We woke up to our first full day in Jerusalem very much feeling the effects of jet lag. We rushed downstairs to breakfast before it disappeared and then organized ourselves for the day. Every pilgrim is supposed to see the Holy Sepulchre twice - first upon arrive in Jerusalem and then again before leaving.
So, we walked to the Old City, about 15 minutes away. This is ancient Jerusalem, where all the Holy Sites are for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Jaffa Gate, the main entrance for most tourists, is something of a tourist trap with shops selling products made elsewhere and tour guides looking for a quick shekel. It is lively, buzzing, and chaotic - probably just like it was in Jesus’ day, especially when the faithful were coming to the Temple for their festivals.
I had read that one should ignore the shopkeepers or else risk getting maneuvered into making purchases. I neglected to share that advice with Jim who was quickly caught in conversation with a shopkeeper before I pulled him away. Once we got off the main path, the City was quiet and very pleasant, with shop keepers offering advice or just waving hello rather than working a spiel.
The Christian Information Center has a wonderful roof top view of the Old City with a coffee shop. It is five shekels to get up there, but that is barely $1.50, so money will spent. We were the only ones up there!
We also got our introduction to Christian divisions. Our conversation about hours for the Holy Sepulchre went like this:
Us: Do you have hours for the Holy Sepulchre?
Christian Information Center: Yes, but they aren’t right because it’s Orthodox Easter
Us: Oh, do you know if we can get in today.
CIC: No, we don’t know. Maybe.
Us: Sunday, after Easter Services?
CIC: We don’t know.
Us: [Looking Very Confused]
CIC: It’s the Orthodox. They don’t answer their phones and they don’t return messages. They never tell us anything!
Ah, yes! The mystery of the Holy Sepulchre. It is under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church, the Custodians of the Holy Land (Franciscans), and the Armenian Orthodox (oldest national church). They each have right to full access to all special places in the Holy Sepulchre and have to coordinate their schedules. They still have individual jurisdiction, but share space. And they do not always get their plans out.
Then there are the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Coptic Orthodox who have rights to specific chapels and often compete with each other. The Copts are Egyptian Orthodox and the Ethiopian Orthodox became independent from the Copts some time back. So, they fight over who has access to what. A few week ago, a fist fight broke out between Coptic monks and Ethiopian monks when a Coptic monk came up to the roof (where the Ethiopians live) and sat in a chair under a tree, breaking the “status quo.”
The Status Quo is essentially a moment in time in which the Sultan of Jerusalem, tired of adjudicating disputes between warring Christian groups, said, “Enough. The way it is today, right now, is the way it always will be. Nobody gets any more, but nobody gives up anything they have.”
It is no wonder that two Muslim families were given the keys to Holy Sepulchre several hundred years ago by the Sultan, and have the rights to opening and closing the doors. The Sultan was tired of getting caught up in the Christian disputes! Of course, there are huge disputes within Judaism among different groups with profound political implications, and also within Islam. Christians need neither feel more guilty or proud of themselves. Human sin divides us all equally.
Another dispute is raging this weekend, this time between the custodians of the Holy Sepulchre and the Israeli Police. The most holy service for the Orthodox is the ceremony of the Holy Fire, which is held on Holy Saturday. Up to ten thousand of the faithful gather in the Holy Sepulchre to receive the Light of Christ with thousands more outside. This ceremony dates back over 1700 years and is the foundation for our own Easter Vigil. This year, the Israeli Police capped attendance at 1800 for safety reasons. The Armenians, Franciscans, and Orthodox put aside their disagreements and issued a joint statement condemning the limitation and vowing to ignore it. The Israeli Police issued a statement that their cap was based on the recommendation of the Status Quo’s own building engineer. The building engineer says he was pressured to provide numbers the Israeli Police wanted.
The background of all of this is hidden in the lives of the thousands of faithful who gather each day at the Holy Sites to worship, pray, and praise. Jim says proof of the Resurrection is that 2,000 years later the church is still here despite us. Only the Holy Spirit can make that happen!
We went into the Holy Sepulchre yesterday, on Orthodox Good Friday, and were overwhelmed by the chaos and the holiness. The first thing you see is the Stone of Anointing where the body of Jesus was prepared for burial. The faithful knelt before it to touch, kiss, rub prayer cloths on it, lay crosses on it for blessing, and anointed it with their own tears. I took pictures and then I got on me knees, kissed the stone, and ran my hands across it - joining the touch of pilgrims who have done the same for millennia.
We then made our way to the Édicule, which is a tomb like structure over the burial chamber of Jesus. It looked like we could go inside so we joined the crowd. Behind the édicule, the Copts have an altar where a service was taking place and the rotunda was filled with Egyptian chants.
The entrance to the Édicule was cut off for a sacred incense procession so we moved on to the other chapels. A few feet away is the Altar where Mary Magdalene met Jesus, with two marks one the pavement. One where she knelt before the Risen Lord and one where he stood.
Then we went though a passageway to the chapel over the prison where Jesus was held before the crucifixion. Ethiopian pilgrims were in the corner wrapped in their white prayer robes genuflecting and praying repeatedly. I said a prayer for those imprisoned unjustly and then we continued on.
The lowest part of the Sepulchre is where Saint Helena (the mother of the Emperor Constantine) found the True Cross during an archeological expedition in the Fourth Century. Helena was a Christian and the mother of the pagan Emperor who legalized Christianity and later converted himself on his death bed. A marble stone marks the spot. A Ukrainian woman was sitting on the stone speaking with Jesus, alternately crying and smiling. In an archway across the chapel, an Ethiopian woman stood in quiet prayer. Two Ethiopian men were alternately standing and prostrating on prayer mats on the other side and an American Roman Catholic pilgrim group came down with their Priest to offer prayers for the Feast of the Holy Cross.
After some time for prayer ourselves (and being designated photographer for many groups wanting selfies!), we went back up to the top to two chapels at the site of the Crucifixion. The Roman Catholics have the right altar, which commemorates taking down the body of Jesus from the Cross. The Orthodox have the left Altar which is over the rocky soil where the Cross was raised. You can kneel beneath the altar and reach in through an opening to touch the rock itself.
The incense procession that had blocked us from the Édicule had now made its way up to Calvary so we watched as the Muslim doorkeepers cleared the way through the crowds, Orthodox acolytes carried a candle and a cross, a Deacon carried the Gospel and two priests incenses the sacred altars. They are serious. It is safer to cross the Garden State Parkway than it is to get in the way of an Orthodox deacon! The faithful are welcomed, of course, but the rituals go on and will not be adjusted. Just as the Orthodox have done for nearly two thousand years.
We knew we would be back with our own pilgrim group for more sacred time so we headed back out and made our way to the hotel to relax a bit before dinner. We were both very moved by the intense devotion we saw, and we felt within ourselves, while also struck by the chaos as well. Holiness does not need peace and quiet for God to be present.
An odd thing we noticed - Jim’s watch immediately fell back an hour when we were in the Holy Sepulchre and corrected itself when we lift. Holy Sepulchre does not observe summer time but nothing would tell the watch that! And my cell phone signal went wonky the whole time I was in the building. It was as if the prayers of the faithful were radiating a power of their own that messed with modern day cell signals!
Another image that binds the ancient past and present: While some of the faithful were saying their prayers from their prayer books, others were doing so from the cell phones, even while dressed in the ancient garb of an Ethiopian pilgrim. And while some prostrated on prayer carpets, others had brought their yoga mats.
The world of today and the world of yesterday are one in Christ Jesus, who is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.
