months, but I think they were really impressed with seeing it in 3D. There was even a high-stakes pop quiz given by our tour guide Ronen Ben Moshe, with a Magnum ice cream bar going to the winner. This teacher was glad all her students had passed the final exam before this trip! They were also given an opportunity to visit an exhibit within the museum called the Shrine of the Book, all about the Dead Sea Scrolls. We had talked about them some in class and more when we visited Qumran, but something about seeing them in person, along with other artifacts, made it feel more tangible or relatable.

In about fifteen minutes, we’re meeting up in the hotel lobby to have a little closing ceremony—a chance for students to debrief their final thoughts and also for us to thank our friends at GTI for showing us a great time. Early tomorrow morning we will be heading home, and by the time we land it will feel like a dream. Did we really do that? Did we really go there? Did we really see those things? What did we even talk about? Once again, friends and family, I implore you to ask your students questions! Get them to tell you the same stories they heard. Begin to see how all the different stories are really part of the same story—one big story about God and his glory. After all, this is shema.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)