A Dose of Pilgrimage

  

                In Islam, one of the pillars of their faith is to go to Mecca, a city in Saudi Arabia where their prophet, Muhammad was born. It is a very sacred pilgrimage called the Hajj. Muslims often save up for years and sacrifice much to go to Mecca. Islamic countries have a special five-day holiday for the pilgrimage specifically. Those who return, respectfully called “hajjis,” are treated with deep admiration from their family, friends, and communities—similar to how returned missionaries are treated in Utah and Mormonism as a whole. For Muslims, the Hajj is an experience paramount to their spiritual growth.

                As I’ve thought about my experiences in Israel and the Holy Land, I’ve contemplated this concept of pilgrimage. The Hajj is the most encompassing embodiment of pilgrimage in any religion I know of. They have a date set for it, they have a ritual of worship for the Hajj, and they have arrangements made for millions of Muslims to enter the city of Mecca annually. It’s one of those few parts of Islam that is truly unifying. And for the most part, everyone sets aside disagreements, titles of Sunni or Shiite, to worship in Mecca for a few days out of the year. It’s beautiful.

I love few things as much as bare feet in the sand and sea.

Last sight of the Mediterranean.

                But this is not the case for any Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There is no when, why, how, or even specifically where for Christians. The Holy Land is more an example of separation of denominations than unification. The perfect example of this is the Immovable Ladder. Located on a part of the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it has been there since the 18^th century. It has not been removed because for anything to be done in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the six denominations which reside there, all six have to agree. And no one is agreeing whose responsibility it is to remove the ladder. In fact, it’s not even the original ladder. The original ladder decayed so much that another ladder was put in its place to maintain the tense status quo. Pretty messed up, huh? The disagreement in Jerusalem runs deeper than I think we can really fathom here in the relative peace that is in the United States. We’re not old enough as a country to know that kind of generational tension. The saddest part of this turmoil is that this likely isn’t even where Christ was buried nor crucified.

There are two or more sites for any given event in the Gospels, dedicated as “the place” where it transpired. Often, you have a choice between the Catholic-chosen site and the Greek Orthodox-chosen site, and the likelihood of either being the actual place is really very slim. This is due to theologians favorite concept of scriptural ambiguity. The canon may speak of some specific places with defining markers, such as “place of a skull” (John 19:17) and “having five porches” (John 5:2), and educated guesses can be made.  Some are closer than others, such as the aforementioned “five porches” of the Pool at Bethesda has archaeological evidence. Some are very obviously far from the truth. For example, the Via Dolorosa, the alleged path Jesus walked to his crucifixion, is obvious to historians that it is not where Jesus walked because those streets simply did not exist two thousand years ago. Jerusalem has been built on layers upon layers of city. The actual path Jesus took is buried hundreds of feet down below the Ottoman built streets we now walk there in modern Jerusalem.

Pools of Bethesda

A few places come to mind as the closest we came to actually being where Jesus walked: the Western Wall tunnels, the steps by the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu (possibly where Christ walked from the Last Supper to Gethsemane), the steps in and out of the Temple of Solomon by the City of David, the Pools at Bethesda, and, of course, the Sea of Galilee. Every place else has a large margin of doubt or lack of any evidence.

Steps by Church of St Peter

In the Western Wall tunnel.

worth a read.

I don’t say this to be a pessimist or overly critical. I have no problem with Christians building churches to celebrate important biblical events. I welcomed the opportunities to think about the Bible stories and discuss events with our friends. But when it becomes a catty fight over who has the correct place where Jesus healed an unnamed leper in an unnamed place, we miss the point of the Bible’s telling of the story. If Heavenly Father really cared where a specific even occurred, he would have made it clear in His word. By arguing with different denominations and making your own holy sites kitsch to attract more tourists, you miss the point. It isn’t important where it happened, what’s important is that it did happen. Jesus did heal the hurt and the broken. He did feed over five thousand people—and maybe more than once. He did atone for us in the Garden of Gethsemane and carried our burdens, heavier than any cross of wood, and died for us to become whole. He did rise again to show us that we too can become new again and again and again. That’s the important part of this story, and that’s one that doesn’t take a trip to Israel/Palestine to learn. Heavenly Father is kinder than that. I don’t have any monopoly on sacred experiences just because I have been to the Holy Land. It could be just as effective to create your own “Via Dolorosa” in your neighborhood to remember and learn about Christ’s walk to Golgotha.

View from BYU's Jerusalem Center.

You can see a great lookout on Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount from the Jerusalem Center.

That said, I want to talk about my favorite parts of visiting the Holy Land. I recognize it is a rare experience not many will have, and I cherish my personal encounter with the land of Israel and Palestine. I had forgotten what a thrill travel can be. We had many unique opportunities to encounter different cultures and be taught by people who did not hold our same sentiments or opinions about religion, politics, or even what food is good. Our trip was unique how it incorporated politics and religion and history. The creator and dictator of the program, Dil Parkinson, did a masterful job of giving us polar opposites in opinions and forcing us to question a lot of our preconceived notions. It was an exhausting roller coaster. But here are the highlights for me:

At the mouth of the Jordan River, near Tel Dan.

Israel/Palestine is a different flavor of beautiful I haven’t encountered before. Our student group was rushed through most places, a quick walkthrough here, just long enough to snap a photo then back on the bus. I never felt we had enough time. But in cathedrals and churches, our professor always had us sing a hymn. That was my favorite part of the entire trip. What an opportunity! I’m no stranger to cathedrals. But to sing in them! Hymns that bring the Spirit in churches built to commemorate miracles and events of the life of Christ? That’s the best Christmas gift I could receive besides Christ himself.  I love hymns and I can think of no quicker way to feel the Holy Spirit than through music. It was one of the most uplifting experiences I’ve ever had. Especially in places frought with so much political violence and unrest, singing hymns in those places were a sweet reminder that we have the Lord God Almighty at the helm. Cathedrals were built to be sung in. They were built to not just turn the gaze upward, but to take your voice on high, to echo off the stone ceilings and arches, like a gentle prayer reverberates in the heavens.  I definitely see why Christians go to cathedrals to feel closer to God.

Gallilee outside Church of the Primacy

Near Garden Tomb, where it hailed on us something fierce.

Gethsemane.

We went to a lot of jaw-dropping, immense, gorgeous cathedrals with inspiring art and stained glass windows. The kind that your contacts go dry from staring at its splendor.  I don’t think there will be another time in my life where I go to so many different churches in such a short period of time. That in itself was worth the trip.

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Vaughn and his roommate, Andy.

Dome of the Rock.

Dome of the Rock detail. 

The Galilee was the most rewarding visit for me. This area remains the most untouched, least commercialized out of the places we visited. Its natural beauty was splendid. We stayed right on the Sea a couple nights, and I could have looked at it for days on end. Here was really the only place I could imagine Christ actually walking. This was His land. This is probably what it actually looked like. This was the only place that really made Bible stories come alive for me. I could see the setting, the background for the signs and miracles of Christ and his followers. There weren’t cities to obstruct the scenery, no blockades, no massive walls, no checkpoints, no IDF soldiers with rifles. Just beauty as it has been for thousands of years. The churches we visited in Galilee were gorgeous, but humble compared to the larger cathedrals and basilicas in other areas. It was reminiscent of the small churches started at the onset of Christianity.

Sunset on Sea of Gallilee.

on a boat on the Sea of Gallilee

This lady is the bomb dot com!

Nazareth is in Galilee, but as a city, felt very different from just being on the Sea. Someone said it felt a bit like a beach town, and I completely agree. People were a lot more easy-going. I’ll talk more about Nazareth in later posts, but I want to mention the Basilica of Annunciation. This is where Catholic tradition places the angel Gabriel speaking with Mary. This Basilica is awe-inspiring. It has these massive, stunning mosaics lining the walls from all over the world.

Basilica of the Annunciation of Mary, Nazareth

Delicious Za'atar.

Another highlight was visiting the Wailing Wall (also known as the Western Wall). This is all that we remains of Solomon’s Temple of old. It is deeply sacred to the Jewish people, and every Friday evening at sundown, they welcome in the Sabbath through dance and song at the Wailing Wall. It’s a pretty ironic title when you see how joyful the Jews are who celebrate there. They celebrate that it’s the Sabbath (Jews celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, and it begins at dusk on the Friday before), and they celebrate that they have a state to live in and they celebrate the opportunity to congregate. There are a lot of political overtones that are difficult to overcome, but if you take the situation as it is—that is, people celebrating their faith and freedom—it is inspiring. I, personally, am not so zealous about the Sabbath day, and I don’t celebrate the opportunity I have to express my faith as enthusiastically. There is a lot to learn from other faiths. One of the professors with us called it “holy envy,” when you admire traditions of another’s faith. I could definitely use more zeal and enthusiasm in my worship and in the ordinances of my faith.  I wish I could show you pictures of the dancing and joyful people at the Wailing Wall that Friday night, because it is incredible. But out of respect for Jewish Sabbath custom, I refrained from photography. Here are photos from another time when we visited the wall.

The Western / Wailing Wall.

Faith aside, we also visited some really cool historical places. I loved Caesarea Phillipi (I could have spent waaaay more time there), Masada, and the Herodian, all places built by King Herod. I had learned he was a megalomaniac, but seeing that mania manifest itself into such grandiose and expensive and challenging—nigh impossible projects really helped me to see why they called him insane. He did a lot of amazing things and forced progression in architecture and engineering. He was probably the first to do underwater cement for Caesarea, and built a circular port where there was once just sea. Masada is one of the remaining desert castles he built with enough storage to last for years if he ever needed somewhere to escape to. And the Herodian is a man-made mountain he commanded to be made as his tomb. So….yeah. He was a megalomaniac.

We also went to Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. We visited Akko (a crusader castle), Megiddo (also known as Armageddon), Bethany (where Lazarus was raised from the dead), Bethlehem (a not so little town nowadays), Capernaum (Peter’s town), Jericho (the oldest city in the world!) and many, many other places, some of which I will talk about in another blog.

Dude. Mosaics. So many mosaics. Dil had a thing for them, so we saw a lot of them.

This is called the Mona Lisa of mosaics, in Sepphoris.

When we came into Jerusalem, I was reading a book called “Making their Own Peace” by Ann Madsen. It is a book about twelve amazing women of Jerusalem. They are Christians, Jewish, and Muslim. It’s about how they live in the situation in Jerusalem and maintain hope. These are amazing women who opened orphanages, worked in hospitals, taught in schools. Vaughn and I were had the honor of receiving a personal tour in the Spafford Children’s Center, a school started by one of these amazing women. It’s by the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. Our tour guide, Yezzin, was the drama and art teacher, and he was amazing. Talk about cheerful! He was a ray of sunshine. He loved his job, and he was more than happy to show us where he worked. It’s an amazing place. It was a breath of fresh air amidst the heaviness you feel in most of Jerusalem, with children’s pictures covering the wall, brightly colored walls and doors, and happy teachers. I loved it there, and I can see why Ann Madsen thought it worthy to write about it and the women who started it.

me trying not to look too excited to be there.

playful pops of color was everywhere in the Spafford Children Center

To close, I would just like to touch back on this concept of visiting the Holy Land as a pilgrimage. I loved our visit to the sites. I loved the opportunity to ponder the events of Christ's life. I loved singing sacred hymns in cathedrals. I am extremely grateful for the experience, and recognize how rare an opportunity it is. But my faith in Christ would be the same either way. I knew who he was before I went to Jerusalem, and I still know Him. I know he died for my sins and for yours. I know He is why we can have hope, and especially after witnessing the turmoil and tension in Jerusalem and in the Holy Land, that hope is significant.