Good Friday: Memories of Jerusalem

Easter always reminds me of Jerusalem - especially my last trip there with my youngest son - shortly after I retired.

The above picture above was taken from a roof-top restaurant where we ate our last night in Jerusalem. The entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is across from the tower construction site (with scaffolding all around it).

The above picture shows my first classroom - in an international school housed in a building that had originally been built to be a hospital. My son was interested in seeing the places where I had lived, studied and worked.

When I was living in Jerusalem, as a university student and then a teacher - my daily routine kept me busy. I rarely visited religious sites (just as now I only visit the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa when showing out-of-town guests around).

This picture shows me with my former neighbor - in the apartment building where I lived most of my years in Jerusalem. It was a delightful surprise to discover that he and his family still lived in the apartment his parents had once lived in - and that someone was home when we knocked on the door. 

(I remember him as a high school student!)

Here I am standing on the rooftop garden of the house. In the distance - past the hills - is the town of Bethlehem, a 15-minute drive away.

Flat roofs of houses also have practical uses. Many heat water with solar panels placed on the roof. The barrels near the panels hold water for domestic consumption.

When I returned to Jerusalem with my son, I made a point of taking him to as many religious sites as we could fit in - especially those in Jerusalem, among them "Gordon's Calvery" - in the picture below.

Nearby is the "Garden Tomb" - which many believe is the place where Jesus' body lay after his crucifixion. 

Here it is - with a line-up of tourists waiting to get in.

After visiting these two sites, we walked over to the traditional location of the tomb (where Jesus’ body lay for three days) in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

This older traditional site has a church built over it, so it's hard to imagine it as a tomb in a garden, as it is described in the New Testament. This picture, taken inside the church, shows the lineup of people waiting to enter the tomb.

Jerusalem looks very different now than it did when Helena, the Christian mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, came to Jerusalem, in the fourth century, to build shrines on all sites of religious significance to Christians. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has a long history: Originally built in 326 AD, it has been damaged  a number of times - due to religious conflict - and then rebuilt again. No pilgrimage to Jerusalem is complete without visiting it.