The Beginning and the End

Today we ventured out in our car to Bethlehem. We didn't realize how difficult it was going to be. Bethlehem is only about a 20 minute drive outside of Jerusalem, but making it difficult was a number of checkpoints as well as the ‘Fence’ as the Israeli army calls it – really it is an 8- metre wall – twice as high as the Berlin wall!). The Fence was built about three years ago to divide the Palestinian area from the Israeli. As we approach the heavily guarded checkpoint you can’t help feel a wee bit nervous even though Israel is safer now than has been for a long, long time. Jeff played it calm and cool, rolling the window down and yelling, “we’re Canadian!” before the guard even said anything, and Michelle sat back and was smirkey for some strange reason as she does whenever we get into these situations. Sometime soon her smirk is going to land us in a lot of trouble! We tried to get in but were turned away the first time because we are not allowed to bring car rentals into the area. We were thinking of how we could sneak across (just kidding) when a taxi driver offered to take us across and to the church. It was all good, and the price we agreed upon was half of what he was asking, but somehow we got fandangled into paying for a tour guide for Bethlehem as well. Oh well, at least we didn’t get shot at! (It really is amazing how many people here have guns and how much you see them on a daily basis. Guards at these checkpoints often stand there with one hand on the trigger, and some of them don’t look too happy. And then are some who look like they’re 15, but they still have a gun!).

In Bethlehem we went into The Church of the Nativity, the place where tradition and scholars agree where the birth of Jesus took place. There are actually three churches who share the spot as they all want a piece of the action, so it is quite a massive site. Once inside we made our way down to the manger area to the place of Jesus’ birth. And it is nothing like you picture in your mind. It is VERY crowded (it’s surprising how pushy fellow pilgrimmers can be), there is incense everywhere, there is rock everywhere, and it is in the basement of the church. Surprisingly there is no quiet barn, no hay with livestock snacking, and no wooden manger around! But despite the chaos and the contrast of reality with your mind’s eye of the place, there is still something very extraordinary about the place, a sense of wonder that this was where the Saviour of the world was born. Reese enjoyed it, but Carter was having too much fun being whisked around by our guide to care much. The free babysitting made it worth the price!

Next stop was the Herodian, which is a part natural, part man-made semi-mountain just south of Bethlehem. King Herod built this partially as a summer getaway palace where he could wine and dine with his friends, but also as a retreat place in case things turned against him in a time of revolt. We climbed up and like a lot of places around here, we were amazed at the history & the grandness of something made so many years ago. Still so much of it is intact. So we wandered through Herod’s private baths, climbed down through the mountain to the remains of water cisterns & walked through his place of worship.
It was awesome. As we left you can walk the perimeter of this mountain & have a view of Bethlehem to north, the Negev to the south & the Dead to the west. It was a great day. After supper we headed back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is the site of Jesus’ death & resurrection. It was quiet in the usually-packed church so we had the opportunity to sit & reflect for a little while at three major places within the church – the place of crucifixion, the stone where Jesus’ body was laid and anointed for burial, and the tomb. Just like the Nativity, the scene before you is nothing like you’d think it would be. But it doesn’t take away the magnitude of the moment. To be at the place of the turning point of history, especially inside the tomb where Jesus would have been laid to rest and then raised from the dead, was humbling and incredible.

God came down in human flesh to live and walk among us. And in perfect time he chose the way of suffering, dying a brutal death on a cross, only to show the world that death could not keep him and raising to life. All because of his great love for us. We stopped to be thankful many times today.

** As we walked through the Old City we ran into a few soldiers that Carter was enthralled with. It must be a boy thing.