Last Days Walk 2

All right folks, departure is literally hours away . . . so there may not be much captioning until later.  But I wanted to document this wonderful day, which was such as special way for our students to end their semester and for us to end our year here.

Gethsemane: Jesus’ Experience in Gethsemane—the Beginning of the Atonement

• Brooke Ellis (Luke 22:39–44; see GSLW, 62–63, including intro to “Reverently and Meekly”); Hymn 185, “Reverently and Meekly Now”
• Jamie Wheeler (Mark 14:43–50; see GSLW, 63–65, 66, esp. “Jesus’ Lonely Atoning Journey”)

Students spread out in the Private Garden for solo pondering time

The trees of the "Old Garden" outside the Basilica of the Agony

 

 

A quiet moment by the Stone of the Agony

 

Walking the Qidron Valley

Following the path taken by Jesus after his arrest, we stopped at the Pillar of Absalom, where I read Psalm 23 and applied it to the experience of Jesus that night: "Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . ."

 

St. Peter in Gallicantu: Jesus before the Jewish Authorities The Denial of Peter

• Blake Risenmay (Mark 14:54, 66–72; see GSLW, 68–69 on “Peter’s Denial”); Hymn 130, “Be Thou Humble”

"The Sacred Stairs," a first century staircase climbing from the Qidron Valley by which Jesus may very well have climbed to his "trial" before Caiaphas

 

Just a few pictures from my favorite model of Byzantine Jerusalem!

The original St. Peter church with the Holy Stairs

The original Holy Sepulchre complex

Close-up of spot of the original Rock of Golgotha under a colonnade but otherwise open

Original church at the Pools of Bethesda (now next to St. Anne's; see below)

Class Pic at Zion's Gate

Walk through the Armenian Quarter and then Picture at the Citadel of David

I agree with many scholars that the probable site of Jesus' trial before Pilate would have been here in the former Palace of Herod, which was used by Roman governors as their residence when they were in the city.

That said, the "traditional site" is near the site of the old Antonia Fortress, where their were Roman barracks.  Hence we continued our Last Week walk with visits to churches along the Via Dolorosa.

Church of the Condemnation: Jesus Falsely Judged

• Sarah Mader (Mark 15:1–14; see GSLW, 77, esp. on “The Problem of Culpability”)

Church of the Flagellation: Jesus Scourged

• Deverey Amundsen (Matthew 27:26–31; GSLW, 78 and 76, “Man of Sorrows” and background of “O Savior, Thou Who Wearest”; Hymn 197, “O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown”

Some Ramadan pictures from Via Dolorosa

 

St. Anne’s: Waiting for the Moving of the Waters at Betheseda (the healing power of the atonement)

• Huntsman on John 5:1–9; Hymn 117, “Come unto Jesus”

Garden Tomb: Crucifixion and Resurrection—the Apogee and Completion of the Atonement

• Dwight “Stripes” Bellingham (John 19:17–30; see GSLW, 84–85); Hymn 184, “Upon the Cross of Calvary”; Hymn 191, “Behold the Great Redeemer Die”
• Lauren Barden (John 20:1–2, 11–18; see GSLW, 111, 114, on witnesses of the Resurrection and esp. Mary Magdalene as a model witness); Hymn 199, “He Is Risen,” maybe Hymn 200, “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”

That way to end my time in Israel: recalling Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection!  He is Risen!