Day Five From The Manger In Bethlehem

As our trip reached its penultimate day, we are finally getting to the major sites in the life of Jesus Christ.

Today began with a trip to the Mount of Olives – a place with so very many important historical events. It’s from here that Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1). Right across the Kidron Valley is visible the Eastern Gate to Jerusalem where Jesus triumphantly rode a donkey on palm leaves in what we now know as Palm Sunday. We visited Dominus Flevit where “the Lord wept” as he gazed over the Holy City. We continued on Palm Sunday Road to the Garden of Gethsemane that has some olive trees reported to date back to the time of Christ.

If only these trees could tell their tale. Did they witness Jesus praying before his arrest, asking if His Father could take this cup off his shoulders? Did they hear Jesus’ frustration when he asked the sleeping disciples “Could you not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26)

This is the place where Peter fulfilled the prediction by denying he knew Jesus not once or twice, but three times – before the rooster’s call brought him to shame.

It’s a place just steps away from the Upper Room where the Last Supper was held. It’s the spot where Judas betrayed Jesus and soldiers took him away.

One place, so much to take in. And it wasn’t even the highlight of the day.

We headed to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity – the site where the Christ child was born. Our guide told us we were lucky because the line was short, very short. Of course the pouring rain might have had something to do with it.

Didn’t matter. This was one highlight of the trip everyone was looking forward to.

Or so I thought.

One of the most ironic things I’ve ever experienced in my life happened next.

As our group was getting ready to enter the very small entrance to the church, another tour group cut in front of us. And by cut, I mean jostled and shouldered their way in. For the next half hour or so, two tour groups were crammed together with few feeling the love of goodwill to their fellow man.

The other tour group continued to elbow their way in, out, through and around our group. As our tour guide talked, theirs talked louder. It wasn’t just one quick incident that was over five minutes later. This went on and on and on.

Here we were at this most holy of places. We were minutes away from kneeling down and actually touching the spot where Jesus Christ, the Son of God, entered this world – and, speaking only for myself, my blood pressure and temper were through the ancient wooden roof over our heads. Later, as I thought back, I was astounded that Jesus could forgive the soldiers who nailed him to a cross and I was angry over a place in line.

The lessons today did not stop with the tour guide.

Sagamore News Media’s Tim Timmons is on a pilgrimage to Israel and the Holy Land. He will be writing occasionally during the trip. Timmons can be contacted at [email protected].