It's hard to believe our final day of touring had arrived, and man, was it incredible!
We started our day at the Pool of Siloam which is at the end of Hezekiah's Tunnel system. Here, Bryant preached on John 9:1-34. This is the story of a blind man who Jesus made mud for, applied it his eyes, and sent him to these pools to wash off the mud; when he washed it off, he had his eyesight. It was another healing miracle of Jesus.
There are several things that we can learn from this story.
---In 1-7, the people want to know who is to blame for the man's sin; mankind is always looking to assign blame and find the reason for why. Jesus is there to glorify God, and this miracle allows that.
---In 8-12, he knew it was Jesus who had healed him, but since he was blind when it happened, he didn't know what Jesus looked like. This shows us the difference between having the head knowledge of who Jesus versus the heart knowledge of who He is.
---13-25 show that his parents won't answer for the healed man. Instead, he knows his testimony, and he states it before the educated elite. Jesus often appealed to the common man over those who "should" know better.
---We see in 26-34 that the Pharisees are concerned with the fact that this miracle occurred on the Sabbath. Their love of legalism overcame their concern and love for another.
After he preached, Bryant, Brian Fox, and Lee Taylor led a time of prayer where anyone who was in need of physical healing could be prayed over. While Ryan and I did not need that, it was wonderful to see others receive this blessing.
Afterwords, we had the chance to explore the tunnels a little bit. This system was built to ensure a fresh water supply to the city in case of attack.
After leaving Siloam, we went up to the House of Caiaphas. This was the beautiful view from there.
This was quite an incredible place to be as we looked at its significance in history. We can see a road that was excavated several years ago. This is the road that anyone going from Lower Jerusalem (Garden of Gethsemane) to Upper Jerusalem (Caiaphas' house) would take. That means that when Jesus was arrested in the garden, this is the road He would have walked to come before the high priest (Mark 14:53).
We can see in Mark that this was a lynch mob mentality of the people here as they set up a mock trial (Mark 14:56-59) in the very courtyard where we were standing. In 14:60, He doesn't respond to their false accusations. Jesus is in trouble for breaking laws (Pharisees kept to their legalism), but it is finally decided He should be executed in 14:61-65 for what they believe is blasphemy as He agrees that He is the Christ and He will be seated at the right hand of God. In this same courtyard, just after the condemnation, we also read in Mark 14:66-73 of Peter denying Christ three times before the rooster crowed, just as Jesus said he would. This lines up with Luke 22:54-62 where it says after he denied Christ three times, "the Lord turned and looked at Peter." Can you imagine what the look on Christ's face was? Can you imagine the shame and guilt Peter felt as he looked at Jesus and heard the rooster crow? Unfortunately, we can relate to Peter as we too deny Christ at different times, and we know that knot in your stomach feeling when we've disappointed someone. This statute represents Peter's denials, and it kind of took my breath away to think about everything that happened at that time.
After that powerful teaching time, we were able to go downstairs under Caiaphas' house. This is where any Jewish prisoner would have been held. Somewhere in this underground prison is where Jesus was held the night before He was crucified. Can you imagine?
Of course we don't know what Jesus did while being held here. Could He have slept? Could He have talked to others? Did He spend this time talking with His father? We don't know. But Bryant stood and read Psalms 88 as that could have been a very appropriate prayer for Jesus at that time.
After this emotional visit, we had time to visit the inside of the beautiful church that now sits on top of Caiaphas' house.
As we left this area, we drove to the Israel Museum which holds two extremely fascinating areas. First is the scaled model of the city during the second Temple period. It was incredible! I had never been able to fully picture in my mind just how dominating the Temple would have been at that time; this helped me see that. It made me think again about being on the Mount of Olives and what the disciples must have thought when Jesus told them that no stone would be left standing of this massive structure.
Being able to see this model really helped pull together everything from our time in this amazing city as we could see where and how events would unfold.
The other incredible exhibit here that we visited were the Dead Sea Scrolls. Given how old these are, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the exhibit, but it was really, really cool to see these ancient manuscripts. The Esserines were a people group of Jews who didn't like the Roman influence. They decided to move out of the city to the desert area to avoid them. They believed there would be a final battle between good and evil where they were the good. When the Romans begin to attack, they though it was the final battle, so they wrote down A LOT of their history, prophecy, and traditions. Their idea was to hide these in clay pots inside a cave until the battle was over, so they could recover them and start their new life with the right groundwork. Of course, the Romans totally wiped them, so this knowledge was lost until a shepherd boy in 1947 was looking for his lost goat and stumbled upon them. Many of their writing are our Old Testament. The book of Esther was not found as it was probably not considered a holy book at that point since there is no mention specifically of God. However, the entire book of Isaiah was found and every single word from start to finish is identical to the current version which is dated over 1,000 years later.
How incredible that God hid His word just before the first wave of dispersing the Jews began in 70 AD, and that He revealed His word again in 1947, just one year before Israel became a nation once again. God inspired His word, and then He protected it. Absolutely stunning.
We ended our day in the most perfect way possible. We visited the site where Protestants like us believe was called Golgotha. This is where Jesus was crucified. It fits the Biblical description in that it looks like a skull, and it would have been outside the city walls. However, it's near the city and would have been on a very busy Roman road. I often think of the crucifixion as taking place on a hill far away on a really tall cross. Really though, that's just not a logical conclusion given the purpose. It makes sense that it would be near a busy area, and not too high off the ground as they want passersby to be able to look at the criminal in the face. They want people to be reminded of the strength and might of the Romans and what would happen to them if they tried to rebel; it served as a warning system.
From there, we walked a short distance to what we believe is the Garden Tomb where Jesus would have been buried. We don't have absolute certainty of this location. However, there are several Biblical items that make us think so. "Garden" at that time would refer to a working agricultural area, not a pretty ornamental garden. A wine press was found here indicating this was a vineyard or winery. Additionally, many tombs were found here which could explain why the angel asked why the women "look for the living among the dead?" This particular tomb was set up as wealthy individual's tomb which would have made sense for Joseph of Arimathea. When this particular tomb was uncovered, there was an inscription on the wall with a cross and the words for Jesus Christ, Alpha and Omega written on it. The last piece of evidence is that even with all these things, the tomb itself was empty. Jesus is risen indeed!
In addition to seeing this empty tomb, we studied Luke 23:33-49 and 24:1-12. There are several things we see in these scriptures:
---Jesus says only seven things while hanging on the cross.
---The two criminals hanging near him initially are both mocking Jesus and telling Him to save Himself and them. Like most of mankind, they want to use Jesus to benefit themselves.
---While Jesus is dying though, one criminal has a change of heart and mind and asks Jesus for mercy for his sins. How encouraging this must have been for Christ! This criminal became the first follower of Christ because of His sacrifice on the cross. The centurion follows after that, and then many others are convicted. The impact of the cross is beginning!
---At His death, the veil inside the temple is torn from top down. This is one of my most favorite parts of the Bible (can you have a most favorite part?). Only God could have torn this incredibly thick veil in two, and it started at the top. He acknowledges that no intermediary is needed to come before Him anymore. We can come directly to Him because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
---The women had prepared everything beforehand for the burial because of the Sabbath; they knew they would not be able to prepare the items on the Sabbath. They had seen him die and seen him buried. They knew where to go for the tomb. This is not a case of mistaken identity.
---The women were the first to find out that Jesus had risen. Jesus has always valued women which was extremely counter-cultural at that time.
---When Peter and John find out that He is risen, they run to meet Christ. Imagine the hope that must have filled Peter when he heard. He had denied Christ, and now he hears that Christ is alive! They can reconcile and he can be restored which we had discussed by the Sea of Galilee a few days prior.
We concluded our time by singing "Were You There" while passing out the Lord's Supper. We ate and drank in remembrance of Christ as He instructed. We then sang "Because He Lives" which brought me to tears as I was overcome with emotion. What an amazing moment. I can rest in the fact that my Savior, Jesus Christ, is not in the tomb. He is alive, and He will return in all His glory to this Holy City. Come Lord Jesus, come!
There is really no nice and neat way to summarize this trip. I am incredibly thankful I had this chance. I wish every believer had the opportunity to take this trip. I can say with certainty it deepened my faith. I love knowing that I saw where Jesus was born, grew up, ministered, healed, taught, prayed, and sacrificed His life. I have seen where He will return one day. He did this so that we as sinful humans can have a full life here that leads to an eternity with Him in Heaven. Praise be to God for all His blessings!
