Delayed Easter thoughts ...

April 20, 2008 is Passover on the Jewish calendar and is actually celebrated this entire week. It usually corresponds more closely with when we celebrate Easter here in the west, but four weeks separate them this year. However, the Eastern Orthodox churches are celebrating Easter next Sunday, at the close of Passover.

I had intended to post some pictures during Easter week of our trip(s) to Israel, to share with you some pictures of the very places "the greatest story ever told" took place ... but we were on vacation Easter week (and the following weeks), on the road, and I just never had the opportunity. So I'll share them now.

The Third Night! There is a passage of Scripture that always bothered me from quite a young age ... "For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so I, the Son of Man, will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights." Matthew 12:40 This is Jesus talking! Three days and three nights?! I used to try and do the math, but I could never get it to work out ... and I was provoked because if Jesus said it, it was true ~ wasn't it? I just never noticed before that Jesus didn't claim to be DEAD three days and three nights ... He said he was "in the heart of the earth." I just always assumed that He was talking about being dead during that duration ...

The picture below (which I did copy from the internet) is of a dungeon, deep down in the earth, all the way down to bedrock. This dungeon was found underneath the excavated home of the high priest Caiaphas ~ remember him? Jesus was brought to his house and questioned the night he was arrested, that Thursday night so long ago. Read the account in Matthew 26:52-74. This is also where Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and denied Christ three times. Chapter 26 of Matthew ends with Peter's denial and Chapter 27 begins with "Very early in the morning ..."
So where did Jesus spend the night that night ... it's possible he spent it right here in this dungeon ~ deep "in the heart of the earth." Look at it closely! There are holes in the stone that were used for chaining prisoners to suspend them just above the floor ~ and it's totally dark! Our tour group in 2001 was taken down here and all of the lights were turned out! Such blackness! One of the pastors read Psalm 22 by flashlight down in this hole in the ground.

"My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? (verse 1)
... I am a worm and not a man.
I am scorned and despised by all!
Everyone who sees me mocks me.
They sneer and shake their heads saying
~ is this the one who relies on the Lord?
Then let the Lord save him!
If the Lord loves him so much,
let the Lord rescue him! (verses 6-7)
My life is poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, melting within me. (verse 14)
My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs;
an evil gang closes in on me.
They have pierced my hands and feet ...

They divide my clothes among themselves
and throw dice for my garments. (verse 16-18)

Perhaps this is the first of three nights Jesus spent in the heart of the earth ... he had not yet been crucified ... but he could have spent part of Thursday night right in this dungeon. Because Scripture says Jesus died on Friday and was buried and rose again on the dawn of Sunday morning ... that's only two nights ...

I know it's like splitting hairs, but it was a huge comfort to me to be in this place ... and terribly sobering to read the prophecies of Christ's suffering from Psalm 22 right there, down deep in the earth ... and think that perhaps, just maybe, my Savior agonized the last hours of his life in this cold dark place.

"He was crushed for our iniquities." This is a quote from Isaiah 53. I have always loved this chapter of Isaiah. Another translation puts it this way: "He was wounded and crushed for our sins." (verse 5). This passage took on a real visual meaning from our 2004 study trip to Israel.

The last Thursday Jesus was alive, he and his disciples walked over to the Mount of Olives to a garden where they hung out on a regular basis ... Scripture says so ... the Garden of Gethsemane! The Mount of Olives is just across the Kidron Valley from the city of Jerusalem and it's not a mountain like we think of a mountain ... it's actually a hill ... and guess what it was covered with? Olive trees (hence the name) ... and there are many olive trees that remain there even today.


We had a Bible study right inside this small garden up on the Mount of Olives ... overlooking the old city of Jerusalem ... it was so awesome to be there! Let me tell you what I found out about olive trees ... most of what I write here will be direct quotes from our teachers and guides, so I'm going to highlight it and post it in a different color so that you know it's not me talking here ... you all know I only have average intelligence, so I'm going to give proper credit to my teachers.

First of all, Josephus says when the Romans came and sacked Jerusalem (70 AD) they came up here and cut down every tree on the Mount of Olives, put all of it into the city, and burned everything down to the ground.

WHY?

Olive production was central to the heart of Jewish economy ... and even their worship revolved around the production of oil from the olive. The picture below is of a machine ... it's called a "gethsemane" ~ it is an olive crush. The olives would be gathered, put in here, and some kind of animal or person would push the huge stone around, and it would crush the olives. Around it would go, until it made kind of a pulp. This pulp would be gathered up and placed in woven baskets.

The picture below is of an olive press. The crushed olives (pulp) would be placed into woven baskets and stacked and then put into this press where huge stones were tied and the weight of the stones would push hard against the baskets and drops of olive oil would come out into a basin below. There were many different pressings, the "virgin" one being the best one (just like today).
So what was the oil used for? In the early centuries, olive oil was essential for light. You needed it for your oil lamps in your home as well as the huge menorahs and the candlebras in the Temple. The best oil was used for this purpose.

On the Mount of Olives, there were olive crushes (gethsemanes) and caves for olive presses and olive production. This is where Jesus went to pray with his disciples. What does Scripture tell us happened that night in the garden? It tells us that Jesus agonized and sweat "great drops of blood." The image is right from the olive press ... Jesus was afflicted, a very heavy weight was on him, pressing him down. Matthew 26:38 quotes Jesus this way: "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death."

Also, by what other name do we know Jesus? Christ! And what does the name "Christ" mean? Messiah, or anointed ... anointed with what? OIL is what kings were anointed with ... I now have so many visual pictures of what this means.

The place of the cross. Golgotha is the Hebrew word for skull. The word Calvary is the Greek equivalent. The picture below marks the place where Jesus was crucified. There is a huge church built over the site and it is perhaps the holiest site in all of Christianity, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church was built in roughly 330-340 AD! It was built and destroyed many times through the centuries, although parts of it are the original structure. Five (or perhaps seven) major religious groups control this church: the Armenians, the Greek Orthodox, the Catholic Church, the Egyptian Coptics as well as Ethiopians and others ... sometimes many services are going on all at the same time in various chapels within the structure.

At the time of Jesus' death, this area was just outside the city wall. And according to Roman law a person had to be crucified outside the city on a main street, at eye level. So the pictures of Jesus on a cross up on a hill? According to Roman law ~ no way! It had to be on a busy street (which this was), on a main intersection next to a city gate (which this was) ...
Our entire group spent about a half hour at the site of the crucifixion ... it's way down underneath the structure of the church ... archeologists believe this was an old abandoned quarry in Jesus' day ... an appropriate place for Jewish execution, as well as a place where the Romans would bring people to be executed. The main road ran right past it.

We toured the entire church building and then were allowed to separate and explore the place for awhile. I wandered back down here and spent about 15 minutes all alone ... I will remember my time there for all of my life. This church has changed hands many times. When the Crusaders finally took control of it from the Arabs (in about the year 1100 AD) they made a deal. They made some changes to the building and restored parts of it that had been destroyed but because this was still Muslim, they made a deal with them. They gave the key to this place to two Arab families. To this very day, two Muslim families who live in the Old City of Jerusalem, still have the key to the door. Every morning at 4:00 a.m. they come here and open the door; and then the key changes hands to the other Muslim family and they close it at 7:00 p.m. It's a way of keeping peace among the various Christian groups that control the church! So the Arabs have the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and it is the very same key that was passed on by the Crusaders over 800 years ago!
The picture above is of the cupola in the main chapel area ...

The Empty Tomb. Pictured below is part of a tomb complex underneath the same church, a little walk from Calvary.

Archeologists have studied these tombs and have concluded they are first century tombs. It is very possible that this complex of tombs was where they laid the body of Jesus after he was crucified.
This picture of the door is from another site that folk speculate was possibly the burial site of Jesus ~ but archeologists say these tombs are actually second century BC ~ but I love the Scripture here from the angel on that first Easter morning. "Don't be afraid! he said. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn't here! He has been raised from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying." Matthew 28: 5-6

I believe with all my heart that Jesus was crushed for the sin of every human being, took the punishment that should have been ours, was in the earth three days and three nights, and NOW LIVES ... I never ever get tired of hearing His story told again and again ...

"The poor will eat and be satisfied.
All who seek the LORD will praise him.
Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.
The whole earth will acknowledge the LORD and return to him.
People from every nation will bow down before him.
For the LORD is king! He rules all the nations.
Let the rich of the earth feast and worship.
Let all mortals ~ those born to die ~
bow down in his presence.
Future generations will also serve him.
Our children will hear about the wonders of the LORD.
His righteous acts will be told
to those yet unborn.
They will hear about everything he has done."
PSALM 22:26-31