Day 10
Today we began our pilgrimage at Bethany (or Al-Eizariya as it is known today), where we visited the Church of Saint Lazarus, which tradition says is located very near the house Lazarus shared with his sister’s Martha and Mary and not far from the tomb where Jesus raised him from the dead.
For those of you who don’t know, Lazarus, Martha and Mary were great friends of Jesus, and when Lazarus fell desperately ill, Martha and Mary, (having heard that their best friend was healing the sick), sent word to him asking if he could make a house call? Expecting him to drop everything and come right away, both were perplexed when he didn’t arrive until well after Lazarus had died, demanding that they take him to see their brother immediately, “Yallah, Yallah, Yallah!”
Martha, (mentally noting that his bedside manner left a lot to be desired) said, “Jesus, it’s been four days. You know he’ll be quite pongy.” “That’s okay,” said Jesus, “I’ve meditated outside the Dung Gate at the old city.” When he got to the tomb he called out, “Lazarus, get out here and give me a hug.” And to everyone’s amazement, he did.
There was a Mass taking place when we first got there, so we visited the old Olive press, watched an informative virtual tour and history of the site, finally got to see inside the church, checked out a mustard tree and saw exactly how much faith you need to move a mountain. Boy, do I have some work to do!
We then headed off to the Jordan River where Father Wim was going to lead us in a special renewing of our Baptismal vows. Our destination was Qasr al-Yahud, which tradition (and the Israeli Government), says is the site on the banks of the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
This is hotly disputed of course by the people of Jordan, (it is so bad that soldiers from both Jordan and Israel are permanently posted there to keep the peace), who believe that their site, Juwafat al-Kafrayn, (located 6 metres away on the bank opposite), is the true site where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
According to Don Mourad, we’ll never know for sure and it is unlikely that a compromise will ever be reached. Not wanting to hedge our bets and risk being shot, we renewed our Baptismal vows on the Qasr al-Yahud side of the Jordan River.
From there we headed into Jericho passing the very Sycamore Tree (according to Don Mourad it isn’t), that Zaccheus (the Tom Thumb of Judaea), climbed so he could see Jesus.
We then celebrated our last Mass in Israel at the Church of the Good Shepherd before heading to the local Ravi Shawarma and Falaf-Phil’s takeaway for our last (and I mean this literally) ever shawarma or falafel!!!
Our last destination for the day, was the archaeological site of ancient Jericho, which is considered to be the oldest city in the world. Some sections of its remaining walls and the remnants of a tower are thought to be 10,000 years old.
We spent about half an hour walking all over the site and enjoying the views of the Dead Sea and Mount Quarantania which Don Mourad informed us is where Satan took Jesus to offer him dominion over all the earthly kingdoms if he would only bow down and worship him. Of course Jesus said “No!”, but we had trouble resisting the temptation to ride a camel, eat some fresh dates and do some shopping when we stopped there about an hour and a half earlier.
Then, just like that, our time in Israel was over. We headed back to the hotel to do all the things you have to do in preparation for checkout, met for a drink, had dinner, and went to bed.
Tomorrow, we head for Rome.
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