Tuesday, April 1, 2014:

Another beautiful day.  Thank You, Lord.

We rested very well last night because we were extremely tired after all the walking yesterday.  Walking anywhere you go in Jerusalem is a challenge.  Up or down stairs, steep ramps, rough uneven pavement, handrails are infrequent, and our guide, Ronnie, doesn’t waste any time getting from place to place.  Jerusalem is loud and very crowded with the locals plus thousands of tourists.  You can feel the tension between the Arabs and the Jews.  There are certain Palestinian areas that Ronnie won’t go in to with us, because he fears for his safety.  The clutter and trash are everywhere.  There are hawkers trying to make a buck (or a shekel) every few feet.

Our first stop this morning was at the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. There has been lots of construction on these sites since Sharon was there in 1966, so nothing looked familiar except the few remaining olive trees.   Some of the olive trees are believed to be nearly 2,000 years old.

We walked back UP to the old city to the Praetorian where Jesus was tried before Pilate and condemned to death.  Here there were floor tiles that date back to Jesus’ time.  We can assume that we were standing where He stood during that awful time.  We then walked the Via Dolorosa which is a tourist attraction with 14 Stations of the Cross. Ronnie reminded us that this was created by the Catholic Church in Europe (France and Spain) to satisfy the local Catholics who could not afford to travel out of their countries and was later adopted by Israel for the tourists who did make the trip.  But that it is not scriptural.  Only three of the events of the Stations of the Cross are mentioned in the Bible.

After lunch, the last stop of the day was to the pool of Siloam where Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52).  The pool was only uncovered about six years ago.  Only a portion of one side and a corner are visible today (where the people are standing).  The balance is buried under the green plants on the left of the picture on property owned by a Muslim who will not sell the property or permit excavation on the grounds.