Globetrotting: Israel, Part II – the Spiritual Side

I have been blown away. Blown away by historical landmarks unlike any other that I have ever seen. Blown away by a people who live in a country of constant turmoil, but still manage to be happy, polite, passionate, and hopeful. Blown away by the beauty of a landscape that goes from the sea, to the mountains, then below the sea to the lowest place on earth, in the span of just over an hour. Blown away by Biblical history, and experiencing where it all took place. Blown away by falafels, hummus, homemade pickles, and kebabs. Blown away by sitting at dinner with sand in my toes and a mojito in my hand. I have been blown away by Israel: a country of which I held an uncertain expectation, but which has managed to exceed any expectation that I could’ve ever had.

There are many different elements of this trip, which when added together, created probably the most meaningful travel experience of my life. In order to do this trip justice (and save you readers from an even longer novel), I broke this blog post up into two parts: the spiritual side and the secular side. This is the spiritual side. Welcome to my journey!

To set the stage, I went to Israel for work for two weeks. The work week is Sunday – Thursday, so our weekend started on Friday. I was fortunate enough to have traveled with a great group of people who were adventurous (some more than others!) and all had the common desire to see the Holy Land. So on Friday, we headed off to Jerusalem and Bethlehem with a private tour guide, and geared ourselves up for a day like we had never before experienced.

Jerusalem
Before you read this, you should know that I’m a Christian. It’s probably blatantly obvious when you look at my blog (and let’s be honest- really only my friends read this and they know this about me anyway), but I wanted to make sure that ANYONE reading this blog knows this about me. I love Jesus. He is my Savior. I was a Christian in the land of Jews. And it was okay.

I’ll admit that I was a little apprehensive taking this weekend trip to Jerusalem and Bethlehem with a large group of co-workers who didn’t know me well at all, who had outspoken, mixed faith and beliefs, and whom certainly did not know the depths of my faith. This was an important trip for me, and I wanted to be able to enjoy it and absorb every morsel of spirit, truth, love, and Jesus that I experienced during this trip.

So what did I ultimately do? I took my Bible with me to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. My big, fat, heavy, NIV/The Message side-by-side Bible that weighs probably 5 lbs, and I lugged it around in my backpack. But I’m so glad I did. I loved that I had my Bible so that I could open up to the scriptures that explained what happened at the exact places where I was standing.

We started at the Mount of Olives bright and early on that Friday morning. And I opened up to Genesis 22:2 where God said to Abraham: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

So I’M standing on the Mount of Olives, looking at where Mt. Moriah was. And that same mountain was where the first Temple was eventually built, and destroyed, and the second Temple was built, and destroyed, and now is where the Jewish people believe the third and final Temple will be built. It is the holiest of places in Judaism, and all Jewish prayer is faced towards the Temple Mount. And Jewish people are all buried with their feet facing the Temple Mount. When you look at it now, you see a Muslim mosque. It is the third holiest sight for the Muslims in the World. I struggle with this. But you get the idea, it‘s a pretty significant spot.

And then we start walking down the hill, on what is called the Palm Sunday walk, where Jesus began the trek to His crucifixion. And we come to the Garden of Gethsemane. THE Garden of Gethsemane. And the olives trees were amazing. They were old and creepy and huge and thick. The trees that are alive today are only hundreds of years old. They are descendants of the original olive trees that were in the garden. But I’M standing in that garden and opened my Bible to Matthew 26:36-46, and read about the place where Jesus spent the last night with His disciples. And this garden, the place where I was standing, was ultimately where Jesus was betrayed by one of them and arrested.

Not far from the Garden of Gethsemane was the Church of Agony that housed the rock where Jesus prayed in Matthew 26:39: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” And again, I’M standing in that church, looking at that rock, and reading in my Bible about this agony that Jesus is going through. It was solemn and inspiring at the same time.

So as the morning is progressing, I’m just in awe of where I am. I didn’t care that I was with a bunch of my co-workers who may not have known my faith at the beginning of the morning. They probably had a pretty good idea of it at this point. And before we continued on to the point where Jesus was nailed to the cross and began the stations of the cross, we saw both the birthplace of the Virgin Mary and the place where she was believed to have been buried.

And throughout all of this, we had an incredible history lesson by our tour guide, not only from a Biblical perspective, but also from a secular perspective (if there was such a thing back then). We learned about the landscape, the agriculture, the weather trends, the religious tension, the Romans and how they lived to conquer everything, the magnificent capacity to build things, about greed and money, and most of all, I learned to appreciate the Jewish people and what they went through. And I learned to understand why they are who they are today. They are a people who have been truly formed by the past of their ancestors. It was incredible.

So we’re walking toward the gates of the city at this point, and I must pause here, because I never really understood the concepts of these gates. And I’ve read a lot about them in books! These gates are a small, miniscule piece of a massive stone wall. Nothing is getting past these walls, or through them for that matter. They were there for protection of the city. Today, the walls of Jerusalem still stand, and entrance is only through one of the several gates. The city is no longer bound by these walls, but back then, it was. And that was an important part of our history lesson.

As we’re walking through the Lions Gate, it is noon on a Friday. It is the Muslim Sabbath. And for those of you who are like me and do not understand that Muslims are as prevalent in Jerusalem as Jews are, you would’ve been shocked too. The call to prayer came at noon, and a swarm of Muslims began cramming through this gate to head up to the mosque. It was a sight to see. We proceeded to enter the gate and head in the opposite direction.

At this point, we are nearing the point of the first station of the cross, where Jesus was nailed to the cross, and the crown of thorns was placed on His head. Several of the stations of the cross are marked with a church. Others are just marked on a sidewalk or by a doorway. I won’t go into details of all of the various stations, but I will say that they took us through the markets of Jerusalem on the via Dolorosa. These markets were incredible – buried away in little narrow alleys and walkways, bright and colorful, bustling with families buying what they need to prepare food for the Sabbath the next day, fresh bagel carts flying past you on cobblestone streets – it was a complete sensory overload and I loved every minute of it.

We stopped to have lunch as a group at a local dive. We were told by our tour leader that we had ten minutes to eat. At this point, we are staring at her like she’s crazy. At the same time, plates of falafels, pita, hummus, salad, and pickles start to come out in hoards. And they don’t stop until we say stop. It was delicious and fast, and couldn’t have been better, really. I still dream of that hummus as I sit here typing.

We took a break from the crazy but fabulous local markets and from the stations of the cross to head into Old Jersualem. It was an instantly noticeable change from the Jerusalem of today, but it was just around the corner. There were areas where you could see, in plain sight, that the city had literally been built upon itself over and over again. You could see down into the guts of what used to be the city, before it was covered by new growth, and then covered again, and again. And we saw remnants of what once were magnificent stone walls. The fact that some of them were still there is proof that time doesn’t change everything.

There are quite a few apartments and small terrace-type homes in Old Jerusalem, so as we were walking down the narrow cobblestone alleys, we could smell food cooking as the families were preparing their meals for the Sabbath that followed the next day. And there were many Orthodox Jews in their full attire meandering through these alleys on their way to and from the markets. I almost felt like I was intruding on their lives. It was definitely an off-the-beaten-path diversion, but one that made me realize that there were real people living in a real city, who don’t just cater to tourists.

And then we came upon the Western Wall. Instead of trying to explain the significance of the Western Wall in my own words, I will rely upon the expertise of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Wall), so that you can take the time to read about it and get a clear understanding of its history. We did not go down to the wall for lack of time, but it was obvious to anyone who saw it that it is a spirit-filled site. There are male and female sections of the wall. People write prayers down stick them into the stones of the wall. Regardless of the reasons that people were there, I was refreshed to see such an honest exhibition of faith.

As we continued heading through the markets, and learning about both Biblical and secular history, I couldn’t help but just praise God. Praise Him for not only the opportunity to visit this truly Holy Land, but for everything that’s in it. He is responsible for each person on this planet; each person walking through those streets of Jerusalem, whether they were believers or not. He loves all of us. He created all of us. And to physically be in a place with such significant history was awe inspiring. Yes, certain parts of Jerusalem were commercial, and certain parts were so overcome with tourists that I couldn’t help but want to run out of there as fast as I could, but when I closed my eyes and breathed in the air of a place where Jesus, as man, once was, somehow He overshadowed all of those other things.

My time in Jerusalem finished up with a frantic scurry to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which marks the spot where Jesus carried the cross to His death. And nearby, the place of His resurrection! This church was one of the busiest tourist spots in the entire city. I won’t lie; it was difficult to fully absorb the significance of this place. But again, there was faith and holiness oozing out of every nook and cranny of that church if you just took the chance to notice. Even amongst the group of seemingly a hundred Japanese tourists, all with their bright yellow hats. Or the Europeans who barely managed to wear enough clothing to enter the church. Or the children running around having no clue why so many people were in tears. Or countless Americans gabbing and texting on their cell phones.

So amidst all of that chaos stood the stone that marked the spot where the cross was erected on top of Golgotha, as in Matthew 27:32-37; and the stone that represents what Jesus was laid upon for His burial, covered in olive oil and rose water and being kissed by countless people; and finally, a short distance away, the place where the tomb was believed to have been, marking the spot of the resurrection. And as we left Jerusalem, it was nearly time for the siren to go off in the city, signifying the beginning of the Sabbath: a day of rest.

Bethlehem
Without getting into the political drama of getting from Jerusalem (which is in Israeli territory) to Bethlehem (which is in Palestinian territory), I’ll now move on to our trip to the birthplace of Jesus. There are two primary sites to see in Bethlehem, the first being the Shepherds’’ Field where in Luke 2:9-12, “an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”


Shepherds used to roam the field that I was walking through, tending to their sheep. And further along there are several caves, where the Shepherds retreated at night. These are the original caves, as evidenced by the black soot on the inside roofs of the caves, as a result of fires used for cooking and warmth. And these exact caves, are where the shepherds were told of the birth of Jesus.

The second site was the church that housed the birth ”spot” of Jesus and the area where the manger was kept. This was the second longest line I had seen all day. Luckily, because we were a small group, we got to bypass most of the line and sneak in the back way to see the star that signifies the spot where Jesus was born. And across the same room was the manger. Two very cool pieces of Biblical history. And something else that struck me unexpectedly was the fact that within that church complex, there were areas designated for the Catholic, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox churches to worship. It was almost like an internal battle.

After our visit to these two sites, we did a bit of shopping and then it was time to head back to Tel Aviv after an amazing day, and one that I will never forget. Religious or not, the history in Israel is really incomparable to any other place in the world. It holds such significance for so many of the foundations that the world today is built upon. My prayer is that every believer in God, and in Jesus Christ the Savior, has the opportunity to go to the Holy Land some day. And I hope more than anything, that for those who will never have that chance, that this blog has helped to give you a little better idea of what these places are really like, and that perhaps you felt, even if just for an instance, that you were experiencing it. Because it is a powerful place.