Last Day of Jesus' Life

Today we followed the footsteps of Jesus in the last days of his life, ending up at the beautiful and peaceful garden tomb!

We started out in a courtyard of the David's Tomb complex, where Daniel explained to us the significance of the Passover and also showed us how the Jewish people celebrate it. He, being Jewish and Mormon, and a native of Israel, is particularly qualified to explain the comparisons with Passover and the sacrifice Christ was about to make.

David's tomb is probably not the real place King David was buried, but it is a very pretty building.

It has a large and open Upper Room that people visit to remember the Last Supper.

We took some time in the Upper Room where we read the scriptural account of the Last Supper, including the account of Judas leaving before dinner to betray the Savior.

From there we went to a pretty park on the side of the Mount of Olives. We were the only tourists there, so it was the perfect place to talk about Christ in Gethsemane, and read the account of the atonement.

There was also a beautiful view of the city from the park. Laurie had been telling us how she always has her eyes closed or her mouth open for pictures, so I was amazed to see what a beautiful picture we got of her here. Either she was really happy to be here, or she was really happy that she gets to fly home tonight! The rest of us have about 4 more days! We're enjoying it, but would love to sleep in one of these days!

The olive trees in this part were not as large and old as the ones at the traditional Gethsemane site, but they were just as pretty!

We enjoyed the facade of the Church of all Nations on the bottom of the Mount of Olives.

Next we went to the house of Caiphas, the High Priest, who judged Jesus, and sent him to the Romans.

There was a shiny brass finger on the figure of Christ on the front door. It was so polished that I rubbed it for good luck!

There was a dungeon underneath the palace (or church, as it is today) where prisoners were scourged.

There was also a secondary dungeon that was a pit with a hole in it, where prisoners were lowered. The time of Christ was a brutal time, where punishments were horrific!

Outside of Caiphas' house we talked about Christ being taken into custody and how he was treated by the Roman soldiers. The steps behind us are the steps he would have gone down as he was turned over to the Romans for punishment.
At the Antonia Fortress, Pontius Pilate got the Jews to say they had no King but Caesar, which was a big coup for Pilate! He agreed to crucify Jesus.

It was fun walking barefoot on the steps of the Caiphas house, where Jesus undoubtedly walked!

From there we went to the Garden Tomb, which is owned and run by a British philanthropy. The guides there come from all over and give service for several months without compensation.

It felt so much like Easter with the garden in full bloom! Could there be a better time to come to Israel? I think not!

We had a very nice and enthusiastic  guide from Texas at the garden tomb. He showed us the Place of the Skull, or Golgatha. It used to look very much like a skull, but caved in about 10 years ago, after a series of snowstorms!

I loved the efficient way the British moved the crowds along in the garden tomb, while maintaining a beautiful and peaceful atmosphere. We talked about the resurrection and Mary Magdalene and the disciples discovering that Christ had risen from the grave.

There was a short wait at the tomb, and people from all over the world were in line with their respective tour guides!

This was a tomb from the time period of Christ, and within close enough proximity to the Crucifixion site to be believable as the burial site of Christ. He only spent one evening there, but being the site of the resurrection is even more important than being the burial site!

We had a really nice day today. Even though we were talking about a sad event, it ended with a really peaceful feeling. Because He lives, we hope to live again, too!

Daniel gave us about a half hour of free time to spend in the garden tomb area. We enjoyed the aromatic flowers on the trees, as well as the large variety of plants.

We also had just enough time to by a couple of souvenirs of Jerusalem. It's our last chance, as we're going to the Dead Sea and Galilee tomorrow!

Temple Mount and Bethlehem

We made it to the temple mount today, after several days of visiting sites very near it! We waited in line about an hour to get in, but it was worth it. The Dome of the Rock is not opened to visitors anymore, but we really enjoyed walking around it and seeing the temple grounds.

As we waited in line, it was fun taking more pictures of the city wall and the pretty spring flowers. It was also less painful than when we're queueing on our own, because Daniel explained things while we waited. It dulled the pain of line standing!

The Al-Aqsa mosque is also closed to the public, but I suppose that just saved us a lot of time standing in line!

There were so many beautiful architectural features on the mount, mostly not from the time of Christ because things from 2000 years ago are buried. How does that happen? You don't dust for a couple of years and forget your house was there?

Daniel showed us where the temple was actually located to the side of the Dome of the Rock.

Ed was asked to demonstrate the goat sacrifice that was allowed to escape into the city. He put his heart and soul into the act, but ended up being a 'scapegoat' anyway!

We left the city through the Lion Gate. We're been here long enough that we're getting to actually know our way around and the names of the different gates (somewhat)!

Our next stop was the Israeli Museum where they have a scale model of the old city at the time of Christ. It was really interesting, took us back in time, where we could see the second temple before it was destroyed in 70 A.D.

They also had a really nice display of the dead sea scrolls in the museum. This roof is supposed to simulate the pottery in which the scrolls were found.

We had some yummy schnitzel sandwiches delivered, and we ate on the bus to save time as we drove to our next site.

We were happy to see we got the same yummy candy bars we had a few days ago in our lunch. They are like a Kit Kat Twix bar. I wish I could read Hebrew to see what the name of it is!

Our next stop was Bet Shemesh, where I think Crystal played the part of a sacrificial maiden, but I'm not sure, as sometimes I zone out in the middle of the story! Fortunately, she was not sacrificed!

The Bible story that happened here was Samson and Delilah. That's an interesting story, if you read the unabridged version! We also enjoyed getting close to a herd of sheep for the first time!

Moving on to the Valley of Elah, we heard the story of David and Goliath. Daniel gave us all slingshots, and we had lots of fun seeing how far we could launch a rock! It was like rock skimming without a stream!

Ken looks like he could have had a good shot at taking out Goliath!

After having a little fun, we settled down and talked about some of the advantages David had going into the fight. One, he knew the Lord would be with him, and two, he knew the Lord had blessed him with a terrific aim!

Next we went up to Bethlehem to the church of the Nativity. It had not benefited much from being in the West Bank, and was in a pretty sad state of disrepair. Hopefully, the restoration efforts will be nice, but it seems discombobulated, being shared by three different churches.

We went down into the grotto where St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin. This was the first step in making the Bible more accessible to the people although it was a long time before the printing press!

We didn't see the grotto of the supposed birth of Christ, as the line was really long!

We ended the day visiting the National Diamond Center. We learned that cutting and selling diamonds is Israel's 2nd busiest industry! After we saw the prices we derided to forgo purchasing any diamonds in favor of taking another big trip like this one! 

Peaceful Sabbath

We've been eating buffet style in the hotel in Jerusalem, which basically means we're stuffed all the time! We're slowly learning how to pace ourselves and not eat everything in sight. They have some delicious sliced oranges and grapefruit, which we're really enjoying. Laurie had a plate full of healthy options!

We started the day by attending church at the BYU Jerusalem center. It is a beautiful, arched building built about 1984 right on the top of Mt. Scorpus.

From the garden patio they have spectacular views of the temple mount, as well as the rest of the city!

We arrived early enough to check out the gardens before church, which started at 10. They were in full bloom!

The grounds were really beautiful with lots of contemplative places to rest and enjoy the view. There was even a little stream going through them.

The olive press on display actually turned so you could get an idea how they extracted the olive oil.

There were so many other tour groups that we filled the auditorium to capacity for church!

We had super lessons in Sunday School and Relief Socity. We especially enjoyed a piece of cake they had brought to celebrate the 163rd birthday of Relief Society!

After church we walked along the Rampart wall of the old city from the Jaffa Gate to the Herod Gate.

It was interesting seeing so many homes right within the old city gates had satellite dishes and solar panels for the hot water heaters on the roof!

We had a nice view of the Dome of the Rock, but the section of the wall closest to it is not open for walkers.

We enjoyed walking through the market area. I would have bought some of the spices if I had any idea how to use them!

The Muslim women dress very modestly and there were lots of shops with ready made clothes for them.

We had a bite to eat at a restaurant in the old town.

We tried out some humus plates with beef and chicken shewarma, as well as some grape leaf-wrapped beef.

One of the men helping in the restaurant was a musician named  Jamal al Huseiny, who is a professional musician who lives in England. He shared his YouTube channel with us at:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS15dKBgeIM

Ken became a groupie!

We got back to the hotel in time for more buffet, but since we'd already eaten we went light. But, there's always room to try out some of the desserts! Today was a relaxing day, and hopefully we'll be rested up for our 7 a.m. start tomorrow to see the Temple Mount!