Last Day of Israel- Gethsemane

Happy Shabbat!

Kind of different celebrating the Sabbath on a Saturday.

But when you are at the end of a long week with a 10 hour time difference
  in the Middle East, you have no clue what day it is anyway! 

This is probably the coolest "Sunday" service I will ever participate in.

Starting with an early morning devotional in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

We entered again before opening hours, so we had an extremely unique 

experience with just us inside.

Early morning time always has a calm, quiet feeling to it.

Add that to being in one of the most special locations known to millions

of people around the world, and it takes that peaceful feeling up 10 notches!

John had us read all 4 gospel accounts of the garden (so

unbelievably amazing to do while in the garden)
and look for similarities and differences.

When we bounce back and forth from accounts we merge everything together 

and miss important details. 

 When you read the gospels side by side, things pop out to you that you never

noticed before!

John points out that there seems to be 3 themes of Jesus in the accounts:

Healing Jesus, Saving Jesus and Loving Jesus.

Matthew and Mark focus on more a human Jesus.

They are the only gospels where Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss.

Christ stops Judas before the kiss in Luke, and there is no kiss in John.

Luke is the only account that speaks of an angel strengthening the Savior. 

This is what stood out to me the most!

Luke 22:43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 

Why in all my life of being a member of the church have I never heard about an angel

coming to comfort Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane?!!

I wonder why we don't talk about this more?

The angel coming to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary at the sepulcher 
is very prevalent in Jesus's resurrection story. 

Why is the angel coming to help Jesus through his suffering in Gethsemane before His
 crucifixion overlooked? 
I loved that this sparked some curiosity in me to read and search more about it!

Also in Luke do we read about about his sweat
were like great drops of blood falling to the ground

as he prayed in agony.
Only in Luke does Jesus heal the ear of the high priest after Peter cut it off. 

There is no suffering in John's account.
The soldiers fall back when Christ boldly declares his identity.

He is not betrayed but is completely in control of the situation.

He never needs help carrying the cross.

When everything in our lives seems out of control, we can turn to him, because he is fully in control.

Stephanie and I bought matching skirts at the market the day before. 

We walked to a church adjacent to Gethsemane, Church of All Nations.

I LOVED this church.

 We had just deep dived into the gospel accounts, and this church

had 3 BEAUTIFUL mosaics depicting what we had just discussed. 

The middle section was all about that sweet angel coming to comfort Christ!

I was reading more about it.

Of course we don't know who that angel was.

There was some speculation from a church authority who believes it was Michael, or Adam.

 

The Savior's atoning work in Gethsemane is directly linked to Adam's transgression,
which brought the fall of man. 

Who better than Adam to aid and assist the Savior during his time of extreme distress than he

whose actions had brought about mortality.

Who better to thank the Savior for paying the debt that his actions had introduced (sin and suffering), than Adam himself?

Such good food for thought!

 

The kiss of Judas

The arrest of Jesus. 

In front of the high altar is a flat outcrop of rock.

Long Christian tradition identifies this as the rock of agony where Jesus prayed. 

I loved that the ceiling evokes night-time.
The somber blue of a star studded night sky, the stars being
surrounded by olive branches. 

It was peaceful in this church.

I imagine even though it was such a painful and agonizing night for Jesus,

he felt peace in the garden.

We hustled to the BYU Jerusalem Center for Sacrament service!

John knew it would be busy and we would have to fight for seats in the main area overlooking

all of Jerusalem. Once it got full you had to go to the over flow area downstairs with no windows. 

We pulled up to many tour buses.

Luckily Stephanie and Travis were in the front of the bus with us stuck in the back

with a door not being able to open because it was too close to the curb. AGH!

That had NEVER happened our whole trip and of course when time mattered we were stuck!

They hurried off to get us seats while we waited patiently to get off. 

SUCCESS!!

They scored us awesome seats with a view like none other. 

Hello Jerusalem!!

 

I went exploring on the outside deck since we had 30 minutes before church started. 

So amazing to gaze out into that incredible land I now knew so much more about.

I spy Stephanie!!'

We held down our seats while Stephanie and Travis took a turn outside. 

It was Fast and Testimony meeting, and also the first week of the

new semester for students who were studying abroad. 

We had a drive to our next stop so John opened the mic up for anyone who would

like to share anything or bear their testimony.

It was a nice little way to share thoughts since our time together was coming to an end. 

Masada 

Can't say I had ever heard of it before. 

We went past the Dead Sea into the desert land for a while.

It really put in perspective how much Lehi and his family had to journey from Jerusalem to the

Red Sea as we followed some of that path!

I can't imagine how hot, dusty and desolate it was for them. 

Masada is a rugged natural palace/fortress built by King Herod.

It is up on a very tall plateau. 

You can hike up, but most opt for the cable car tram.

Up at the top looking out to the Dead Sea!

Even though it was mainly dirt, it sure had a beautiful view!

After Herod abandoned it, it was overtaken be refugees of the last Jewish revolt.

When the Roman Empire came and broke through their barrier they chose death over slavery and to not live in captivity. 

Last pictures with Josh and Carrie

It was hot, dusty and WINDY up there.

We didn't last long before getting back on the tram to head back to the buses.

John was just the best!

We feel like we are genuine friends with him and email him with questions

all of the time!

He juggled 50 people on a tour group with ease making sure everyone felt included

and that he could establish a connection with you some way, some how.

He has a gift of understanding and teaching the gospel to others in a fascinating 

and impactful way. 

We stopped briefly after Masada with the other bus to rearrange the groups.

Those going on to Jordan and Petra were going with Dirkmaat.

Those going to the airport home stayed with John.

I guess it didn't click we were leaving Stephanie and Travis!

Travis came back on the bus to give us a hug!

I'm pretty sure my emotions kicked in at that point.

Sad it was over.

Struck by the most incredible time we had experienced together. 
I gave Stephanie a quick hug with little words because I knew I would lose it if I did much else!

We wished them well on their next leg.

It was weird watching the 2 buses drive in opposite directions 

as we had all just spent every waking hour together the past 7 days!

We had a few hours back in Old Jerusalem before we made our way to the airport.

John took us to a place where we hands down had the BEST shawarma of the whole trip!

Casey and I wandered the streets one last time.
 Which we actually felt like we
 finally had the lay of the land  in those quarters! 

We popped into the Holy Sepulcher.

It never got old visiting in there. 

 Visited with the people in our group one last time.

Then on to the airport. 

Said our second round of goodbyes.

How I LOVED our group so much!!

We had a couple of hours until our 10 hour red eye flight back to Newark, NJ.

I constantly was checking the flight to make sure the open middle seat was still vacant. 

Which it was.

Until they canceled another flight and rebooked them onto ours last minute.

No more empty seat.

I think I had a tiny melt down.

Exhaustion crept up on me finally and I was wondering how I would survive

this flight sitting in one position.

Hot tears uncontrollably streamed down my cheeks.

I felt silly that I was crying over something like this after such an amazing trip.

Casey took one for the team and sat in the middle next to a teenage Orthodox

Jewish boy who didn't speak a lick of English.

I fortunately got my pillow and crashed face down on the pull out tray right

after take off and slept the next 8 hours. Solid.

I felt so bad because the second I opened my eyes the poor boy next to Casey

stood up wanting out to go to the bathroom!

He probably didn't know what to do and was close to peeing his pants!

After a few hour layer over, we made it home sweet home!!!

The Whitmers had taken such good care of our kids for us while we were gone.

We showered then went straight to church, lol!

Back to reality lickity split!

Recap in a nutshell -
 I heart Israel!

It is truly a Holy Land.

Jesus and his disciples lived, loved and taught there.

Israel oozes testimony of this.

I felt his spirit while there.

He loves each one of us.

We have both the Bible and the Book of Mormon that testify of Jesus

Christ and teach His gospel.
Each book supports the other's teachings.

There are no coincidences.

Hurrah for Israel!!