Day 9

The last day of our tour. We started today with a visit to the House of Caiaphas where Jesus was scourged and a likely pit that he was held in overnight. (picture) This is also the same area where Peter denied Christ three times. We had a view of the remains of the ancient City of David and a Greek Orthodox Monastery that is built on the site where Judas hung himself.

We visited the Institute for Temple Artifacts which was built in line with the prophecy in Isaiah 2:60-61. It is a group of Jews who is committed to building the temple artifacts. They follow the instructions found in the bible down to the materials and measurements. The are working on faith and the belief that when the temple is rebuilt - they will need to have the articles to fill it. The picture below is of the Wailing Wall.

We took a visit to the top of the Temple Mount to see the Al Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The temple is only open to non-muslims for one hour every few days. We were able to see the Dome up close but you can't go inside. The entire area feels devoid of love and happiness - it seemed a desolate place even for being in the center of a huge city.

We continued along up the Via Dolorosa (picture below) which is the street that Jesus carried his cross up on the way to crucifixion. There are 14 stations of the cross along the pathway, starting with the area where He was condemned and finishing with Him being laid in the tomb. The Via Dolorosa in Jesus' time was lined with markets and shopping stalls and still today, the street winds through the markets and bazaar sections of town. The street brings us to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built of the hills of Golgatha, where Jesus hung on a cross and died. Interestingly enough, the church is now owned by two muslim families and can hardly be thought of as a sacred place due to all the "flashiness" of the place. We were all a bit disappointed until our guide reminded us that it is not Christ's death that is important to Christians, it is the fact that he rose from the dead. "Hmmm, good point" we thought to ourselves, and then we moved on. The second picture below is of Ben and I outside the Church. You can see that it was run down and not kept well or even clean for that matter - the outside looks better than the inside!

Our last stop on the tour was the Garden Tomb, the place where Jesus was laid to rest. The are not 100% sure that the tomb they found is the very one that Christ was laid in but they sure have a ton of evidence to suggest it! It was found about 100 years ago on a plot of land that was owned by a rich man in Jesus' time. The tomb itself is only big enough for 1-2 people but nearby they have found a whole graveyard of tombs. It is said in the OT somewhere that Christ would be born of a poor family but buried with a rich family, alone, but near others...or something like that. On the wall of the tomb is also found an early cross that looks more like an anchor, but we learned that in the early days, this was the symbol for Christ before the cross was. The stone that was rolled it front of the tomb would have been almost twice as big as a normal size stone used for the same purpose. It was a very peaceful place for reflecting on Christ's life, death and Resurrection and the significance of it all. There was a sign near the tomb, reminding us once again, "Christ is not here, he has risen!".