Jerusalem – the old city

I leave Animation Lab and walk toward the ‘old city’ which is what the locals refer to where all the history of Jesus and the wailing wall and other grand events such as those are located. It’s within the tall wall surrounding the older parts of Jerusalem.

As I head through one of the gates near the top of the hill, a nice man walks up to me. He asks what I’m looking for in the city. I say I’m just here to wander around and see what there is to see. He asks if I would like him to show me around. Why not? I normally would have planned this and had my tour book in my bag, taking on the tour by myself. This time, no tour book and no planning. This is so much easier. We walk into the old city. I say I’m from Dallas and he quickly says, do you know of Irving? Yes…I used to work in Irving. Well he says he was there 20 years ago for some training. What a small world. We stop and he points to a hill in the distance with a tower to the left.





The tower is where Jesus rose into heaven. This tour is not like a tour of New York. I should have brushed up on my bible reading and history. What’s your name, I ask. Ronnie. Oh good, I can remember that one.







I’m taking pictures of the bazaars and buildings we are passing. As we are walking he fills me in on some interesting facts of the city about the layers upon layers this city has been built and rebuilt.







They have excavated parts of the city and in one place we stop and see a layer from 1099 AD and another from 700 BC, in the same hole! While we are walking through the narrow passages of the city, Ronnie points out that the city is divided into 4 parts: Christian, Algerian, Arab, and Jewish.






When we go from one area to another, he points this out as well and I can see a difference in the appearance of the bazaar. It turns out the Jerusalem cross that has the 4 crosses, has 2 possible places of origin. One is the 4 parts of the city. The other is English, German, Italian, and I can’t remember the other. The big cross in the middle is for Jerusalem.






As I’m taking a picture of a stairway we are heading up, not really knowing what we are heading to, we get to the top and Ronnie says…this is where Jesus was crucified. We’ve only been walking for maybe 20 minutes and now this. Wow.








The room, yes it’s in a room (a little bit of time has passed since the event and some remodeling has been done), is adorned with paintings, walls covered in frescos and everything else covered in silver. Jesus is represented on the cross at the back of the room. An small alter is in front of him where people are passing one by one to kneel under and say prayers. I decide this is something I have to do. Not sure what I’m going to do, but it’s not everyday you are standing in front of, or near where Jesus was crucified. It’s my turn. I face the altar and the cross with Jesus. I kneel under the alter as the other people did before me. There is a picture of Jesus and a round silver platter with black etchings on it. I say some prayers. Surprised me, since this is something I haven’t done for quiet some time. This is a good time to start back up. I send out prayers to my family, my community in Dallas, the participants in the Introduction Leaders Program, and to the people suffering in the world.







We now head downstairs and see where they washed Jesus body. This is only about 200-300 feet from the crucifixion. People are placing items on the flat stone. I figure it’s to pass on the spirit of Jesus to their items. I place the Jerusalem cross I bought from Rosie onto the stone.















Right around the corner, about 50-60 paces, is the tomb. What tomb you may ask? ‘The tomb’ where Jesus was buried and then rose from the dead. Ronnie points out there is nothing to see in there. I say to him, it’s because Jesus rose into heaven, of course there would be nothing to see. I do remember something from the bible.



We go down a bunch of stairs to arrive at the other cross that was next to Jesus’. This is where Christianity was born, according to my guide Ronnie.









Remember the wailing wall I mentioned a while back? We are now standing in front of it.









There are hundreds of Jews praying in front of it. I’m wearing a paper hat. I decide to do some prayers in front of the wailing wall too. It can’t hurt, as least it doesn’t look like it from all the people standing in front of the wall. I’m not sure why they are all bobbing forward and back. I figure I will hold back on the bobbing until I know what I’m getting into. I send out prayers to all my family and friends. I also send out a prayer for everyone in the world to have a choice in the life they live.



That is the end of the tour.