We have spent the last day of our pilgrimage going backwards from Christ's Resurrection in the Garden Tomb to his Birth at the Church of the Nativity. Today then could also be considered the day we celebrated the two times Christ came into this world: once as a baby and once as the risen Christ.
The Garden Tomb
The True Tomb of Christ?
Yesterday we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which contains a tomb that has been venerated since the 3rd Century as the tomb in which Jesus was laid after he was crucified. Well, they found another one…maybe. The Garden Tomb is another possible location for Golgotha that people have been visiting since the last century in search of a different kind of experience with Christ’s Tomb.
Rob explains why it might be Golgotha, the “place of the skull” and why it’s by a bus depot.
This stone is a replica of the stone that would’ve covered the opening of a 1st Century tomb. This is not to scale. Leona is showing you how big the actual stone would have had to be to function properly.
Inside the Garden Tomb
This is an example of how close everything and everyone is in Jerusalem. As we were in the gardens surrounding the Garden Tomb, we heard the sounds of children singing in Arabic during their music lesson at the school next door.
The Israel Museum
Jerusalem Model & The Shrine of the Book
This scale model of Jerusalem as it might have looked in Jesus’ time was amazing. After walking through the streets of Jerusalem yesterday and not really knowing where things were, it was incredible to see it all laid out before us. Check out the very narrow space between two walls on the right side of the picture just in front of the Temple Mount. Those walls mark out the original city of Jerusalem under King David. It grew.
This is looking at the Temple Mount from the opposite direction. The large platform originally built by Herod the Great is now the location of the courtyards surrounding the Dome of the Rock.
This re-creation of Herod’s Temple is based mostly on details from scripture. The Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine, now sits on the exact spot the Jewish Temple was believed to sit on. Both religions believe it is the most sacred spot in Jerusalem though for somewhat different reasons.
The shrine of the book is a museum display housing the Dead Sea Scrolls. The building is designed to look, on the outside, like the tops of the clay jars in which the scrolls were stored until they were found in caves by Bedouin herders in the late 1940’s. Inside the museum/shrine, fragments of the scrolls are displayed which tell of the lifestyle and worship practices of the Essenes, an ascetic Jewish community of Jesus’ time. Many other scrolls were found there but the most important piece of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Israeli Jews is the oldest known complete scroll of Isaiah. We saw a piece of it but they wouldn’t let us take pictures inside.
Bethlehem
The City of David
To get into Bethlehem, we first had to leave our fabulous Israeli guide Gila behind since we would be entering the West Bank, a Palestinian territory. Israeli’s can’t go to the West Bank and Palestinian’s can’t get into Israel. After going through the checkpoint uneventfully, we picked up a new guide, Gabriella, on the Palestinian side who took us to the Bethlehem sites.
But first we had lunch. Falafel here is obviously wonderful and the gentlemen graciously allowed me to snap this picture of him frying it up. We’ve both been enjoying it and the Chicken Shwarma which we’ve had served in a pita with salad for lunch the last couple of days.
The Shepherd’s Field Church by Barluzzi
The angel outside commemorates the “Heavenly Host” who announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds there and bid them to “go on up to Bethlehem to see the child.”
Three paintings in the church depicted different pieces of the Christmas Story.
Robert’s deep thoughts.
The Shepherd’s Fields behind the church
These would also have been the fields of King David’s ancestors--which is
why Bethlehem is called the city of David.
The sheep come out right on cue.
They’re in the center of the frame all bunched up together as they follow the shepherd.
Carol, this one’s for you. This is part of a fountain outside the Shepherd’s Field Church.
The caves on the site of the Shepherd’s Field Church have been set up to approximate what the cave Jesus was born in (that's right, the stable was probably a part of a cave) might have looked like. Maybe this’ll be next year’s Christmas Card.
The Church of the Nativity
You may have heard of Manger Square. This is it.
Rob is here pictured with Ken, our awesome program leader and storyteller extraordinaire.
The 14 pointed star over the rock on which tradition says Jesus was born.
Robert bending down to touch the rock pictured above. He’s wearing the red stole we purchased in Bethlehem. This will be the red stole he will wear on Pentecost, at Ordinations, or at Commissioning Services.
The Roman Catholic part of the Church of the Nativity
This is the place you may have seen “Live from Bethlehem” if you’ve seen the Bethlehem Christmas Eve Mass on TV.
We have one more day in the Holy Land and are excited for what we will experience tomorrow. Thank you for your continued prayers. We are continuing to pray for you.
-Leona
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