The Old City

Continuing the update, we didn't go anywhere this weekend while waiting for things to cool down. Te school has prohibited travel up north for the most part, and so we decided to try and see most of the sites that we hadn't hit in the old city. Our roomate Phil, this divinity student, kindly offered to play tour guide.

Photo Notes:
1. A chapel inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
2. Crossed carved by crusaders inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
3.Chris lighting votive candels
4. The cathedral part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
5. Incense burner inside the ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
6. The bells of the ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
7. Road sign
8. Sitting by a cross atop the Austrian Hospice, only a stones throw from the Dome of the Rock
9. View of the Arab Quarter
10. The Garden of Gethsemane
11. Cemetary covering the hillside of the Mt. Of Olives
12. Stairwell into the crusader Church of St. Mary Mother of Jesus
13. The Russian Convent of St. Mary Magdalene
14. Inside the main part of the Russian Convent of St. Mary Magdalene
15. Another view
16. View of the Golden Gate (historically blocked off by an arab cemetary- but it is the one Jesus went through) and the Dome of the Rock from the Mt. Of Olives. Jesus would have had this view on the way down for the triumphant entry
17. Zion Gate - pockmarked by gunfire

We had full day, and saw some amazing sites. Starting at the Mt. of Olives, we were wandering up the path by the garden of gethsemane when several nuns asked us to help put up a sign for the St. Mary Magdalene convent. Knowing that it is always wrong to refuse to help nuns, we put up their signs, and in return one of them gave us a tour of thier beautiful monastery. Turns out the monastery is normally closed to the public, and so we felt really lucky as Mother Catherine explained the history of most of the artwork, painting, and even explained the servied. Mother Catherine is actually not a russian, but a native San Fransiscan and spoke perfect english, which was a real treat.
After that we saw the supposed garden of gethsemane, and wandered through the graveyard that covers the mt of olives.
It is really easy to be skeptical of all these religious sites, especially ones created by the crusaders, but the truth of it is that most are based on tradition and have a fairly good chance of being authentic. Also, this place is not that big. There is only one mt of olives, and so there is a good shot that that really is the garden of gethsemane. As much as skepticism is healthy when it comes to things like the church of the holy sepulchre, it isn't fair to entirely dismiss it.
We wandered down the hill through Jaffa gate and had lunch at an incredible arab restuarant. It had the best hummus I have ever had. Here they leave the midel sort of unblended with just chick peas in olive oil. The food here is so good, but also so all the same.
Phil then led us on the Via Dolorosa, and we stopped at most of the stations of the cross. I put my hand in this imprint that Jesus reputedly left, and we said some prayers at several of the chapels. Phil then took us to the roof of the Austrian Hospice, a beautiful limestones building with gardens and almost spanish architecture. As the hospice is in the center of the city, it provided and incredible overview of the entire old city. It was odd to see that the different areas really do look different. The Jewish quarter is definately in better shape.
From there we went through the labrynth streets to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the pilgrims highlight and the home of the last station of the cross. As the church is built on the site where Jesus was crucified, it has been fought over for centuries by all the various christian factions. Eventually, it was partitioned into various sections and today there is a status quo agreement that keeps everything the exact way it was about a hundred years ago.
We first saw the ethiopian section, wich is in the ruins of the original church that was destroyed a long time ago. They sort of got the raw end of the deal. Thier section is rundown and dirty, with mud walls and a set of old bells hanging in the last reamianing buttress.
We did get to go into an old cistern underneath the city though, which was a really strange experience. We went into this old room where a lone priest was hunched against the wall singing. We started putting change into this old incense pan, and he sort of kept an eye on how much was in there. When he saw enough, he suddenly whipped this door open and pointed down a shaft of stairs so narrow I didn't know if I would fit. It was like something out of a movie.
The rest of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was everything you would expect it to be- beariful, majestic, colorful, run down in parts, full of pilgrims rubbing cloths on the stones to try and take part with them, hanging incense burners everywhere, mosaics... this is what I always thought the holy land would be like. It really is hard to describe what the church is like. I plan to visit it several more times before I go. We saw most of it, but as the Catholic patriach was coming to do his daily duties we were ushered out of the Catholic section before we could actually go into the sepulchre itself. The sepulchre, supposedly the exact spot of Jesus's crucifixion, is inside a massive ornate wooden box, all the sides of which are full of pilgrims candles. Amazing.
Seeing all these sites has given me a lot to think about. Seeing the actual historical backdrop of the faith I have put my trust in has really grounded it more in my mind. Jerusalem really isn't much. Jesus didn't come out of the greatest city or nation on earth, either in his time or in ours. God really chose to give great worth and value to a little stone village in the middle of nowhere. It still is too much to process a visit to the supposed site of the crucifixion, but the fact that I have stood and looked at Jerusalem from the same hill that Jesus did is really something. I am where Jesus actually walked.
The thing that really strikes me about things like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is that, while they are beatiful, and do commemorate the most exciting events in human history, that they are also empty of any real saving grace. Simply walking the Via Dolorosa or standing in Gethsemene imparts no grace of its own. It is actually sad to the see the slavery to inaniamate things. More and more I am realizing the real beauty of Christianity is that it is a living religion. Unlike any other faith it is not tied to sites and objects. Christ is with us, is alive, and wants to have a relationship with us wherever we are.