In the Savior's footsteps

November 6, 2009--Friday
We started at the Orson Hyde Park and read his two-page prayer that was given to him by revelation. He blessed the land to be fruitful and to have water. At the time, Jerusalem was pretty wasted from Ottoman domination. They taxed according to the number of trees you had on your land, your fruit trees, so people cut down all their trees. Mark Twain during a visit called it a “….a God-forsaken land where the sheep would fain eat the rocks,” because there was little fodder for them.

Today, Jerusalem is a fruitful field with olive orchards everywhere, as well as farms and trees and foliage.

We walked down the hill from the park and stopped briefly at the Garden of Gethsemane. We are walking the events of the last few days of the Savior’s life, so we didn’t stop in Gethsemane. We took our shuttle bus to an upper room. The place where we stopped was an old building that the upper room dated to Crusader times, ca. 800-1200 A.D. Walking up to it, we walked past David’s Tomb. There was a long line, so we didn’t go in. I did go back to it after visiting an upper room while everyone else took a restroom break. The entry was divided into men and women’s sides. It was in a small room, and the tomb box itself was covered with a leather or vinyl covering.

In the upper room, there was no furniture. We sat in a corner while a Russian group sang and chanted. At the front was an artist’s representation of a small olive tree. The guide said he felt comfortable that the real Upper Room was somewhere nearby. Me, too.
Sang Love One Another in the Upper Room. Our voices rang our in the enclosed room as another group left.

We drove to a little olive orchard/garden that was up a narrow road from the Garden of Gethsemane. We went through a metal gate that had one side open, and a solid side on the right closed. It had a metal arch over the top.

We sat under an olive tree and read from the scriptures about Gethsemane.

Read DC 19, and as we did so, Muslim preaching via loudspeaker was going on in the Old City, which we could see across the valley.

An old Arab guy by the name of Abraham (who had lived in America, was 70 years old, and had two daughters with him who were about 5 and 7) brought olive oil he said was pressed from the olives of this garden. It wasn’t pure like from the store, and it was in an old plastic bottle. I bought the half bottle of olive oil from him for $20.

The Garden of Gethsemane was the spiritual highlight of the trip to me. But there was to come. We drove on to a Catholic church loosely translated as St. Peter of the Rooster Church. This was built over what was once Caiaphas’ Palace. In the main floor of the church’s chapel was a hole that went down below three levels. Two levels down was a dungeon area where people were scourged. Paul received five scourging, which was 40 lashes, save one. The reason for the save one was the Jewish priests were humane. They administered the lashes in three segments of 13 each. After each segment, they poured water on the victim and washed his wounds. The victim was being taught a lesson, not beaten out of rancor, supposedly. They wanted him awake and feeling his punishment to learn a lesson. They couldn’t give more than 40 lashes by law, so they only gave 39 to make sure they didn’t miscount and go over. If they erred, they erred on the side of the victim.

When all 39 were given, they poured salt water and vinegar over the back to stop the bleeding and help to heal the wound. Again, so the victim could live and remember the lesson.
The Savior’s scourging was administered by Romans who did consider the Jews animals. Stephen said imagine a Roman serving in a land that he disliked among people he disliked, doing things he disliked. Do you think he would relish taking his frustrations out on a Jew during a scourging?

From there, we went down one level to a square chamber hewn out of the stone. After I walked
down in it, I started to feel the Spirit, and I wondered why. What happened here? We read about the Savior’s illegal trial by the Sanhedrin after dark. Stephen believes there were just a group 23 priests, one-third of the total 70 (the high priest was the 70th) who judged Jesus.
The Jews were allowed to put people to death under Roman rule in just two cases: a violation of the temple and a violation of the Sabbath. Accusers came, but no two agreed. The ones that said the Savior would destroy this temple and build it again in three days were close, but not enough. Then Caiaphas blasphemes by saying the name of God in demanding from Jesus if he is the Son of God. The only time the high priest could say the name of God was in the proper place in the temple. The Savior responds that He is, but he doesn’t use the name of God. So Caiaphas blasphemes and then condemns the Savior from blaspheming.

Stephen asked, where was the Savior after the trial? Where was he during the night? I never thought about that. I thought he was up all night.

He was lowered throw a hole into that dungeon in the bottom of Caiaphas. The dungeon was probably pitch black.

On the side of the Church is a mosaic of Christ being lowered in a harness into that dungeon, below all.

Outside, out back, was a statue of Peter, the maiden and the soldier in the palace. There were also stone steps dated to the 1st century--the steps the Savior was marched up those stairs on His way to the dungeon. The ground level behind the church met the stairs about one-third of the way up. I walked down the stairs to the bottom and walked all the way up, in the steps of the Savior.

The condemned usually carries just the cross piece of the cross. The post is left by the road at the place of crucifixion, as a warning to obey the law.

Crucifixion was a drawn out process. Records of at least one taking ten days to cause death. There was a little saddle of wood for the condemned to sit on. When he hung down on his nailed hands, he couldn’t exhale so he suffocated with a breath of air in his lungs. Or he stood up on his nailed feet to take a breath. Every word said would be through extreme pain. The Roman soldiers broke the legs so the condemned couldn’t stand up to take a breath so they suffocated.
Add to this the Savior’s scourging, which ripped and tore his back muscles, making it hard to pull up to breath.

The exertion caused the heart to burst. When the soldier thrust the sword into Jesus’ side, he knew if water and blood came out separately, it meant the heart had burst, and Jesus was definitely dead and didn’t need his legs broken. Stephen thinks John spoke with the soldier with the spear is how he knew about the blood and water.

At the Garden Tomb, we entered the gate to a ticket booth-looking area, but they don’t charge to get in. We went through another gate and walked along a path on the right side to some stands by Golgotha. There were skull-looking indentions, and the guide for the Garden Tomb listed scriptures that would seem to show it was the place of crucifixion. But he didn’t think on top of the hill was the place because the Romans crucified by the road for people to see, and the scriptures said people read the sign over Jesus’ head.

I did meet a young man from Cameroon there with a group. He felt this was the place from the things the guide had said, and he also said the place wasn’t important because Jesus wasn’t there. True. Yet, the Spirit is important.

We next went to the Garden Tomb, which was just as we’d seen it in pictures. There were crowds of people there in groups, lined up to go into the tomb. We took our turn and went in. There were two small chambers: the one on the left was the weeping chamber, and the right one, across the top side of it was where Jesus was laid.

The ground in front was all stone. The trough for the stone was on both sides of the door. Event though we had to stoop to go through the doorway, we learned it had been extended higher. So Mary and Peter and John really had to stoop to look in and go in.

The Spirit was there.

After our group had gone through, we went to a small area and sat and read about the Resurrection. Then we sang, How Great Thou Art. It was a very spiritual time.
I imagined the Savior appearing to Mary Magdalene there.

Marla and I sat for a while on benches that were on a level up from and facing the tomb. When there were only a few people at the tomb, we went down to it. I took some more photos, and when only a couple of people were inside, I went in again. They left, and I was alone in the tomb. I left as someone else was coming in.

Again, it is not the places, but the Spirit and the Savior that are important.


November 7, 2009--Saturday, the Sabbath
We went to church at the BYU Jerusalem Center today. What a beautiful place! The chapel has tiered seating, and behind the stand is a panoramic view of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was a good fast and testimony meeting, and I was enthralled looking at the city.