Easter Break 2007

Happy Easter from the Holy Land everybody! I hope this Easter season has inspired you to meet the Risen Christ in humility and awe. We have had an amazing Holy week. There are few things to compare this past week to when it comes right down to it. The week started off with a walk around the Old City walls of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We started at Jaffa Gate and ended up on the opposite side of the city at a gate called St. Stephen's Gate because tradition holds that the gate that they took Stephen out to be stoned. The annual Palm Sunday procession comes in off the Mount of Olives and marches in through this gate so we sat on top and waved palm branches and shouted as thousands of believers streamed in singing praises in all different languages. It's beautiful to see and hear the way in which the voices all blend together in a mosaic of praise as they proceed into the city of Jerusalem.
We celebrated the coming of Spring Break by going to Jerusalem on Wednesday night to hear the first ever performance of Handel's Messiah in Hebrew in Israel. It was an historic event that was much enjoyed. For those of you scratching your head thinking The Messiah is a Christmas piece it might be helpful to know that it was originally an Easter piece that later became a Christmas tradition. We usually attend The Messiah at Christmas but we missed this year. On Wednesday we had our chance.
We continued our observance of Holy Week on Maundy Thursday. St. Georges Cathedral north of the Old City does a beautiful service that includes a foot washing and walk out to the Mount of Olives afterwards. We stood in amongst the olive trees and pictured what it would have looked like on the night in which Jesus was arrested. As the priest spoke we could hardly see him standing in front of us. It was cold and we had walk quite a ways to get back to the van but it was well worth it.
Easter Sunday we went to The Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives for a sunrise service. Easter morning was cold and windy. When the service began it was pitch black. As the pastor began to speak the first signs of dawn began coloring the sky as we sat facing East. By the time we took communion the sun broke through the low clouds that hung over Jordan and we closed the service marveling at the handiwork of God.
We have done a bit of traveling as well in our time off. We took off on Saturday and went Northwest to Mt. Carmel where Elijah fought the prophets of Baal and God sent down fire from Heaven. We went horseback riding for about an hour. As far as horseback riding goes, it was pretty uneventful which is good. My saddle didn't slip, I wasn't thrown from the horse. It was a good day.
Then we went to Tel Meggido, a site that was highly coveted for it's control over the fertile Jezreel Valley and the North-South trade route. Meggido was conquered and resettled over 25 times! It became so associated with conflict and warfare that the Book of Revelations says the final Battle will take place on the plain below Har (Hebrew word for Mountain) Megiddo or some of you may know it as Armageddon.
From there we continued on to visit Nazareth, the home town of Jesus. We visited the Basilica of the Annunciation. Here an early Christian tradition existed that the home of Mary stood. Today a beautiful church stands over top of it and you can visit the remains of Mary's house in the grotto beneath the church. It is hear that the angel would have appeared to Mary to tell her she was with Child.
After Nazareth we continued on to the traditional site of Cana of Galilee. This site is debated. Some scholars believe the site to be elsewhere but the this was the site Johnny Cash visited on his tour of the Holy Land so we figured if it was good enough for the Man in Black it's good enough for us. After a brief cruise through the Northern port city of Haifa, we returned home.
Today we took off and did some of the southern sites including Bet Guvrin, Lachish, and Beer Sheva. Beer Sheva is connected with the Patriarchs. It was also refortified during King Hezekiah's time. I must say I was impressed by the ruins but disappointed at the False advertising. There is no beer at Beer Sheva. But at least we can say that we've been from Dan to Beer Sheva. This is a biblical phrase used to describe Israel's historical boundaries.