Chapter 5

At breakfast the next morning, David laid out his plans for the day. By nine o’clock they were in his car heading back to the Mount of Olives. After parking, David led Peter back to their observation point from the previous day. They walked a short distance to the junction of two roads, one of which headed down the mountain at a steep angle. There were no sidewalks and the road was barely wide enough for two cars to pass one another. To their left Peter caught glimpses of the Jewish Cemetery. In some places along either side of the road, where the ground was suitable, people had built small houses and had cars parked in front of them, making the road even more congested. Occasionally a car would pass them as they continued their trek down to the valley below.

“Just think how much fun this is going to be climbing back up this road tonight.”

Near the bottom of the street, David halted in front of a small iron gate covered with ivy. The simple sign above the gate read “Garden of Gethsemane.” David held the gate open and allowed Peter to enter first. A cinder footpath led them through the garden, past what appeared to be ancient olive trees; their gnarled trunks were more than ten feet in diameter.

“David, were these olive trees here at the time of Christ. I’ve seen olive trees before, but never have I seen any with such huge trunks.”

“As you know, arborists can tell how old a normal tree is by the number of growth rings it has coming off its center. You can’t do that with an olive tree, their trunk is formed by shoots coming up from the root ball and twisting around one another. Scientists have done carbon dating and DNA analysis on these trees and have determined that they were planted here around 1100 AD, and that many of them are from the same stock tree.”

They continued through the garden, coming out on the other side, from which they entered the courtyard next to the Basilica of the Agony.

“This church was built between 1920 and 1922 with donations from all over the world and is also known as the Church of all Nations. When you go in, I want you to take note of the ceiling and the violet glass windows. The atmosphere inside is said to evoke a mood of depression and foreboding. In front of the altar you’ll see a section of bedrock that is said to be where Jesus prayed during the night after the last supper, before his arrest. I’ll wait for you out here.”

Peter walked into the church along with a group of Japanese tourists, who immediately walked up the center aisle to the altar. He chose to walk around the side of the church, looking up at the violet stained-glass windows. It did indeed give a sense of foreboding to the inside of the church, not at all like most churches he had seen before. When he finally made his way around to the front of the church, most of the group of tourists was already heading back down the aisle towards the exit. Peter knelt down as he had seen others do, on a white marble step surrounding the large rock seeming to peak out from dark tile floor. It was his intent to place his hands on the rock and ask for guidance; for God to show him what his plan for Peter was.

The moment he placed his hands on the rock everything around him seemed to disappear into the gloom of the church. A voice suddenly came out of the gloom. Peter wasn’t hearing the voice with his ears; he seemed to be feeling the voice with his whole body.

“Peter, I have a special plan for you. I want you to be a healer; a healer of Man. This will be your Calling.”

Upon hearing those words, Peter felt the self-doubt leave him and a new feeling of divine purpose possess his body. Then scenes from his life began to flash before him; young coeds from college dressed in tight jeans and t-shirts walking to classes; his mother working two jobs to put a roof over his head, food in his mouth and to pay for his education; and then, his mother lying in bed, too sick to get up slowly dying before his eyes. And all of his guilt seemed to leave him.

“Go now and do unto others as I have done unto you.”

With that, the voice disappeared, the gloom lifted and his surroundings returned to his sight. Peter got up on shaky legs and looked at the people around him. Could they have heard what he heard? Could they have felt what he felt? At least some of them must have been touching the rock at the same time as him. But no one was paying any attention to him.

He walked towards the back of the church with a new sense of purpose but without a clue as to how he was to accomplish what God had told him to do. When he reached the back door he pushed it open and stepped out into the bright light of a brilliant, sunny morning. And then he knew.

Looking around he spotted David sitting on a bench in front of the wall that separated the church plaza from the modern street before it. Approaching his friend, he reached out and grasped David’s hand, throwing his arm over his shoulder in firm embrace.

Suddenly in Peter’s mind, scenes flashed: small children at a birthday party; the disappointed look of a young boy standing on the sidelines of a nearly empty soccer field waiting for someone; a family gathered around a hospital bed occupied by a beautiful woman appearing more dead than alive, covered with bandages and connected to various bottles and machines; and finally, another scene from a hospital: children who were no longer children, crying as they exited a room while a nurse covered a body.

Peter opened his eyes and staggered back a few steps, leaning against the wall for support. David stood with his mouth wide open, his eyes staring at Peter.

“What just happened?” asked David as he approached Peter. “I feel absolutely amazing, I feel like a new person. Come on what are we standing here for, let’s get moving. We have lots to do.”

Peter, on the other hand, felt like he’d been hit by a truck. He stood there and thought, ‘I’m going to have to be a little more cautious about how I go about this until I get the hang of it; maybe I should start with a quick high five or the touch on an elbow.’ But, after a minute he felt OK again. With a hand in the small of Peter’s back, David urged him to walk out of the plaza, across the street, and up a winding road to a large gate in the city wall.

“This is the Lion’s Gate. I want you to take note of two things,” he said pointing to an area above the gate. “Note the two lions facing one another, thus the name. And the other: take note of the many bullet holes in the wall around the gate. Those were made during the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel captured East Jerusalem from the Jordanians.”

They passed through the gate and immediately entered a city from another time. There were almost no cars, mainly because the streets were so narrow, and people everywhere; many were tourists, but many others were citizens of the Old City.

“We are currently in the Muslim Quarter.”

“Are we in any danger here?”

“No, people in the city have learned to live in peace with one another. Occasionally there are protests and disturbances, but for the most part people are too busy living their lives to start any trouble. Trouble is bad for tourism, and tourism is what drives the economy here in the city.”

They walked past a church, which had been turned into a Muslim School. They toured an archeological dig that had uncovered several buildings dating from the Roman Occupation. They walked down narrow streets lined with shops of on both sides, selling everything from foods and spices to electronic products. The sky was partially hidden from view by brightly colored sheets of fabric that blew gracefully in the warm breeze.

“This is the beginning of the Via Dolorosa -- ‘The Way of Sorrows’ -- which is held to be the route Jesus walked carrying his cross from the Roman Praetorium to his crucifixion and burial. The current route is marked by nine of the Stations of the Cross; the remaining five are located within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.”

“David, can we do the walk today?”

They walked for a while, down winding roads, through alleys, between buildings, and then to Peter’s surprise, out the Zion Gate, finally coming to a stop in front of a large church.

“We’ll visit the church in a few minutes; first I want to show you the Cenacle or the Upper Room. This is said to be the site of the Last Supper. According to legend, the building that was originally here was not completely destroyed by the Romans and was rebuilt a couple of hundred years later.”

They climbed the stairs and toured the room as David continued. “The building has been rebuilt several times since then, serving at one point as a mosque. That window over there points to Mecca. Now let’s go see another sacred site.”

They climbed down another set of stairs and rounded the corner of the building.

“This, my friend, is the purported tomb of King David. Please take a head cover and come this way.”

Around a wall, in the next room was a large sarcophagus, said to be that of King David. The room was unique in that one could not walk around the sarcophagus, only past it. When they left the room David explained.

“The other side of the room is reserved for women. Men and women never pray together in the same room. You may not believe this, but this site is just as sacred to Muslims as it is to us Jews.”