Jarom in Jerusalem: Last days of Christ's life field trip

Well, I’m not really sure about how to begin writing about these last few days. I feel like it’s really been a culmination of my experience in Israel /Jerusalem/ The Holy Land. I was actually pretty burnt out and got sick right at the end, with an ear infection and a head and chest cold. I was falling apart. I actually stayed in Sunday to sleep-> I felt I needed to to get ready for the last couple days of field trips. I got a little packing and other housekeeping things done though. I think everyone here is burnt out (finals were last Thursday and Friday) but still went out these last couple days because, well, we’re in Jerusalem.

On, Monday, our second to last field trip day, we first went across the separation barrier into Bethany, an important place in the last days of Christ’s life. There he raised Lazarus from the dead which caused the leadership of Jerusalem to become extremely worried about his popularity and contributed to them planning his death. The distance is not very far away from Jerusalem, but we took a bus there anyway. There is a church there to commemorate the raising of Lazarus as well as other events which took place there. The church is built on top of a byzantine church, on top of a tomb, but the tomb is so worn away and cut apart that there is no way to date if the tomb is from Christ’s time or not. So traditional place where Lazarus was raised. The people there are separated from the rest of Israel because of the barrier, and so were selling things for a tenth the price as other places, only I didn’t have any money on me!

We then drove to where they think was Bethpage, which Jesus passed through to get to Jerusalem on the last few days of his life. There was another church there which we sang a hymn in, and commemorated the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, which started there. There was this really old stone in the church that was painted in Crusader times, which crusaders thought was the stone Christ used to get up on his donkey (but you wouldn’t need a step up on a donkey- only on a crusader horse).

About the triumphal entry-> the people of Jerusalem accepted Christ as a Messiah or deliverer of their people. On the first day of the last week of his life, he rode a donkey into the city; people waved palm fronds and threw their clothes out in front of him: all signs as accepting him as a King, or signs of Kingship. They also yelled and accepted him as the Messiah. (Another reason the Jewish leadership feared him so much.)

We then went to Pater Noster, a church which is built around a cave, and some people combined some accounts from the Gospels and decided Christ must have taught his apostles to pray after Bethpage but before Jerusalem (Pater Noster means our Father in Latin), and probably in a cave. (It would make since caves are a cool place to teach.) Anyway, there was a cave there, and the Lord’s Prayer in lots of languages, and it was a good visit.

``There was also a church there called Dominus Flevit where some think Jesus sat and gave his remarks how often he “would have gathered Jerusalem as a hen gathereth her chickens but they would not.” It had a nice overlook, and we sang another hymn.

We also went as one point to Orson Hyde Park and ate lunch, and learned a little more about Orson Hyde.

After that we went to another place I’d been before-> the “upper room.” They’ve found a 1rst century synagogue facing north below the structure-> so there is good evidence that it was a Christian-Jew synagogue. If that’s true it could have been originally the upper room, where Christ and his apostles seemed to have met before and after his death. Many people connect the accounts and seethe upper room as John Mark’s home-> it may have been. Here would have been Christ’s last supper and the place where apostles met after his death as well. Right now it’s just a room above a modern synagogue, in a building that has add-ons/ architectural elements from Crusader, Byzantine, and Muslim architecture. We sung a bunch of songs from the hymn book there and had a little devotional again about the last supper from our religion professor. After that we also passed through the Dormition Abbey which I’d been before, and where there is a traditional site of Mary’s burial.

Our final visit of the day was to St. Peter in Galicantu, where there is a church to commemorate where Christ was beaten by the chief priest and where Peter denied Christ three times. It was a very beautiful church, and there is evidence there may have been the home of a wealthy priestly individual there at the time of Christ. Down below there is a cellar/ (perhaps a prison?) below the house where some believe was where Christ was tied up and whipped. There was beautiful stained glass windows as well as statues depicting the Savior.