Update from Old City of Jerusalem

Ariel Schalit/AP

NPR: The coronavirus did not stop the tradition of the Holy Fire on Saturday, the centuries-old ceremony held annually at the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem the day before Easter on the Eastern Orthodox Christian calendar. But some adjustments were made.

Usually tens of thousands of pilgrims pack the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and surround the Edicule, the inner sanctum that houses the spot where tradition says Jesus was entombed and resurrected.

This year, no pilgrims attended. The church has been closed to visitors since last month, as all houses of worship in the Holy Land have shuttered their doors.

The ceremony was broadcast live to tens of thousands of Orthodox Christian believers around the world. Clergy from Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic and Syriac churches were represented at the ceremony, with a few Israeli policemen standing guard.

Update from the Temple Mount

The Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa will continue to be closed during the month of Ramadan because of the coronavirus.  The mount has been closed since March 23.  Ramadan begins this year (2020) on Thursday April 23 and ends May 23.  The New Moon marks the beginning of the month in which Muslims are called to fast, pray, and faith.  Although the call to prayer will still be heard five times a day from the location, and workers will be allowed to undertake tasks, Muslim prayer will be prohibited, which sometimes draws 10,000s each day during Ramadan.  Muslims are encouraged to observe Ramadan in their homes.   

When I visited Jerusalem in May 2018, the Old City was often crowded with people.

There especially were a lot of young people.  I love taking pictures of faces.  I am not sure the person in the middle saw me taking this one, but she certainly looks a little surprised.  

Update on the Temple Mount

Although large groups of worshipers have not been allowed to gather at various holy sites in Jerusalem, because of the coronavirus, a few smaller events did take place: 1) a small gathering of Christians met at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Easter Day to pray; 2) another small group of Jewish worshippers prayed the Priestly Blessing at the Western Wall during the Passover; and 3) another group of Jewish worshipers performed the Omer wave offering from the barley harvest; they had hoped to celebrate the rite on the Temple Mount which was empty, but were prevented to do so; nonetheless, they are preparing and hoping to be able to perform an alternative Passover offering next month on the Temple Mount, and hope to offer two loaves of bread for the offering of firstfruits along with two lambs during Shavuot (Feast of Weeks/Pentecost). 

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A small number of Jewish worshipers pray during the priestly blessing, a traditional prayer which usually attracts thousands of worshipers at the Western Wall on the holiday of Passover, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 12, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun.

Easter Reflection 2020

Fifty Days Forward (Easter to Pentecost)

“He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven.”  This saying from the Nicene Creed reflects 1 Corinthians 15:4.  In Genesis, God brought forth vegetation from the earth on day three (Gen 1:11-13).  Christ himself is the firstfruits that arose from the earth on the third day (1 Cor 15:20), yet this hope is also for a restored Israel who turns to God in the last days (Hos 6:2).  In Second Temple Judaism, the fifty days between the Jewish Feast of Passover and the Feast of Shavuot (Weeks) came to be known as Feast of Pentecost.  In Early Christianity, the time between Easter and Pentecost Sunday was also fifty days.  Pentecost was not an isolated feast day.  The fifty days from the resurrection of Christ, the firstfruits, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the firstfruits (Rom 8:23) is Pentecost. 

On the 16th of Nisan, a lamb was offered along with the sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest, which was taken from the land of Israel (Lev 23:9-14).  After counting 50 days, an offering of firstfruits (two loaves) was presented to the Lord on the Feast of Shavuot, Weeks, Pentecost (vv. 15-22).  

Update on the Temple Mount

Earlier this month, a group of Jewish Temple Mount activists sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking him to allow them to offer the ritual Passover on the Temple Mount to end the coronavirus pandemic.  I have not seen any reports that the rite took place on the location.  However, more information is available concerning those individuals who were behind the request.  Several leaders, including Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, and Rabbi Menachem Makover all supported the endeavor.  Last year the Jewish Passover was celebrated in a variety of ways in Jerusalem, which included priests from the Jewish Temple Institute enacting a sacrifice of a lamb from an area overlooking the mount.  Those calling for the offering of the Passover lamb this year had argued that an altar could be placed on the mount and the Passover offering carried out.            

Saturday Lenten Reflection 2020

Today is Jesus’ Sabbath

Although in the ground His body lay,

Forever remember it will not stay,

Soon to arise like firstfruits,

We cherish this everlasting truth.

Friday Lenten Reflection 2020

On this day in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is handed over by Jewish priests and Pilate to be crucified.  He is mocked by soldiers and those who passed by: “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross.”  However, when Jesus cried aloud and breathed his last, the curtain of the temple was torn (σχίζω) in two from top to bottom.  There is a parallel with the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the Baptist, where the heavens are torn apart (σχίζω) and a voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved Son.”  The irony, though, is at the cross the Roman centurion—and not the priests —confesses, “Truly this man was God’s Son.”  Jesus, bread and wine, the Eucharist, and the significance of the temple are moving westward.

Stone of Anointing in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher located west of the Temple Mount.  

This woman was doing something and walking right towards me.  She also walked right up to me.  

Faces in the Holy Sepulcher. 

More faces in the Holy Sepulcher. 

      

Here is a side chapel within the Church of Holy Sepulcher where I participated in the Eucharist.  Although I enjoyed my visit to the Old City and the Temple Mount, this chapel holds a special and unique sense of God's presence.