In His Steps - Day 8

Today was a loaded day!

We walked the Via Delarosa (Sorrowful Way), went to the Terra Sanctum Museum, walked to the Garden of Gethsemane and Church of all Nations, hiked up to the Mount of Olives, went through the Kidron Valley, saw the Old City of David, visited the Wailing Wall (West Wall of the Temple Mount), and made it through the crowds of Muslims attending Ramadan (believe me that is impressive feat). We did all of this before noon! We did a lot more adventuring in the afternoon like visiting a Messianic Jewish church, getting a haircut from a local barber, and walking through the crowded streets after the Muslim Friday night service. 

After visiting so many of the amazing Christian monuments this week, what stands out to me is how grateful I am for our faithful predecessors. Even though there are some places where you can sarcastically think "Yeah I'm sure this is exactly where Mary kissed Joseph" or "OMG This is EXACTLY where Jesus died... miraculous!" I am still so thrilled by the fact that someone stopped what they were doing, and thought, "Hey we should try to memorialize this! We should try to make something near the area where these things happened so that we can venerate the memory. We need to do something to help the people think deeper and connect better with this story!" Especially when you consider how much destruction and rebuilding this city has gone through! (Destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times)

Sorry to anyone this may offend, but to me, these churches and monuments are like Christmas! Does it really matter if Jesus' birthday is really on the 25th of December or whichever day you believe? No... at least I don't think it does. I think what does matter is that we are trying to honor our Lord. That we choose to celebrate him to the best of our ability, with a sincere faith, and a good conscience. That we spend the time to reflect and remember the story! I think it's close enough to the time he probably would have been born and that's okay!

I think that's what many of these people, like Helena mother of Constantine, decided when starting these projects, of building something because they thought something was better than nothing to honor our God. That to do it would be close enough because he deserves something rather than nothing! These stories deserve to be told! These grand chapels inspire awe, majesty, glory, suffering, or whatever else we feel when inside, capturing a small glimpse of what it'll really feel like when we meet God and finally have the whole story shown to us. They are made for the faith of future generations (us!) to be told of who God is, and I am so grateful. Even when it feels so corny to see signs of "Mary's childhood school", I can easily chalk those up to the scams they are. But the vast majority of these holy sights are for your faith and mine, telling us the story of who God is, and that is what matters. That to me is close enough.

Psalms‬ ‭48‬:‭9‬-‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬” Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness. Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments. Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers, consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation. For this God is our God forever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.“‭‭

Reflection: When was the last time I was moved by a story in the Bible? How can I find more awe in the story of God?

Pictures:

1-4 Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The first two are of Jesus' tomb and where he was laid

5 Tower of David and its citadel walls defending the Jaffa Gate

6-7 Via Delarosa sign and some writings along the way

8-11 Garden of Gethsemane, Church of All Nations, and Mount of Olives view

12 Kidron Valley

13 Old City of David

14 Wailing Wall

15 Church of Flagellation