Why is Jesus everywhere? The Common Era dating method in the world today is calculated from the year of Jesus' birth. Whether you're religious or not, that's the date. In other words, you know the age of Jesus.
In Jerusalem, I met David, from England, in his forties, a businessman and a very kind man who had traveled to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and was on a pilgrimage to Israel with his family. He planned to spend ten days worshiping the holy relics associated with Jesus. I said Israel is very small, will it take so long?
The Bible itself is a guidebook for traveling through Israel and Palestine. The stories told in the Bible, from the birth, baptism, and death of Jesus to the resurrection and ascension, can be found in empirical places.
Walking among the holy relics is like walking in the Bible. So David's itinerary isn't hard to guess. I asked him, Is Jerusalem the last stop on your trip? He smiled and nodded.
The Old City of Jerusalem is small, with eight gates. Out of the Zion Gate is the Tomb of King David, and from a staircase next to The Tomb of King David to the second floor is the room where Jesus had the last supper with the twelve disciples on the last night of his life. The room was large, with a high roof, dark light, and appeared empty, seemingly ominous in allusions.
The story that happens here is well known: the people of Judaism, dissatisfied with Jesus' preaching, want to arrest Him. Judas, one of Jesus' twelve disciples, betrayed Jesus' whereabouts for money.
Jesus knew everything that was about to happen, but did not try to change his destiny. At dinner, he held up the red wine in his glass and said, "This cup is a contract made with my blood, and it is shed for you... The man who sold me was at the table with me. After dinner, Jesus was arrested by the Jews in the Garden of Getsini, just outside Jerusalem, and spent his last night before his crucifixion at the Chicken Chiming Church.
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
Jerusalem has a Mediterranean climate with hot summers and little precipitation. Searching the streets of Jerusalem's Old City was a physical and sweaty task, and I had to carry a two-liter bottle of mineral water on my back when I went out to replenish my water at any time.
The next day, the People of Judaism handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities for a final judgment. Jesus did not defend himself, but took the cross on his back and walked to the site of execution, Mount Golgotha. The path Jesus walked that day was called the Path of Sorrow, also known as the Bitter Road Via Dolorosa.
The first stop on the Path of The Passion, the site of the judgment of Jesus, is now an elementary school. The façade of the school is not large, and there is a stone staircase about two or three meters high in front of it. When I arrived, the school gates were closed. I tried to push the door open gently, saw a teacher talking to the students about something, and stopped after seeing me. Probably disturbed by the people's home? Just as I was about to quit, the teacher walked quickly toward me and invited me to take a group photo with her students. My typical East Asian face is really eye-catching in the local area. After the photo shoot, they very kindly invited me to visit around and let me enjoy VIP treatment.
Two thousand years later, the beginning of Jesus' path of grief was transformed into the beginning of the child's path of hope, which is a miracle in itself.
The second stands diagonally opposite the elementary school in Jingguan Hall. After jesus was convicted, he was whipped and humiliated here, and then he himself took up the heavy cross and walked to the mountain of Calvary. From then on, the cross symbolized a heavy destiny.
The cross was very heavy, and Jesus endured the burden of humiliation and struggled to move forward. Walking to the third stop, Jesus fell. Jesus fell three times along the way.
The fourth stop was next to the place where Jesus fell, where he met his own mother. The mother was very sad and helpless at the sight of her son's fall and the thought of the impending parting of life and death, but Jesus could no longer take care of his mother.
There are a total of 14 stops on the Wrangle, all in the Old City of Jerusalem. Every node of the authorities on the bitter road was marked with Roman numerals, carved in a large circular bronze plate hanging on the wall for easy searching. Every node has a moving story.
At the fifth and sixth stops, passers-by saw Jesus carrying the cross in pity, some trying to help Jesus carry the cross, and some helping Jesus wipe the sweat and scars from his face. Both of these men eventually became saints, implying that people should have compassion and help when they see someone suffering or being persecuted.
On this hard road, I met many physically disabled people who came to the pilgrimage. This is a middle-aged man with incomplete limbs, walking alone on the road of the bitter road pilgrimage, resolutely moving forward, and his eyes are clear and firm, which makes me awe-inspired. I can't help but ask myself, besides being grateful for the world, what reason is there to complain about the sufferings in life?
Stations 10 to 14 of the Bitter Road are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on The Hill of Golgotha.
The site of Jesus' crucifixion is on Mount Golgotha, a small dirt slope in the city of Jerusalem, which is now completely covered by the huge Church of the Holy Sepulchre. From the stairs next to the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, you can see a groove in the original mountain bag, where the crucifix of Jesus was inserted.
It is said that when Jesus was killed, the sky was dark and there was an earthquake, which finally made people believe that Jesus was the God of heaven.
The thirteenth stop on the Bitter Road is a huge red rectangular marble in the vestibule of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After Jesus died, people lowered Jesus from the cross and put his body on this stone to apply sesame oil to Jesus. This is where Jesus once lay, and it is also the place closest to the breath of the Lord.
Believers from all over the world lined up here in an orderly manner, and then knelt down on their knees in front of the stone, pressed their foreheads against the stone, and gently placed their palms on the stone, worshipping, staining the breath of the Lord, and some people kissed the red stone, not wanting to leave for a long time.
The final stop on the Path of The Passion is the Tomb of Jesus, under the huge circular vault of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The perimeter of the tomb of Jesus is exquisitely carved from huge marble, and the carving process is extremely elaborate.
There is a burial chamber on the façade of the tomb of Jesus. The burial chamber is a narrow cave, and the tomb is isolated from the noise of the outside world, which is very silent. The burial chamber can only be entered by one person with a bowed head, and it is very sacred with incense lamps, gold carvings and jade carvings, and many heavy gold and red draperies hanging from it.
I lined up to enter the tomb and feel the sacred breath. Of course, since Jesus had been resurrected, the burial chamber was empty. Jesus ascended to heaven on the Mount of Olives, just outside the Old City of Jerusalem, on the 40th day after his resurrection.
Jerusalem is a holy place for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and all three are derived from the same Old Testament. The local area is very intimate, providing different versions of pilgrimage routes and religious story interpretations for different pilgrimage groups such as Judaism, Christianity, islam and so on. And as a tourist, my best choice is to stop and go, "rubbing" the stories brought by different pilgrims, which is very wonderful.
There are many coffee shops in the Old City of Jerusalem for passers-by to rest. I think that in this sacred place, give yourself a cup of coffee time, be quiet, think about it, and the inner harvest may be more. Of course, just as thought is priceless, the price here is also very amazing.
The tenacious body and clear and determined eyes of the pilgrim with incomplete limbs have always lingered in my mind. I didn't pay attention to the price beforehand, so I drank the most expensive cup of coffee in my life.
It's worth it.
#Israel ##耶路撒冷 #