by Pastor Patrick Cho

Today was a bus day! Instead of walking everywhere we went, an air-conditioned bus picked us up in the morning and dropped us off at our location. It then picked us up and took us to our next destination. My legs were so grateful for this gift of grace! I appreciate so much more how much walking the people in Jesus’ day must have done. For example, Jerusalem and Bethany are on opposite sides of the Mount of Olives. Jesus probably stayed in Bethany during Passover, which means He walked over the Mount of Olives almost every night during the Passion Week! We took a bus.

So our first destination was the Mount of Olives. The bus took us to the top of the hill and we walked down. Walking downhill, we came first to the Jewish cemetery that pretty much covers the entire south side of the hill. Although this is not the exact cemetery that Jesus would have referred to in Matthew 23:27, it provided a great picture of what Jesus was saying. The Jews buy plots on the Mount of Olives facing the Temple Mount. The view from up there is absolutely breathtaking! Because of the view, it is prime real estate for dead people. A plot could easily cost a few hundred thousand dollars, and sometimes over a million! So, it’s not an average Joe’s burial ground. It is understood by some that they want to be buried there so that they can have front row seats when the Messiah comes to establish His kingdom. It’s so sad to consider that He did come already and that He won’t be coming to save them when He comes again.

The hill is literally covered with graves. On most of the graves, there are stones that people have piled on the grave markers to remember the deceased. An example of this is seen at the end of the movie “Schindler’s List,” when the Jews walk by and put stones on Oscar Schindler’s grave. Some of the graves have a lot of stones on them, which may indicate that the person there was very important, like Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the inventor of Modern Hebrew, and Menahem Begin, former prime minister of Israel.

From the cemetery, we headed to the sanctuary of Dominus Flevit. This is a church deliberately designed to look like a tear drop or upside-down mourner’s cup. Back in Jesus’ day, professional mourners would collect their tears so that if real emotions could not be mustered up, they could artificially add some tears to their faces. The cups were also given to the survivors of the victims as mementos. Dominus Flevit is supposedly the location where Jesus mourned over Jerusalem. The location is possible, but there is no way to really know for sure. But it was helpful to see the view that Jesus would have had as He came up over the Mount of Olives from Bethany. When He saw the city out across the horizon, He wept for the lost people of the city (Luke 19:41-42).

Our next destination down the hill was the first of two possible sites for Gethsemane. The first was the Roman Catholic site, which was a very beautiful and lush garden filled with olive trees and various flowers. Of course, there was also a huge church there with a mass service. The place was really crowded with tourists. There were also vendors at the entrance trying to sell goods and souvenirs to the crowds walking by. The honking cars and buses also stole away from the serenity of the location.

The second possible location is probably more likely given the historical data, but both locations don’t have a ton of support. Really Jesus could have prayed anywhere, but the name Gethsemane means “a press of oil” and some oil presses were discovered in both areas. When the Crusaders first came to this second site, they believed it to be the likely spot. Through various circumstances, the Eastern Orthodox Church was able to secure the location. At least with this one, the Roman Catholics got the second choice. There isn’t a garden here but a grotto next to the giant Orthodox Church. We only took a brief look around because they were conducting mass at the grotto.

We then jumped back on the bus and headed to the Israel Museum. This was a bit of a disappointing stop because we did not know the museum was going to close for Sabbath as early as it did. By the time we got around to actually entering the museum, it was closed. Still, out in the center open air area of the museum, they have a giant model of Jerusalem as it would have looked in the days of Herod and Jesus. This was a very impressive sight! The model isn’t entirely biblical, but still very effective. It was also inspired by the Talmud and Josephus, so there are buildings there that are not mentioned in the Bible. It was helpful to give our group an overview of the topography of the city and the distances of locations in relation to each other. It was also helpful to see which walls and gates would have been around in Jesus’ day.

From there, we got back on the bus and headed to the city outside the Damascus Gate to visit Gordon’s Calvary. This was a beautiful and serene location, but very unlikely as the actual location for the crucifixion. Still, it served as a helpful picture of the events that took place around Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is funny though how growing up, this was the location that the churches I attended emphasized. It is from this location that Sunday School children are taught that the stone that was rolled away was over six feet in diameter and up to eighteen inches thick. In reality, the stone for Jesus’ tomb was probably more like four feet in diameter. Given all the historical details, an overwhelming case can be made that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the actual location. This was a bit disappointing because Gordon’s Calvary is a much prettier and serene location.

That pretty much concluded our day. We walked back to the hotel and had a chance to briefly do some shopping before having dinner. After dinner, we had class time together with the folks from Dallas Theological Seminary to prepare for tomorrow. We will be visiting the Central Benjamin Plateau, which was a very strategic area for the nation Israel because of its topography. I’m super excited because we will begin the day by heading out to Jericho via the eastern wilderness. I have been looking forward to that for months now.