March 26, 2007VOL. 45, NO. 6Oakland, CA

Gethsemane to Golgotha: A Lenten Journey

These ancient Roman steps lead up from the Kidron Valley to Caiaphus’ house as seen in Jerusalem today.

By Greg Tarczynski
Special to The Voice

A pilgrimage to Jerusalem provides a unique spiritual experience. Other pilgrimage sites around the world have great cathedrals, sites of miraculous events, archeological wonders, and holy relics. But in Jerusalem, the oldest continuously inhabited city, a city destroyed and rebuilt many times over, a city in which three great monotheistic religions converge, here in Jerusalem a pilgrim walks and prays in the footsteps of Jesus.

Standing on the Mount of Olives, one can see across the Kidron Valley to the Old City of Jerusalem.

Left, olive trees and flowers on the Mount of Olives are likely to be similar to those that would have been in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus prayed there on the night before he died.

Gethsemane
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” – Matthew 26:36, 39.

The mountain ridge known as The Mount of Olives rises east of Jerusalem. The view from the top looks across The Kidron Valley toward the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and, most noticeably, the gold-topped Dome of the Rock centered on the temple mount. A narrow road winds down the hill between the Jewish cemetery and olive groves including Gethsemane, the place believed by early Christians to be the site of Jesus’ agony in the garden.
Soft light filters through the alabaster windows of “The Church of All Nations” as pilgrims walk up to the altar rail to pray in front of “The Rock of Agony,” believed to be the spot where Jesus lay prostrate in prayer to the Father. Outside the church stands an ancient olive grove. Some of the olive trees are so old that small piles of rocks have been erected to support the twisted limbs.
We’ll never know with certainty if this is the precise spot of the agony in the garden. But this is Gethsemane, here on the slope of the Mount of Olives, spoken about by the evangelists. The pilgrim stands here and feels compelled to continue walking up to the gate of the old city, just as the Gospels tell us Jesus did during his ministry and passion in Jerusalem.

The Lion’s Gate entrance at the eastern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem is the traditional starting point for the Via Dolorosa.	An Arab man carries prayer beads in his hands as he walks in the Old City’s Muslim quarter.

Jerusalem
And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?” And the crowds replied, “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, “It is written: ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of thieves.” – Matthew 21: 10-13.

A woman touches the hand of Jesus in an image of the crucified Christ at the 11th station along the Via Dolorosa.

The rock called Golgotha or Calvary is visible under the altar at the 12th station of the cross in Jerusalem.

Three great faith traditions share in the patrimony of Jerusalem. The temple mount, still visible today, was the base for the second temple of Judaism, which existed at the time of Jesus, but was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. Centuries later Muslim rulers built the Dome of the Rock containing the rock from which Muslims believe the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven. It is the third most holy place in Islam.

Today, Jews worship and pray at the Western Wall, an excavated area of the original temple mount within the Jewish Quarter of the old city. And for Christians, the Via Dolorosa leads through the city to The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was constructed on what is believed to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.

The Via Dolorosa, or “Way of Sorrow,” begins near the eastern wall of the old city and follows the traditional route of devotion symbolizing Jesus’ carrying of the cross to Golgotha.

Here every Friday thousands of pilgrims begin the Way of the Cross at the Chapels of Condemnation and Flagellation near the site of Antonia’s Fortress where Pilate sentenced Jesus to death.

The street is narrow, crowded with shops and vendors, and bustling with energy. Walking here takes time and you can only move as fast as the flow of pilgrims, tourists, shoppers and the local residents of the Muslim Quarter. A brief stop in the Polish chapel to view the third station, Jesus falling under the cross for the first time, provides a moment of respite.

The fourth and fifth stations follow in close succession. Above the door of a small Armenian chapel is a small yet exquisite carving of Jesus meeting his mother. This marks the fourth station. Someone placed red paint on the stone to show the blood of Jesus. It is a tender moment, easy to miss. But that is the mystery of Jerusalem – this city, with so many layers of history, gives each of us ample opportunities to make a unique faith connection.

At the fifth station is a simple chapel marking where Simon the Cyrenian helped Jesus carry the cross. Here the Via Dolorosa starts climbing in elevation, a climb that leads all the way to Calvary.

A pilgrimage group sings hymns and recites prayers at the sixth station where Veronica wipes the sweat from Jesus’ face. Further up, the street becomes a tunnel as shops crowd both sides and arches and buildings form a vault overhead. At the seventh station, Jesus Falls for the Second Time, crowds of pilgrims wait their turn to enter the small chapel as shoppers and old city dwellers continue to flow past.

The eighth station is a slight detour up a side road and is marked by a simple cross on the wall of a Greek Monastery. A vendor is within an arm’s reach, selling postcards and guides for the Via Dolorosa, just in case the pilgrims somehow missed the several hundred other vendors along the way selling the same merchandise.

Up more stairs, toward the approach to The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a simple cross to commemorate Jesus falling for the third time marks the ninth station.

A group of pilgrims touch the stone where Jesus is believed to have been laid after being taken down from the cross.

Muslim women walk past the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

A Jewish man prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains the last five Stations of the Cross. The Chapel of the Stripping of Jesus’ Garments represents the tenth station. A stone stairway on the outside of the church leads up to the entrance to the unremarkable chapel, which seems almost an afterthought in comparison to what follows.

Pilgrims entering the main door of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre are greeted by a member of the Muslim family that has held the key to the door for centuries. The Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic Churches are the primary custodians of the church. In addition, the Coptic, Ethiopian, and Syriac Orthodox also have a share.

They have a long history of not getting along, so much so that Saladin appointed the Nuseibeh family to manage access to the church in 1192.
To this day, as Christian pilgrims by the hundreds stream in and out of the single entrance to this huge church, a gentle Muslim man sits on a bench next to the door quietly fingering his prayer beads.

Immediately upon entering the church, a narrow, steep staircase on the right leads up to the eleventh and twelfth stations. The eleventh station marks the place where Jesus was nailed to the cross. A large mosaic adorns the wall behind the Latin Rite altar. Pilgrims crowd into this chapel, some touch the mosaic, others kneel in prayer, but all anticipate their next steps.

For just under an archway to the left is the twelfth station, Jesus Dies on the Cross, where an ornately decorated Greek altar stands directly over the Rock of Calvary, or Golgotha. The rock itself is visible beneath the Plexiglas sides and floor of the altar. Pilgrims crawl under the center altar to place their hand through a hole in floor and touch the rock itself.

In Jesus’ time, this rock would have been well outside the walls of Jerusalem. But in the intervening centuries, Jerusalem has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and in the process the walls expanded outward to encompass the important Christian sites. The layers of churches here: Byzantine, crusader, and modern, along with other buildings, roads, and courtyards completely obscure what the land looked like during the crucifixion.
But the elevation change leading up to the rock itself, and the pilgrims walking up this route, says much about the focal point of this journey.

Descending by another steep staircase, pilgrims come back down to the main level of the church. Here lies the thirteenth station: the stone of anointment where Jesus was laid after his death. A group of pilgrims place their hands on the stone and pray they are touching the place their Lord laid in death.

Some take clothes out of their backpacks and rub each item on the marble slab. These items were given to them by friends who could not make the pilgrimage, and each item will be returned to its owner as a holy memento.

Finally, pilgrims walk deeper into the church and enter into the great rotunda, which was built by crusaders upon the original Byzantine foundations. Within this rotunda stands the edicule, a structure that contains the tomb of Jesus as identified by Saint Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who in 325 ordered that a church be built upon the site.

The edicule itself seems to be falling apart and is held together be a latticework of steel beams. At intervals throughout the day an Orthodox priest comes through and incenses the site. Shortly after, as if it had not been done quite right the first time, an Armenian priest repeats the incensation.

Then pilgrims are again allowed to enter the outer chamber, and a few at a time bend over and half crawl into the tomb chamber. A moment of silence ends the journey of the Stations of the Cross here where once Jesus lay in the tomb. It is a profound experience -- for while pilgrims kneel in reverent prayer in the tomb, they know that the journey did not end here.

A group of Christian pilgrims pray along the Via Dolorosa.

GREG TARCZYNSKI PHOTOS