israel post 12

Onto our last day in Israel -- Friday, May 3

I'll try to get this done before a big storm hits...hopefully I don't lose power!

Today, I'll tell you about the Garden Tomb and the Old City...the Garden Tomb was one of my favorite sites we visited on the whole tour. Let me give you a little background. There are two disputed areas for where people believe Jesus was buried and resurrected. One is the Garden Tomb, and the other is the Holy Sepulcher. I guess it really is up to you which one you want to believe in your heart is the "real" deal...

To me, the Garden Tomb was an amazing, spiritual moment for me, and the Holy Sepulcher was an insane, uncomfortable moment...so I prefer to believe that the Garden Tomb is the place. I felt the Holy Spirit there...

We arrived first thing in the morning, before the doors even opened. The area is run by a group of men from England, actually...they volunteer there for a certain amount of time before returning home. I loved our guide there, he was quite animated and very friendly. They believe that this tomb was the correct tomb because of Skull Mountain that is right next to it. Apparently, it is mentioned in the Bible that the tomb was near a mountain wall that looked like a skull. We were lead up to a seating area where our guide explained all of this to us, and we could see the skull he was talking about. Made perfect sense to me! From there, he lead us to a private area that was set up for our group -- it was quiet and peaceful, and it was set up for us to take the Lord's Supper. We each picked up a cracker and a little communion cup full of juice. The cup was made of olive wood, and we were able to keep it as a souvenier.  What better souvenier than this? I love it. We each went off to do communion on our own...Chris and I sat off to the side and took it together. It was an incredibly meaningful experience. I wish I had a photo of the Lord's Supper set up, but I will have to find someone else in our group who has one maybe. From there, we finished off the tour by actually visiting the tomb. It was set in a natural stone wall, and was a narrow opening with a rock to the side. We were able to go inside and see where Jesus was buried. It was very small, with a main room to one side and a tomb area on the other. The main room would be where the women prepared his body for burial. To stand in that tomb was outrageous!! Jesus came back, moved that stone, and was outta there!! 

Cute sign for the Garden Tomb

I can only describe the feeling here as peaceful. I could have spent hours and hours here. I would love to have sat quietly and just prayed. As it was, our tour was always on a strict time frame and so we moved through quicker than I would have liked!

This is one of my favorite photos that I took :)

This was our little guide, he was so cute! Chris, being obsessed with eyebrows, had a hard time watching him talk :)

Chris and I in front of the tomb entrance

You can see the tomb, where the line is waiting to get to...

Behind this fence is the tomb area where Jesus was buried.

And then we turned around to exit the tomb, and we saw this sign...just perfect.

I'll tell about the Holy Sepulcher in the next post, and you can determine which one you feel is the true tomb.

From there, we went to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and learned a lot of history. We visited the southern wall of the temple area, where there are steps that they know for certain Jesus walked on. When a lot of things are guessed, it was quite an experience to know for sure that he was at a place. We sat on the stairs while Yuval talked to us, and some of the stairs were authentic and some were reconstructed. You can see that below...

The southern wall of the Temple Mount; quite a pretty place!

Chris standing in front of the archways that used to take you through to the Temple Mount; you can see how big it is there!

Stairs -- Jesus must have walked here...you can tell where the original steps are and where the reconstructed steps are...

So, we are nearing the end of our trip! Next post(s) will be the Via Dolorosa, the Holy Sepulcher, and the Pools of Bethesda...and our goodbye! I can't believe I'm almost done with everything. What a trip, I'm loving reliving it all!