There was unrest in Jerusalem today. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/08/us-palestinians-israel-violence-idUSBRE9270GQ20130308 There may have been several things going on. I have heard different
versions. But the main thing was a funeral at the Al Aqsa Mosque for a
Palestinian inmate killed in prison recently. The funeral was accompanied with
a major protest. That led to a confrontation involving the use of rocks and
firebombs by the Palestinians and tear gas and water canons by the Israelis. We
saw a lot of police on the streets, some on horseback, and there were still water
canons around. The police were following Muslims in traditional dress pretty
closely, checking them out. Tonight there is a big demonstration happening in
Manger Square. In a way it all seems fitting for the visits we made today. But
I’m glad we visited the Temple Mount yesterday instead of today!
We began this morning at the Franciscan church at Bethphage
on the Mount of Olives. The Church is in the general vicinity where the village
likely stood and where Jesus would have begun his Palm Sunday ride into
Jerusalem. The present church is 19th Century but is built over the
ruins of a Crusader chapel.
We then went a-ways down the hill to the Church of Dominus
Flavit (the tear of the Lord) where Jesus prophesied the destruction of
Jerusalem because she would not follow his way of peace. It was a moving view
of the City. Of course we don’t’ know exactly where this happened, but it was
on the Mount of Olives. From the Mount of Olives you look across the Kidron
Valley (deep but not wide) to Jerusalem, specifically to the Temple Mount.
Jesus would have been looking across at the Temple when he spoke.
Next we visited Gethsemane. This has been high on my list,
first and foremost because Gethsemane is not a replica. It is the very garden
where Jesus prayed. But it proved even better than I expected. Not only was it
the same plot of earth, some of the olive trees were the same trees! Who knew
they lived so long? In fact some of these trees had been around a long time
when Jesus was there. The prayer in Gethsemane was the most compelling moment
in the life of Jesus that led me back to the Church so long ago now. I realized
I could meditate a long time to grind away at my ego; but he did it right there
by surrendering to God’s will. There is, of course, a church at Gethsemane, its
art and architecture well suited to the mood of agony in the garden. “Agony,”
in this story does not mean intense suffering. It means struggle.
Then we visited the Benedictine Church of the Dormition of
the Virgin Mary. I’ve already expressed my skepticism about linking that story
to Jerusalem. JMHH Part 10. But this Church is beautiful and has some of the
most compelling Marian art I’ve ever seen. It was very special to be there.
This afternoon, we went to a Church that commemorates the
Last Supper. There is a room constructed to be the sort of place such a meal
might happen and where the disciples might await the coming of the Holy Spirit.
It is set above a Memorial to King David.
Then we went to the Church of St. Peter in Galicantu
(cock’s crow) located on the Eastern slope of Mt. Zion just outside where the
wall of Jerusalem would have stood in Jesus’ day. This Church is associated
with the Trial of Jesus before Caiaphas. The story is that this is the house of
Caiaphas, that Jesus was tried here, that Peter denied him three times here before
the crowing of the cock, that Jesus was beaten by the Temple guards here, and
that he was kept in the pit until he was delivered to Pilate.
Authenticity check: this is not a house. It is a Church
but it does have a real dungeon underneath. This Church was built in 1931, but
it replaces a medieval Crusader church, which in turn was built over the ruins
of a Byzantine Church built in 457 C.E. The Church has commemorated the trial
and sufferings of Jesus here since the mid 5th Century. The choice
of this location was not arbitrary. It is believed that Caiaphas’ house was in
this vicinity. And this place has a real dungeon underneath where imprisonments
and scourgings happened in the 1st Century. So it does have a decent
claim to being the place of Jesus’ trial. The dungeon part may or may not have
figured into Jesus’ story. Christians read Psalm 88 about being in the pit. But
it’s a bit of a stretch to find that happening in the Gospel accounts. If you
do imagine Jesus in the pit, or anyone else for that matter, it is really grim.
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