What can be said about this city that has not been said?  It is a cauldron of culture and religion.  It holds the secrets of eternity and it draws pilgrims from the world's three monotheistic faiths like other cities draw fans to a game. 

We stood on the Mount of Olives and looked across thousands of tombs, chalky white and baking in the sun, the graves of all three faiths, of those who want to be here for the resurrection.  It's interesting to me as a Christian that Jesus taught that place is irrelevant and that faith is personal.  This city is all about place and for centuries people have bled and died because its Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall, and Old City are so sacred to so many. 

Here, the Garden at Gethsemane moved me, as I thought about Jesus's last hours and how those he trusted most betrayed and denied him.  And on the Via Dolorosa, the path he took to the crucifixion, I thought about how he made one last plea to his Father to spare him the agony this city held for him. 

He was a rebel, a revolutionary, a peacemaker and a man who ultimately made a conscious decision to die when he could have saved himself.

And, what is most remarkable about this man is that all three faiths here agree on his existence.  On this, there is no dispute.  They treat him as a historical figure who lived and taught across this region before he died here.  As a Christian, this corroboration between these faiths that clash so frequently, gives me a lifetime's worth of questions to ponder.

The Dome of the Rock is one of the most photographed structures in the world

Jews gather at the Western Wall to pray

A member of our group (right) asked a Jewish man how to pray at the Wall

The Garden of Gethsemane today has been beautifully restored and is thought to be the place where Jesus was arrested

Every Easter growing up I would hear the song “Jerusalem, My Destiny,” which connected the city with Christian tradition. The tune took on a new meaning when I saw my first view of the Jerusalem skyline and its cream-colored buildings of Jerusalem stone and the arresting golden Dome of the Rock. On my walking tour of the ancient city, I met reminders of religion around every corner with black-clad Orthodox Jews with side curls, muezzins’ five-time daily singing call to Islamic prayer and tolling church bells.

At the 1924 Church of All Nations, hundreds of years old gnarled olive trees encircle the basilica, which sits atop Gethsemane – where Jesus prayed the night before his death. Huge mosaics portray images from scriptures surrounding Gethsemane on the ceilings of the church. Afterwards, I entered the tall stone gates to the Old City to wander through more Christian history along the Via Dolorosa trail past the stations of the cross. The trail ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which many believe sits atop Golgotha, or the Hill of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified. The darkly lit Greek Orthodox church leads pilgrims through different chambers venerating the place of the crucifixion and the first-century tomb believed to be Christ’s.

Later, I explored the most beloved Jewish holy site at the Western Wall, which Herod the Great originally constructed in 19 B.C.E. It stands close to the location of the Second Jewish Temple destroyed in 70 C.E. According to Orthodox Jewish customs, the site is divided by a barrier separating men and women so they can both walk up to pray and place written requests in the cracks of the wall. With the Dome of the Rock visible on the other side of the wall and other Christian churches not far off, the area remains at the epicenter for three of the world's major religions. 

Jerusalem skyline from the Dominus Flevit Church

Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Western Wall