Biblical Places Spiritual Spaces - The Holy Sepulcher

Think for a moment when someone did the right thing in an extreme situation at the risk of their own welfare, even their own life.

The shepherd David, running across the Valley of Elah to face the giant Goliath to the stream directly below the Philistine line, gathering five smooth stones and confronting Goliath, who was taunting the God of Israel and striking fear in the hearts of the Isralites.

George Washington, after suffering defeat after defeat at the hand of the British, retreating across New Jersey as his army dwindled in a cold and rainy December, sudd

enly bring his troops across the Delaware River on Christmas Eve and defeating the Hessian soldiers at Trenton and Princeton.

Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, commanding the 20^th Maine Volunteer Regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg, defending the Union left flank at Little Round Top, who withstood numerous charges by the 15^th Alabama Infantry Regiment and when out of ammunition personally led a bayonet charge down the hill routing the Confederates, which many have said won the battle for the Union.

Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who personally led a charge through withering fire up a heavily defended San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish America, being the first to reach the enemy’s trenches, leading his regiment on to victory.

 

General Theodor Roosevelt Jr., who led the first assault wave at Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944, who disregarded heavy artillery and machine gun fire, directed the first and successive waves of the 1^st Infantry Division the entire morning, inspiring his soldiers and through his personal bravery, establishing the first American foothold in Europe during the Second World War.

These men along with many others disregarded their own safety and did things that were for the benefit of others, at a great personal risk.

We call them heroes. They are men who have inspired others to self-sacrifice for the common good.  Throughout human history civilizations and cultures have been changed by these heroic actions.

Who is the man who has affected Human History the most?

Who is the Greatest Hero of all time?

Let’s visit the site where this was revealed.

There were three events in Jerusalem which required the attendance of all Jewish males- Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  It was the custom of the traveling families to sing the “Songs of Ascent”, Psalms 120-134, as they journeyed up to Jerusalem, which sits at 2800 above sea level. Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, is seven miles east of Jerusalem and 830 below sea level. It was a steep walk uphill from Jericho to Jerusalem!

 According to the rabbinical traditions, when the pilgrims reached the top of the Mount of Olives, they shifted to singing Psalm 113, and then Psalm 114 as they began the descent into the Kidron Valley. Psalm 115 and Psalm 116 were sung as they looked down on the Temple and walked through the graveyards along the valley.  Psalm 117 is a short one (two verses) for the steep uphill walk from the bottom of the Kidron valley to the Temple gate, and finally, as they entered the Temple, it was common practice to sing Psalm 118.

Listen to the words of this prophetic song that every Jew for generations sung during these three annual pilgrimages.

 Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the Lord.

Those gates lead to the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there.

I thank you for answering my prayer and saving me!

The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone.

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see.

This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Please, Lord, please save us. Please, Lord, please give us success. 

                                                                                                Psalm 118:19-25

This verse was so significant that in one of his conversations with the religious leaders, Jesus applied this passage of Scripture to Himself in the parable of the vineyard in Mark 12, where the owner sends a number of his servants to collect the rent for the vineyard from the tenants, who beat all and eventually kill some of the servants. Finally, the owner sends his son, thinking they would not dare to kill him, but the tenants do, since he is the heir.

 “What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do?” Jesus asked. “I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others.  Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?

‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.

 This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.’”                                Mark 12:9-11

We could conceive in our minds an understanding of this passage:  How Jesus, the true foundation of the Kingdom of God, was rejected by the religious leaders because He didn’t obey their laws and traditions, and did not fit into their perceptions of who the Messiah would be. We could be satisfied with this understanding. 

But there is an even more meaningful, even more electrifying illustration of this principle.

When the Assyrian Empire was sweeping through the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8^th Century B.C., many refugees fled this conflict to the city of Jerusalem. It was during this time that the King of Judah ordered the building of an extension of the city wall to encompass those “daughters” of Jerusalem who were residing outside of the city walls.  A portion of this wall is visible in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City today.

One of the quarries where the stones were cut for this wall is to the west of the ancient wall.  This quarry was active until the 6^th century B.C. when the Babylonians conquered Judah.  For over 500 years the quarry sat abandoned, used only for the burial of the dead.  Amid this quarried area is one promontory of rock that has cracks running throughout the limestone. The stone cutters quarried about this cracked rock, as it was unsuitable for construction. 

When the Romans arrived in the First Century B.C, they used this outcropping of rock of the abandoned quarry to execute their prisoners.  This promontory was visible to all travelers who were heading west on the coast road, and this “public visibility” was important for the terror control that the Romans wanted to exert on their subjects.

The Scriptures record that Jesus was led outside the city to the “Place of the Skull” where he was crucified.  When His body was removed, it was taken to a nearby tomb which had never been used.

 

Today the Church of the Holy Sepulcher sits atop this site.

 

 

 

 

 

Our study tour group 2018

 

 

 

Laura changing Moselle 2000

Arielle & Laura on the same bench, 2018

 

 

 

When you enter the door to this church constructed in the 11^th and 12^th century, you can take an immediate right turn, climb 28 steep steps, and find yourself standing before a glitzy altar that sits on top of this outcropping of rock.

 

 

 

 

Recently, archeologists covered the top of this rock with plexiglass panels, which clearly reveal the cracks running through the rock. 

Descend down the back stairs and you are standing in front of the ‘Chapel of Adam’, where these fractures are upfront and close.

 

 

 

Less than 150 feet away from the chapel is the Syrian Chapel, where in the 1890’s the walls of the Holy Sepulcher were moved further out in an expansion effort, revealing a series of First Century “kohem” style tombs.

 

 

 

These individual tombs became popular in the First Century A.D. (probably because of Hellenistic influence) and proves that this area was clearly a burial ground during the time of Jesus.

In  the 2016 renovation of the Edicule, the traditional burial site structure below the open dome of the Holy Sepulcher, as the archeologists removed the marble slab where Jesus’ body was said to have been laid, they discovered another marble slab with an etched cross in the middle and below that a part of a tomb from Jesus’ day, previously unknown, with hollowed out bedrock where a body was laid.

I have stood often in front of the altar at the top of the promontory and sat for long periods in the Chapel of Adam.  I have taken many of my friends into the tombs on the side of the Syrian Chapel.

The physical evidence for Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection is overwhelming and compelling.  

As you stand looking at the cracks running through the stone that was rejected by the builders in the 8^th centuries B.C., and where the Son of God died for your and my sins, you cannot help but be stunned by God’s grand design to demonstrate His presence among men, and His Grace to invite us into His family.  

The stone that the 7^th century builders rejected has indeed become the cornerstone for your and my salvation! It is a powerful image for any who visit this site and connect the Biblical Scriptures.

Peter gave a message to the Sanhedrin that rocked their theology which continues to create waves in our modern society:

Jesus is the source of our salvation and the only way to be reconciled with God.

Thus, Christianity is superior to all the world religions.

And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”     Acts 4:12                                                                            

It is important to remember that Christianity was born in the Roman world where many gods were worshipped. Yet Peter and all the other apostles, evangelists and teachers proclaimed that Jesus was greater than any Greco-Roman god, and the only true God. This is a universal claim to the absolute truth that Christians have declared for the past two millennium.

We live in a similar pluralistic world, where many religions abound. Modern society often tells us who are followers of Jesus that our claim to be the one true religion is too exclusive, too narrow, and downright arrogant.

We are told that because we have Muslin, Buddhist, and Hindu neighbors, we cannot claim that Jesus is the only way to heaven but must recognize that all religions are valid.

We are told that we can believe in Jesus, but we must not proclaim that he is better than all the other teachers in history.

It is at this point that we must remember the things that Jesus said about himself:

 “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”     John 8:58

 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.     John 14:6

 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?  But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.”    Luke 5:23-24

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”    John 6:38-40

Among the great teachers in history, Jesus is the only one who said

1) I am eternal

2) I am not here to show you the way because I am the only way to heaven.

3) I have the authority to forgive sin and the power to heal.

4) I myself will resurrect all believers from the dead on that last day.

 Mohammed, Siddhartha, Plato, Gandhi, nor any other made such claims.

 Toyohiko Kagawa (1888-1960), was a young Japanese orphan who met a Christian missionary couple who taught him English. In the process he converted to Christianity and became a leader of the Jesus movement in Japan in the early 20^th century. He was a prolific writer and well known for his social activism.

 One of his more famous quotes expresses the exclusivity of Christ:

 “I am grateful for Shinto, for Buddhism, for Confucianism. I owe much to these faiths. Yet they could not meet me at the moment of my deepest needs. I was a pilgrim journeying on a long road that had no turning. I was weary. I was foot sore. I wandered through a dark and dismal world where tragedies were thick. Buddhism teacher great compassion, but since the beginning of time, who have ever said ‘This is the blood of my covenant which is poured out for the remission of sin?’”.  

 Toyohiko is correct.

No one in history proclaimed that his blood would pay for all sin.

 Either Jesus is right, or he is wrong, but he is not like the leaders of any world religion.

 He is either a liar, a lunatic, or indeed Lord of this universe.

 Millions in the pluralistic Roman society recognized the brilliance of Jesus’ teaching and the compelling purity of his character, They believed the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection and they concluded that indeed He is the Christ. The Christian community grew from around 10,000 at the end of the First Century to over 33,000,000 by the middle of the Fourth Century which constituted over 53% of the population of the Roman Empire (from The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark)

Since then, billions have received him as their Lord. Today, Christianity is experiencing phenomenal growth in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and even in parts of Europe and North America. The evidence of the Resurrection, His character and His teaching are still compelling. This is why a movement that began among a small group in a remote corner of the Roman Empire became in a relatively short time the official religion of the Empire, and continues to reach many across cultural lines in all parts of the world.

Jesus proved Himself to be the ultimate hero of humanity. He took on the mission of sacrificing Himself so that we all could live for eternity and participate in the adventure of the Kingdom of God.

 

 

Martun and Laura contemplating in front of the Edicule, 2000

 

 

The Dome of the Greek Chapel in the Holy Sepulcher