Holy Week In The Holy Land

Being in the Holy Land for Holy Week is truly amazing. There are literally thousands of people who come to the Holy Land to worship and commemorate the final days of the Savior’s life and to celebrate his resurrection.  I had the once in a life time opportunity to be able to be in the Holy Land for this great event. I loved it so much. I not only studied the Savior’s life in depth, but I was able to witness various Christian denominations worship in diverse ways and languages. 

Palm Sunday is an event I have never paid much attention to. However after this week I will never be able to look at this day the same. “And they brought the colt to Jesus,and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord..” – Mark 11:7-9

There were thousands of people that did the palm walk to commemorate Christ’s journey into Jerusalem.  Before the walk I went to a Episcopalian Procession. This is where they blessed the palm leaves and had a service. The service was in both English and Arabic.  

When we got to the beginning of the walk there was such fun energy present. The streets were packed with people. There were palm tree branches waving in the air as you heard groups of people singing songs of worship and chanting prayers.

On Monday Christ cursed the fig tree, before cleansing and teaching in the temple.  Tuesday Christ continued to teach. On Wednesday the plot to kill Jesus was made and Judas agrees to betray Jesus. Thursday was when Christ and the disciples had the Last Supper, before Christ went to Gethsemane. In Gethsemane Christ suffered for all of our sins.  He felt our deepest sorrows, and knew each of the agony we experience in this world. He was later betrayed by his own disciple Judas, and was arrested and taken to Jewish authorities.

Friday Jesus is put in the hands of the Romans, and crucified. Christ not only had to experience physical death, but he had to know what it was like to die spiritually as well. This is something I had not really thought about in great detail before. But Christ truly knows what everyone on this earth has gone through, and he can have complete empathy for each and everyone of us. He knows how to succor us. 

 In honor of this I was able to do the Via Dolorosa. This is the walk Christ took as he carried his cross to Golgotha. There were 14 stations and it ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher  I visited the Holy Sepulcher a few times this week and one time I was there, there was a mass going on. I couldn’t understand anything that was being said, but it was still really cool to watch. 

Saturday Jesus went to the Spirit World before he was resurrected on Easter Sunday. We left the Jerusalem Center at five thirty in the morning to be able to get to the Garden Tomb's Morning Service. The service started at six thirty. The service consisted of singing songs with a live band and listening to a sermon from a pastor . There were hundreds of people there. The whole garden was packed with people worshiping and praising the Lord.

Christ conquered death that day. He paid the price for us so we can overcome death too- physical and spiritual. Christ knows how each of us feel and he will always be there for us if we come unto him.  Let us all remember the true reason we celebrate Easter.

“He is not here: for he is risen” Matthew 28:6

Happy Easter!