We were up early today to arrive at the church of the burial site of Mary and a nearby cave known as Gethsemane before larger crowds arrived. These sites are only yards from one another, both being caves (are you sensing the continuing theme?). The area is easily visible from the eastern slopes of the Old City overlooking the Kidron Valley. Gethsemane, Mt. Scopus and Mt. of Olives are all on the western side of the valley.
Entering the church of the burial site of Mary one steps from bright sunlight into sudden blackness as one attempts to descend a long descending well of uneven steps carved from stone that are several yards across. The depths become darker and darker as one continues down into a subterranean night lit only by prayer candles and the soft glow of olive oil vigil lights marking the remembrance of the tomb of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The tomb is cloistered within a small chapel within the cave; to enter the low and narrow doorway, one must duck low.
After emerging once again into the bright morning light, we took a left hand turn to enter the "place of the olive presses," which is the English translation of the name Gethsemane. It is very supportable and likely that this is the place and cave where Jesus stayed with his disciples on the night he was arrested. When Jesus went apart from where they slept in the cave so that he could have privacy and quiet to pray, he would have walked up a gradual hill toward the south of the cave entrance to the nearby grove of olive trees. This place is marked by the Church of All Nations, also known as the Church of Agony. The sanctuary is built around the rocky outcrop associated with the place where Jesus prayed that the "cup" of his destiny might be removed from him.
Just below the crest of The Mount of Olives is a Chapel called the Dominus Flavit ("The Lord Wept") marking the site associated with Jesus looking westward over the Kidron Valley toward the City of Jerusalem on the opposite slope. Farther east of the Kidron is Bethany and the Jordan and it is from here that Jesus walked from Bethany to the Mount of Olives, crossed the valley westward and up to Jerusalem.
The old 1st century Roman street Jesus and the apostles would have taken having entered the city through the Golden Gate still exists, and we visited it where its remains run beside the Church of Peter which mark's the location associated with Caiaphas's house where Peter denied Christ three times. Interestingly, as our group stood looking westward toward the route Jesus would have taken to the spot, we could hear a rooster crowing in the distance.
If you recall, Jesus was kept under arrest until the Sanhedrin could determine the next morning what should be done with him. While awaiting this trial, Jesus is said to have been kept in an underground prison or pit which had been a former cistern associated with Jewish ritual baths. Prisoners were lowered into the pit by ropes tied about their waste, where they were left in utter darkness until hauled up from the pit once more. Our group went down into this small pit and left with a keener appreciation of what some of the psalms (such as psalm 33) refer to as the dark pit of the one who experiences spiritually challenging times or the "dark night of the soul" as would have been literally experienced by anyone kept in such a place.
So, it was a day of caves, rocks, mountains and trees -- all of which, as Iyad pointed out, have been significant locations and symbols for millenia in the cultures of this land. Like beads on a prayer string, we stopped and prayed at each one.
Arriving also at the Western Wall (also called the "Wailing Wall") which is so significant in Jewish tradition, Jim, Virginia and I parted ways in order to go to that portion of the wall designated for men or women and between us we divided up the tiny slips of paper we had brought with us to fold up and prayerfully add to the millions of other tiny notes of prayers already stuffed into the cracks between the wall's stones. Handwritten on each individual slip was the name of one of our parish members, including the names of those designated in our parish directory as friends of our community. Families, married couples and partners were written on the same slip.
So, you are now all part of the morter of Jerusalem, both physically and spiritually. I am very grateful for you all, you living stones of the Temple in which God dwells and is known as our faith community.
Peace,
Pastor Rachel+
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