bmartin's Blog

Shalom from Jerusalem,
Sorry I didn’t get to blog last night but I fell asleep around 4pm and woke up at 4am. My body is still getting used to this time zone. I’m seven hours ahead of you.
Today was cold and rainy but it was the perfect backdrop to our journey.
We began the morning walking the Via Dolorosa. It’s the traditional pathway Jesus took from Pilate’s Judgment Hall to Calvary. Several feet below the present roadway, under the Convent of the Sisters of Zion (which we also visited), you can see the pavement upon which Jesus walked as He went out of judgment hall.
Several feet from Jesus’ walk with the cross He earlier healed the man at the pool. You can read the account in John Chapter 5. One of the things that’s amazed me here is how close events and things are to each other.
This afternoon we visited the spot were Jesus was crucified and the Garden Tomb. At both places our usually noisy group was eerily quiet. At the northern end of the garden is a tomb cut out of the rock. It fits the description in Johns Gospel where Jesus’ body was laid to rest. The tomb today is maintained by the Garden Tomb Association of London. It’s one of the most peaceful settings in all of Jerusalem.
The most remarkable thing about the tomb though is not the beauty, or remarkable state of preservation; the remarkable thing about the tomb is that it is empty!
Yesterday, we were at King David’s Tomb, the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) and the Upper Room where Jesus and His disciples ate the last Passover together and where He established the Communication Service (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12). The day was breathtaking.
Tomorrow, we leave Jerusalem. I have fallen in love with this city. We’re off to the Dead Sea, and then Masada. Herod the Great made a fortification out if this huge plateau. When Jerusalem fell under Titus in 70 AD, a band of Jewish patriots made their way to Masada and fought the Romans for three years. We’ll be spending the next days in Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.
One final note in case you’re wondering, the people here have been fantastic and no one has ever felt uneasy.
See you soon,
Bill