Day 7 - The Way of Sorrows

Today I prayed at the Wailing Wall. I prayed next to an Orthodox Jew with dozens of others to my right and left. You can't quite see it from the photo, but I also had a written list of people in my left hand I promised I would pray for when I got to this point. Others I hadn't planned on praying for were lifted up to God as well. When I finished praying from the list, I slipped the prayer list into a crack in the wall.

It was a moving experience to pray there. This was a wall left from the Temple Jesus walked by while in Jerusalem. It is called the Western Wall because that is the wall that is closest to where the Holy of Holies would have been. The Holy of Holies is where God dwelt in the Temple and in Israel. So this was the spot closest to where God dwelt on earth in the Temple times. It is also called the Wailing Wall referring to the fact that the Jewish people would come to this place and weep over the destruction of the Temple.

Men and women do not pray together. There is a rope separating the sides. Many Jewish families will have the Bar Mitzvahs for their sons at the Wailing Wall when the sons turn 13 years old. I counted two families at the wall while we were there and others waiting to go in. It was not a quite place. There was a lot of singing and chanting and reciting out loud from the Torah. The total amount of wall where the men can pray is not that large. It is about the width of St. Andrews (the church I serve) sanctuary up front.

In the U.S., many are taught that when men walk into a building they are to remove their hats. At holy sites like the Western Wall, as a sign of respect to God, men are to cover their heads. Those who had ball caps or other head cover were fine, but those like me who did not wear a hat got a Kippah, or Yarmulke. This is the small skull cap worn during worship or, depending on your tradition, constantly. You can barely see the white one I was wearing in the photo above. It is a beautiful way to honor and respect the holiness and presence of God.

The rest of the day was spent following the final events that took place on the Thursday and Friday of the week Jesus died. I had already been into the tomb where Jesus was buried and resurrected three days later. Earlier we had already been the Church of the Ascension where Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives. Today, was about the final hours, the final moments, and the death of Jesus.

We went to the place where he was tried and beaten. We walked to the place where Pontius Pilate held trial. We saw the place where Caiaphas the High Priest held trial. There we visited a dungeon that was likely the place where they kept him while deliberating. This was also the place Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. We walked a path that may well have been the "way of sorrows" he walked on the road to Golgotha where he was crucified. Today, Golgotha and the tomb are covered by the same church, the Church of the Sepulcher. As at the tomb yesterday, I was able to get onto my knees at the spot where Jesus was crucified and pray. All I could think to say in my silent prayer was, "Lord, out of love for you and with gratitude for your work of salvation right here on the cross, I will seek to live a life worthy of what you did for me."

Just scan over that last paragraph again. Think about the impact of those places we visited today Those events have literally changed the world. We have seen evidence of that in Jerusalem as we have heard literally dozens of languages spoken all around us and seen the "red, yellow, black, and white" who are precious in God's sight all around. They all are followers of this Jesus. It was such a large reality I have to confess that I was spiritually on overload. I described it at lunch as having reached "saturation." It is just too much to take in. Too real, too moving, too beautiful, too much to visually ingest, too important, and too much connection between stories and physical space. I was on Jerusalem overload. And that was not a terrible thing. It was like listening to your favorite song again and again. It is because it is so good and you don't want to stop, but your mind and soul can only take so much.

Tomorrow, we will go to the Dead Sea, Masada, and the site where the found one of the greatest archeological treasures in recent history: Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They told us to bring a bathing suit to swim (float) in the Dead Sea. I'm not sure. Granny Fullerton might freeze to death. We'll see.

Off to dinner and to process the day with others.

Shalom