Jesus' Death and Resurrection

We ended our day at Golgotha (place of the skull), the site of Jesus' crucifixion. It was not at all what I had pictured. First of all, I always thought Jesus was crucifed on a hill. He was actually crucified in a valley while the people watching stood on the hillside. Thus, we stood on the top of the hill looking down. I thought there would be a cross to symbolize the crucifixion but there was nothing. The thing about Jerusalem is that there are three cultures living together (the jews, the muslim and the christians). Land is very hard to come by because chances are the land you want is owned by someone else, i.e. the site of Jesus' crucifixion is actually owned by the muslim who will not even consider selling it to the jews or the christians. In the 2,000 years since the time of Christ, Jerusalem has undergone many different land owners, thus the land of many of the biblical historical sites are owned by muslim and so they are not accessible. At the site of Jesus' crucifixion, there in a tiny spot of grass and then there is the muslim owned bus station (which is very noisy), so here you are trying to reflect and you keep hearing a bus honking. I was very disheartened by this but then I realized that I know in my heart what happened there and what it means to me and that is all that counts. To know that Jesus so loved us that he was willing to pay the price that he had to is overwhelming to me. At any time he could have said "No" I am not going to do that or called a legion of angels to save him, yet he died the horrible death that he did for us so that we could have eternal life. My human mind cannot even comprehend that kind of love.

The garden tomb where Jesus' body was placed following his death was very much what I had expected it to be. It was a beautiful area with flowering trees and shrubs all around. We were able to actually go into the tomb to see where he was laid. Inside was a sign stating "He is not here, he has risen". We saw a sample of a stone that they used to close the tombs. Each stone weighed several hundred pounds and took many men to place them at the entrance to a tomb, so once they were put into place, they could not be moved. Yet, on the third day after his death, the stone was moved aside and Jesus' tomb was empty because HE HAD BEEN RESURRECTED!!!! After visiting the tomb, we celebrated the resurrection with a time of praise and communion. Singing Amazing Grace and really taking to heart the words of this beautiful hymn was spiritually uplifting. Celebrating the body and blood of Christ in this setting was amazing. I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity!!!!

I will post more later about my visit to the wailing wall and our trip to Bethlehem and a few final thoughts about my experiences in the Holy land.

Shalom,

Diane