Jerusalem is an interesting place, filled with so much important history for 3 major religions. Friday evening, just after Shabbat had started and while the lights atop the mosques glowed green calling the Muslims to prayer, my heart began to break for the all of these people earnestly seeking God, without seeing the fullfillment of God's promises to mankind in the person of Jesus. One group of Orthodox Jewish men had walked up to a passageway on top of the markets but still slightly below my building where they stood in a circle singing and praying. You could hear the longing in their voices, for God to accomplish what He had promised, this desperation that I don't think that many of us understand, at least I know I don't. All I could think of was "why me?" why, out of everyone in the earth, was I chosen by God. Why was I sought out when I hadn't really cared or wanted God, while here these people are crying out. I think for the first time in my life I realized what Paul meant when he said that he wished himself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his brothers, the Jews (Romans 9:3-5). I personally don't understand why God doesn't radically reveal Himself to them, or why He doesn't soften their hearts so that they can see His grace and lovingkindness that is in Jesus Christ. But then, it isn' t really my job to understand His ways, and so I will continue to dig in in prayer, trusting that my good Abba Adonai will accomplish His plan, in His way and His timing.
Another thing that broke my heart took place on Sunday as our class as a whole was visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Now, most of you know that I'm not really a fan of fancy things and that extravagance and religiosity surrounding extravagance are actually pretty big turnoffs for me. Well, sadly I have to say that that more or less summed up my experience at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. All I could think of was "What would Jesus say about this if He were here? How would He feel about this place?" I might be totally off base here, but I'm just being honest about what I feel. How much of that place reflected His life on earth and the principles that He taught? I understand the desire to worship God with our material possessions and to give Him the absolute best, but I have a hard time seeing the person of Jesus walking through a shrine-like church where people kiss the stone that some say He was laid on and then fight among demoninations over who gets to control which parts of the church. A wall was actually constructed in order to separate the different demoniation's sections of the church, and actual fighting has ensued over cleaning certain areas of it. No wonder we aren't often recognized as His disciples any more. If we can't show love in what we claim to be one of the most holy places, where Jesus' humility and self-sacrifice was shown in the greatest measure, and the power of God was displayed unlike ever before, where can we show it? With all of the inward focus, what has happened with practical living incarnationally among the masses, eating at their tables, befriending the traitor, defending the prostitute, ministering to the masses of ordinary people?
The day before, when the rest of our class was still in Beer Sheva, a small group of us had gone and visited the Garden Tomb, a place where some claim might have been the actual place of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. There were a number of reasons that each place can possibly be discounted as the legitimate place for the events talked about in the Bible, but I'm not going to go into that right now. The Garden Tomb is outside of the current Old City gates, in the Muslim area of the city, and crammed right up next to a bustling bus station (even though once you're inside you would never guess it aside from one area overlooking the station). Compared to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, it's a lot more "realistic" to what the actual place would have been like 2000 years ago. The site they claim is Golgotha is right up against the bus station along a road heading to Damascus. The actual Golgotha would have most likely been along a major road where anyone traveling in that direction could have seen those being crucified, thus dissuading them from disobeying the Roman law. A short way away from the bus station, the remains of a tomb, most likely belonging to a rich man, had been found. This tomb, unlike the other one, had nothing elaborate to it, just a simple room holed out in a rock wall. The only things added to the tomb itself were a simple metal gate blocking off the what could have been the stone where Jesus was laid, and a sign on the inside of the tomb near the door saying "He is not here, He has risen" (a message that I didn't see at all in the church). The rest of the area was just a garden, kept up by a few workers in dirty jeans, t-shirts, and warm smiles. Nothing fancy, nothing really to do with ritual or tradition...simply a place to reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus and the fact that the tomb is empty.
I think that our guide put it the best. He told us that he didn't know whether or not the place that he was showing us was where the resurrection actually took place 2000 years ago, but he did know that personal resurrections occured there daily, and that was the work that Jesus came for. I guess that different people experience that in different ways, and I believe that some people truly do have a "God experience" in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I know that if nothing else, it opened up a lot of converstations about religion and faith between the Christians and the Jews in my class that otherwise probably never would have taken place. It was hard to answer their questions of "What does this place mean to you as a Christian?" when I don't really know what the place itself means to me. Overall, I ended up saying, it means that we have a long way to go as Christians when it comes to love and really living among the people, but most of all, regardless of what site you go to, it means that the tomb is empty, and that is where our hope rests. The tomb is empty, He is not there, He has risen. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment