Via Dolorosa, Holy Sepulcher, Shrine of the Book

today we walked the via dolorosa, the way of the cross. we began our journey by leaving our guesthouse and going out zion gate, walked outside the city walls, and came in through herod's gate, near the antonia fortress. this was our first stop, at the site of the antonia fortress, where Jesus was judged by pilate, who found no fault in this man, then had him flogged. it was eerie standing in the courtyard there, in the place that Christ was scourged. from there we walked just next door to the place known as "ecco homos", "behold the man", which is where Christ was presented by pilate to the crowds along with barrabas, offering the crowd an option to release one of them. they, of course, chose barrabas, and from there Christ was handed over to be crucified, stripped of his clothing, given a purple robe and crown of thorns, mocked and spat upon before being given his cross to carry. we descended down a flight of stairs to the old part of the street that has been preserved, where we were able to see the roman street that existed at the time of Christ. i wondered, was he spat upon here? did he drag his cross along this street?
the rest of the stations were marked, many with small chapels where we were able to stop and ponder. i was surprised at how respectful the marketplace vendors were as we walked by, not bothering us with the usual hawking and encouraging us to come and look at what they had to sell.
we ended at the church of the Holy Sepulcher, where tradition holds is the place of Golgotha, where Christ was crucified, and also the place of the tomb. It is an enormous place, very beautiful and very old, from the 3rd or 4th century. i did go up to the place that is marked as the spot of the cross, it's quite a climb up the steps, and was able to kneel and touch the stone of golgotha beneath the altar. after i descended, i looked to go down to the tomb area, but had an overwhelming feeling not to go there. and then the verse from scripture popped into my head, "why do you seek the living among the dead? he is not here, he is risen." i took this as a pretty good cue and instead went to sit outside in the courtyard of the church, among the stones of jerusalem and the birds. that felt like the right place to be.
after lunch (we found a place that sold pizza slices, kosher of course!) we got on the bus and journeyed to the israel museum and the shrine of the book. they have a large scale model outside, 1/50, of the city of jerusalem at the time of the second temple, the time of Jesus. that was really cool, to see a bird's eye view of the entire city as it was back then.
the shrine of the book was, i think, my favorite thing today. in here are housed many of the scrolls and codexes found in the excavations at the dead sea. it is shaped like a large jar, such as the type that the scrolls were found in. walking into the center of the room, you see the isaiah scroll, the most intact and complete scroll found at qumran. it is not the whole scroll, only a portion, and is not the real thing, it is a replica. but it was still amazing to see the huge piece there for viewing. i was very moved to be able to observe such ancient texts, many of the jars, and tools found in the excavation of the site. our tour guide, Naim, was one of the workers at the excavation site and personally knew the young boy who first discovered the scrolls in the caves. it was fun to hear him talk about the excavation and to point himself, the boy, and many of his colleagues out in the pictures on display.
the day has gone from the way of sorrows of the word made flesh to the way of joy of discovering ancient words.
shalom,
jan