Bethlehem

Wow, what a trip this has been so far! After getting up at 3:45 on Thursday to catch my 6 hour flight to New York, followed by a 7 hour layover, then a 10 hour flight to Israel, and only a brief cat-nap on the flight, I was ready to crash. So I finally got to bed at the hotel and slept for 11 hours. It seemed to cure all jet lag as I was ready to go on the first day of the tour.

The day began with a stop at the Pater Noster, a convent and the place where Jesus taught his disciple’s the “Pater Noster” what we know as The Lord’s Prayer. This sacred prayer has been carved into stone along the walls in well over 200 languages! What an impressive and moving experience to see how Christians from all over the world are represented in this one place.

Next stop was the Mount of Olives, which played such an important role in the bible. From this place you can see much of the city, including where the Temple once stood, and where the Dome of Rock now stands. Then we walked down the hill to where the Garden of Gethsemane is located. The Church of the Nations is built over the place where Jesus prayed and sweat drops of blood. We stopped and read Luke 22, the passage that recounts the events in the Garden. We were moved as we thought about how these very events happened right where we were standing!

From the Garden of Gethsemane, which is as the bottom of the Mount of Olives, we headed up the next “mount” passed the Old City Wall, and went to see the Upper Room, where Jesus had the Last Supper, and where the Holy Spirit came on the disciples on Pentecost. The original room no longer exists, but another had been built there to commemorate this place. Again we read the scripture about the Last Supper and sang “Amazing Grace.”

The next part was the most exciting part of the day – Bethlehem! Bethlehem is in the Palestinian Territory, and since Lillian, our tour guide, is an Israeli citizen, she was not allowed to go with us. So they arranged for a Palestinian tour guide to take us to Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity is built over the cave where Jesus was born. The church has three owners and three sections: Orthodox, Armenian, and Roman Catholic. The entrance is only about 4 feet high so that everyone must bow in humility as they enter the church. The group then waited in the Orthodox Church until it was our turn to enter the cave. As I descended down the narrow stairs I experienced a growing reverence and sense of awe that I was about to see the place where God became man! I waited my turn, then knelt and touched the spot with my hand and said a prayer of praise to God. Then I went over and looked at the place where the manger had been. After our group had all seen the sacred site, we stood in a circle and sang “Silent Night”. I wished that I could have stood there and sang that song 2000 years ago!

Our last stop of the day was at The Shepherd’s Field, where angels appeared to the shepherds and announced the birth of Jesus. There is a cave there where the shepherds were sleeping while tending their sheep. The cave is now a small church, and we read from Luke 2 about the angels and shepherds.

We returned to our hotel, ate dinner, and now I am in my hotel room reflecting on my day:

1.       This land is a rough land; extremely hilly, very rugged and barren of trees. There is no flat land in Jerusalem, Jesus walked up and down hills all day long!

2.       The Jews considered Israel to be the center of the world, and I can see why. It is the place where three continents meet, it was on the road of commerce and travel between nations, and it is where armies were sent to meet one another and have it out. The history and geography of this place is amazing!

3.       This land is filled with spiritual meaning – no wonder they call it the Holy Lands. A lot of God appearances happened here, angels gave messages here, and God came in human flesh in this place and walked its dusty roads.  

4.       A lot of God-wrestling has happened here, and it was rightly named Israel: one who wrestles with God. God is still showing up and people are still wrestling with Him.

5.       When we truly encounter God we will wrestle with Him because we all want something from God. But in the end we will come out limping, as Jacob did, but that will be OK, because that limp is the mark of God on our life.