The Legendary Old City

Monday was our first walkthrough of the old city. WOW. It was such a unique experience. We first went through a 4 hour lecture on why geography is important to our reading the text of the Bible. Here are some thoughts:

1.) Upper Room- I didn't realize that the first place we went was considered to be the place of the last supper. It was that mundane. However, there were some interesting tid bits about the area. For 1, it had the 3 major religions all tied up in this one room. The room was originally thought to be the place of the last supper. Then, the Jews placed David's tomb to be there. Finally, the Muslims took control of the room and turned it into a Mosque. Eventually, the state took it over, and it is now open from the public. Little side note, from the roof of this building, I saw the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank. It is quite imposing.

2.) The Western Wall- We saw it early in the afternoon and didn't even walk down to it. We looked at it from a distance. It is one of the biggest structures that I've seen. And to think that it was made out of rock by men, WOW. What's even crazier is when I try and think of the grandiosity of the city of Jerusalem back in Solomon's time, when all the walls were like that, and the Temple was in place. (Yes, I realize that these walls were built more around Jesus' time.... but the idea still applies.) That would be one of the most impressive, if not THE most impressive structure of it's time... Especially since the structure is mind blowing now when we have buildings like the Sears Tower or Empire State Building. We left the wall pretty quickly. But once we had finished out walk, two of the girls in the group convinced me to join them, and we walked down to the wall. They both had to pray on the women's side. I threw on a Yarmulka and went to the men's side. Even thought I am not Jewish, the experience was quiet intense. Here I was at the Western Wall. I prayed for Unity among God's people, and for peace in Israel. I figured those were appropriate things to pray for at that particular location.

3.) Lastly, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I'd never really thought about it before this trip. This place is considered to be both the place of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It houses 7 different churches. The smell of incense that wafts over you as you walk in is both entices you to continue in and awakens you to the reverent nature of the church. We are spending some time with one of the Fathers there, after it closes later this week. I'm excited to see it more in-depth and better understand exactly where everything is.

Other than that, life in Jerusalem is good. I'll keep you posted.