Day 08 - Jerusalem : Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, Pool of Bethesda, Yad Vashem, Saint Anne's, Via Dolorosa, Church of the Holy Sepulcher  

In the Garden of Gethsemane we meditated on the last evening Christ spent in freedom before his arrest. We talked of the tension between Jesus’ humanity and his divinity in that moment. The agony and dread that filled him verses his complete understanding of what had to be done to reconcile humanity to God.

We talked about the disciples who couldn’t keep watch with their beloved rabbi. Their hearts wanted nothing more than to stay by his side but after a long night, a long walk, and a large supper, their bodies were too weak. Their failure represents the futility we all experience when we try to reach God on our own strength and efforts. We can’t do this without him. For Jesus, their failure was both heartbreaking and perhaps gave him an urgent picture of just how much we needed his sacrifice. 

In the garden, we broke off by ourselves for a short time of prayer and contemplation. Many of us mentioned that this was one of the most meaningful experience of the entire journey and it was for me as well. Without sharing too much of a story that isn’t mine to share, my older daughter and I were able to have a conversation during that time that lead her to accept Christ as her Savior. Through the teaching she heard this week, and the tangible reality of Biblical truth all around her, she was ready, and I thank God for the miracle of this experience in the Garden of Gethsemane! As we gathered to take communion in the Garden, we observed communion together for the first time. 

We ended our day with a joyful farewell dinner in an upper room overlooking the Old City (definitely not THE upper room, but our view was probably better!). Tomorrow, we leave early in the morning to go back to Tulsa and back to our lives, but we go back with a story to tell. 

Thank you for following along with us! I hope that through these posts you have felt the pull to begin your own Holy Land journey. There is nothing like it! 

I’ll end my posting with the farewell words of our fabulous tour guide and teacher, Ronen Ben Moshe:  “I hope that in this journey you saw that we had a storyline, and I am a storyteller. . . It’s important for us to see why this is the Promised Land. To see: what are the challenges; why the wilderness; why did the ministry begin in the Galilee; and why you have to be ready when you come to Jerusalem.”

“Maybe you finish this tour but this is the beginning of your journey as disciples. Go and be witnesses into Judea and Samaria, and the world. Go home and tell the story.” 

“We have two options, we can be like the ten spies who said, ‘This is too difficult. This is too hard.’ Or we can be like Joshua and Caleb and say good things about the land of Israel so people know the good things we have here”