Bethlehem and Jerusalem

On Friday, we did not go on an excursion; we went on a pilgrimage. It would be more appropriate to consider ourselves as pilgrims this day rather than tourists. In fact, our trip was called “In the Footsteps of Jesus”, a true pilgrimage indeed!

First a word about our port. In Israel we docked at the port town of Haifa. When we were docked, we could look out our stateroom window directly to Mt. Carmel, which overlooks the port of Haifa. 

Mt. Carmel

Mt. Carmel is very significant in the Bible. It is the location where Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to call down fire from their god, and when they failed, he called down fire from his God, which proved that his God was the true God. You can read the story in 1 Kings 18:21-39. Our tour guide for the day, Judith, showed us the place on Mt. Carmel where this is believed to have taken place.

As mentioned, our tour guide’s name was Judith, and our bus driver’s name was Hamudi. As Judith reviewed our day’s activities, I found it interesting that she said we will visit Bethlehem, and then we will enter Jerusalem. Not that we will go to Jerusalem, but that we will “enter Jerusalem”. Fitting words for a pilgrimage. I’m sure this is because of the fact that there exists a wall around Jerusalem, and you can only get to Jerusalem by going through one of a few gates in the wall. Hence, we “enter Jerusalem”.

Our first stop was in Bethlehem, which is actually located in the Palestinian part of the West Bank. There is a wall separating Israel from the West Bank, and security is required when entering Israel from Palestine. But on our way there, as we entered Palestine from Israel, we did not need to go through any security.

Our visit to Bethlehem was for one purpose: to visit the Church of the Nativity – the place where Jesus was born.

Sign in bus parking lot. Apparently "The Church" is why people come to Bethlehem.

In most of the holy places in Israel, they built churches over the important religious sites, hence the Church of the Nativity over the site where Jesus was born.

Our bus parked in a garage across the street from a hotel called “Holy Family Hotel.” 

When we got off the bus, another guide took over for Judith, because when in Palestine, we were required to have a Palestinian guide. Our Palestinian guide’s name was Khalid.

Khalid walked us a few blocks over to the Church of the Nativity. 

They don't have Starbucks in Bethlehem, but apparently they have this.

The church is actually shared by three groups: Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian. 

Entering Church of the Nativity

The Catholic part of the church exists in a lower-level grotto, and is believed to be the actual place where Jesus was born. There was a line to go down and see the actual birthplace, but unfortunately, we were not able to go, because the line had a 3-hour wait, and our tour schedule didn’t allow us to have 3 hours to spend in line. That was a disappointment. We did get to see the entrance of the cave – it was a cave that Jesus was born in - and we saw the steps going down into the cave. 

Khalid pointed out to us that this was the entrance where Mary and Joseph would have entered the cave, but that Jesus would have been born further back in the cave, because according to Khalid, a woman could not give birth at an entrance to a cave. What? They actually had laws about that back then? How often were women giving birth in caves? Just some curious thoughts that came to me when Khalid said that.

Upon leaving the church, as we walked the streets of Bethlehem, we heard some loud yelling. Joe asked Khalid what the loud yelling was. Khalid pointed out that as today is Friday, it is the holy day for Muslims – the day when they go to Mosque – and they preach on the streets by yelling. I guess their way of evangelizing?

 

Security in this part of the world - just a regular Palestinian soldier standing guard outside a storefront

We got back on the bus and drove through the opening in the wall surrounding Israel, this time having to submit to a security check since we were entering Israel. We had a brief stop while they checked us out and then waved us through. We drove to Jerusalem and stopped for lunch at a nice hotel. At lunch, we sat at a table with two other people: Frank and his wife who live just south of Perth, Australia. I was absent from the table during introductions, and Joe did not catch the wife’s name, so she will have to be referred to as Mrs. Frank. So we had a nice chat with Mr. and Mrs. Frank and were able to share with them some of our adventures from our trip to Australia.

Side note: It seems like a lot of people on this cruise are from Australia, and also there are a lot of people from England. When people ask us where we are from, I have to get used to saying “United States” instead of “Pennsylvania.”

After lunch, we drove towards the old city, with a stop at an overlook, where we had a beautiful view of Old Jerusalem.

 

Our first stop once in the city center of Jerusalem was the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of Gethsemane. We walked alongside the Garden to get to the Church. 

Garden of Gethsemane

This church was built in a part of the Garden of Gethsemane, over a huge rock that is believed to be the place where Jesus prayed in agony while in the Garden. We were able to go in and touch the actual rock that Jesus prayed over – an awe-inspiring experience.

From the Church of Gethsemane, we looked across the Kidron Valley to Jerusalem, which was surrounded by a wall. 

We imagined Jesus, after He was arrested, being led out of this Garden, across the Kidron Valley below, and up into the city of Jerusalem. 

There are different openings in the wall through which you enter, called Gates. There is the Damascus Gate, the Jaffa Gate, the Lions’ Gate, and the Dung Gate, which is the one we entered through.

 

The old center of Jerusalem is divided into four quarters: the Christian quarter, the Moslem quarter, the Jewish quarter, and the Armenian quarter. The Armenian quarter is closed to the public, but we did pass through the other three quarters, with most of our time spent in the Christian quarter.

Our first stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was built on top of the place where Jesus was crucified and also where he was buried, which is nearby. 

Church entrance

Inside the church, we saw the slab that they laid Jesus on when they took Him down from the cross, and again were able to walk up to it and touch it. 

We then walked around the corner and saw the “empty tomb” – the place where Jesus was laid after He was taken down from the cross, but which soon became empty after He rose from the dead. On the way out, we looked up to where the hill of Calvary was, still within the church, it was upstairs. We were hoping to go up to see the actual site, but there was a church service taking place and so we were not able to go there. So a glance in that direction had to suffice.

We then walked through the very narrow, crowded streets of Jerusalem, our poor tour guide Judith trying to keep 40 people together. 

We eventually came to the Via Dolorosa, the way that Jesus walked as He carried His cross up to Calvary. 

While we walked through the Via Dolorosa from the end (we had started at the crucifixion site) to the beginning, we took the easier path than Jesus had: we walked downhill, He had carried his cross uphill. It was quite steep and we had to watch our footing. I imagined Jesus carrying a heavy cross up this steep walkway, after having been scourged, and could easily understand why He would have fallen. The various “Stations of the Cross” were displayed on the wall in each spot, so that we could see where they each took place: Jesus’ falls, Jesus meets His mother, Jesus meeting Veronica, Simon of Cyrene helping Jesus to carry His cross, etc. It was very moving to walk along this sacred path and think of what took place here 2000 years ago.

We eventually walked from the Christian quarter, through the Moslem quarter, and into the Jewish quarter. This being a Friday, we enjoyed the full experience of Jerusalem, as there were many Jews dressed for Shabbat (Sabbath) working their way through the quarter to the Western (Wailing) Wall. They were dressed in formal coats, hats, and most had long beards. 

By now it was evening, when the Sabbath begins and so they were heading for the Western Wall where they were going to participate in the weekly Sabbath prayers.

 

When we arrived in the area of the Western Wall, it was very crowded in the plaza in front of the Wall where we had gathered. You could hear the Jews chanting at the Wall from all over the plaza, and it was very moving. The men and women do not worship together, so the men were all gathered on the left hand side of the wall (as we were facing it) and the women were on the right side. We were allowed to walk up to the wall and touch it, and also leave prayer intentions in one of the many cracks in the wall. Joe couldn’t get to the actual wall due to the abundance of Jewish men praying there, but I was able to walk right up on the women’s side of the wall, touch it, and leave my prayer intentions in a crevasse. We also saw some young people gathered in a circle in the plaza, dancing and singing as part of the Sabbath celebration.

The Western Wall was our last stop in Jerusalem. We re-boarded our bus for the two-hour drive back to Haifa. In summary, it is hard to express the emotions of this day. Being in Israel, in Jerusalem, it feels like you are standing on holy ground. To be in the place where God walked on this earth, where He was born as a human being, where He allowed Himself to be crucified – all because of the love He has for us. It is impossible to describe the feeling of awe one feels in these sacred spaces, where you can sense God’s presence. To wander through the land where people like Abraham, David, Elijah, Mary, Peter, John, Paul, and all the apostles walked, and to walk “In the Footsteps of Jesus”, was an incredibly inspiring and awesome experience of a lifetime!