A letter to Jerusalem
Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. I thought the land around you where I have journeyed took up every sacred place in me, but you have found your way into the spaces still left inside. You are full of mystery and discovery. I can’t fathom how you hold the City of David, Nehemiah’s rebuilt walls, the Upper Room, and the places where Jesus was tried, crucified, buried, and resurrected. You are the city where God chose to dwell. 2 Chronicles 6:6 says, “but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.”
You are mentioned 806 times in the Bible. Jerusalem, you have no comparison. How could you? Called Salem in Abraham’s day, you held Mount Moriah where he was asked to sacrifice Issac. You hold so much more...
The brown box is Old Jerusalem (far right).The only other place we visited was the Israel Museum at Hebrew University. (Far left)
A closer view of Old Jerusalem. Notice the different quarters: Armenian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim.
Model of Old Jerusalem at the Israel Museum at Hebrew University. Temple Mount (central) City of David (left).
Your people have constructed shrines over most of the biblical sites in your city. The Via Dolorosa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre have been greatly enshrined that I had a hard time receiving the beauty and recollecting the moment. The same in the Upper Room that sits just above King David’s Tomb. Is that what people experience when we make it about the place and not about God’s presence?
Your city gives me more reason to fix my eyes on Jesus, still with his nail-pierced hands open wide and his compassionate eyes and unfailing love. You give me context, He gives me vision. You show me visuals that I will forever hold as I read the Scriptures, Jesus gives me glory-bumps He connects the dots for me. Once again, more clues on this treasure hunt!
I journeyed down deep as excavators have uncovered centuries of ruins. I sloshed through wet tunnels. I did not resist touching smooth stone walls or taking a rest on steps at Caiphas’ house. I am wired to feel deeply. It is in the feeling that I better understand. I need history to come alive through touch. And you, Jerusalem, offered so much.
Here are some places I visited in your city:
*Mount of Olives (Dominus Flevit, Garden of Gethsemane, The Church of All Nations, Kidron Valley)
*The Garden Tomb (possibly site of Joseph of Arimathea's wine press and tomb and Golgotha)
King David’s Tomb
The Upper Room
Caiaphas’ house
*Pool of Bethsaida and the Church of St. Anne’s
Via Dolorosa
Church of the Holy Sepulchre (traditional site of tomb and crucifixion)
The Southern Steps of the Temple Mount
*City of David (Canaanite Tunnel, Hezekiah’s Wet Tunnel, Warren’s Shaft, Pool of Siloam)
The Cardo (marketplace in biblical days dates back to 63 BC - AD 330)
*The Western Wall (tunnels)
*I have letters, written or coming, from these places.
Southern Steps to the Temple Mount
I gathered with many on the Southern Steps of the Temple Mount. This would have been the path where Jesus would have been brought up from Caiaphas’ house to be tried. “Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters…” (John 18:28)
Jesus came to die. He never lost sight of that. As His three years of ministry were winding down, Jesus dropped reminders to His disciples that He was destined to die. That He would be leaving them. It was in the Upper Room, He told His closest friends He was going to go and prepare a place for them and us. The cross would not be the end, but a means to the end.
Thomas asked, “How can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:5-6) They all left the Upper Room and went back to Gethsemane. Jesus needed to connect with His Father, to plea with Abba, to cry out. He did this for me and you.
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one….As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world….I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:15, 18, 26)
And I send this letter to you, Jerusalem, as I sit quarantined in my home. I didn’t see this coming. None of us did. You know what it’s like to hold history upon history. War upon war. I know now more than ever that Jesus does send us into this world. He sends us to particular places to live and minister. And His desire for all of us that bear the Name of Christ, is to be one so the world will know how great is His love for all mankind. May you, Jerusalem, experience Jesus’ love because the Church is demonstrating it to you in unprecedented ways. For this is my prayer where I live and I urge those reading these letters to believe the same where they live.
Finding His footsteps and choosing to follow,
Shauna
(Facts shared come from the Scriptures and from the tour with Insight for Living Ministries. Imagination from my own heart.)