Chapter 6

They met early for breakfast and then took a cab to the Lion’s Gate. At nine sharp a tour bus pulled up to the curb just below the gate, and a group of about 40 men and women exited the bus and climbed the short hill up to the gate. They were led by two men; one who appeared to be their tour guide, the other was the group leader.

David exchanged greetings in Hebrew with his friend Eli, and introduced Peter. The group entered the Muslim quarter and walked a short distance to what appeared to be the front courtyard of a current day school. There they were joined by a man carrying a large wooden cross and a large camera case.

The leader of the tour group asked for their attention. “We are going to do the “Walk of Sorrow.” At each Station of the Cross we will read scripture and sing a short hymn. We’ll carry the cross just as Jesus did as he walked to the site of his crucifixion. Carrying the cross is voluntary, of course, but I encourage you to join in to get the full experience of this solemn procession.”

The group moved deeper into the courtyard and stood in front of a plaque marking the first station. The leader, who turned out to be a priest, read from scripture. The cantor from his church sang a hymn, and then several people from the group picked up the cross and, following the lead of the tour guide, moved to the other side of court yard for the second station. After repeating the process, the group exited the courtyard and began its trip along the Via Dolorosa to the third station. The group moved from station to station carrying the cross. They were the subject of wonder from other tourists in the city streets, but not to the shop owners and the citizens of the old city who were accustomed to the sight of the reenactment of Jesus’ walk.

After they had completed the ninth station, the priest, Father Paul, announced that they would now enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

“Peter, I’ll meet you here in the courtyard when you’re done in the church. Inside you’ll see the other five Stations of the Cross. Keep close to Eli, my friend; he’s very good and will explain what you’re seeing inside. I’d go in with you, but the group doesn’t need two tour guides competing with one another. Take your time; this may be the only time that you’ll ever be here, the holiest place in Christianity.”

Peter got in line with the rest of the group. He made sure to stand close to Eli whenever they stopped. Eli explained the different styles of architecture as they traveled through the immense church. Eli explained that the site was originally the site of a Roman Temple supposedly built to cover the tomb, and that the temple was razed by Emperor Constantine, who had two churches built, one over the spot of the crucifixion and one over the tomb. Some areas were undergoing renovations, with large amounts of scaffolding and plastic concealing the workers in their effort to restore its beauty and grandeur.

It took nearly two hours to wind their way through the various levels of the Church. Peter saw the place where Jesus was nailed to the cross, and climbed to the spot where he died on the cross; he saw the Stone of the Anointing, where they laid His body after removing it from the Cross, and finally, the tomb where they buried Him.

“So, how was it?” David asked Peter when they met outside in the courtyard.

“It was absolutely amazing to think that this was the actual place where Christianity began. It’s almost too much to believe.”

“Well, some things are subject to conjecture and have changed over time; such as the “Walk of Sorrow”. Some prominent archeologists have suggested that the walk started in the southwest corner of the city rather than the northeast corner, as has been practiced over the last five hundred years. But both routes end up in the same place. In fact, in 2009 a very important Jewish archeologist placed the actual site of the crucifixion twenty meters west of the currently recognized spot.

“What we are going to do now is have some lunch and then we’ll meet up with the group outside the Dung Gate and ride with them over to the city of Bethlehem.”

At lunch David explained that before they entered Bethlehem, he was going to have to get off the bus.

“It’s for my own safety. I’m still a Captain in the Israeli Army and I’m afraid the Palestinian Authority has a long memory. I don’t think anything would happen to me, but why take the chance. I have a friend of mine picking me up at the check point at the entrance of the city.”

Peter looked confused.

“Bethlehem is located in the territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority. They have control of five cities on the West Bank. It was part of the “Land For Peace” agreement that was negotiated some time ago. They were supposed to eventually control the entire West Bank, but I don’t think that will ever happen. They never lived up to their side of the agreement; the terror raids and the suicide bombers continued to come here from Bethlehem. We had no choice but to build a wall around the city to help deter the violence.”

“Is it safe?”

“For you it is perfectly safe. They need your tourism dollars, so the powers-that-be have forbidden any violence against tourists.”

After lunch they boarded the tour bus, sitting in the front next to the tour guide and the priest, and settled in for the short ride out of Jerusalem to the outskirts of the city of Bethlehem. The bus pulled to side of the road, and after a short conversation between the David, the guide and the bus driver, David turned to Peter and said, “I’m getting off here; you’ll be fine as long as you stick with the group, and I’ll be here when they drop you off after your tour. Enjoy Bethlehem.”

Two minutes later they were stopped at the checkpoint entering the city. A representative from the Palestinian Authority boarded the bus, took a cursory look towards the back of the bus, spoke briefly to the tour guide, and abruptly got off the bus. As the gate was raised and they drove through the checkpoint, the twenty foot high concrete wall topped with razor wire came into view. Peter noted the various works of art that covered most of the wall, created by the local street artists, and depicting scenes of Israeli oppression and pleas for Palestinian freedom. It was a little surreal and troubling as to how much this reminded him of scenes he had seen on TV in the 1970s of the Berlin wall.

The bus picked up speed and soon they were traveling through neighborhoods that appeared older and, to Peter’s untrained eye, poorer than the area surrounding the Old City. The bus came to a stop in the middle of a large plaza. Peter followed the tour guide closely as he led the group along the side of the Church of the Nativity. They entered the Church by a side door and proceeded down a winding staircase, down a hallway and down still another staircase that appeared to be cut into the bedrock on which the Church was built.