Lost Near the Jaffa Gate

ORDINARY TIME

Luke 13:22-30

²² Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. ²³ Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, ²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵ Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
²⁶ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
²⁷ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
²⁸ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹ People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

This is a scary story.  It's all about doing God's will as opposed to my own, or I may not end up at the banquet in the kingdom of God. 

Narrow Zion Gate - Jerusalem

(This car could barely make the turn to come through this gate and
we saw multiple vehicles going back & forth to make it through.
We actually saw one car smack the wall, back up and keep on going!)


My will = the wide gate

Gods will = the narrow gate

But how do we know who's will we are following?  There don't seem to be any maps or road signs.  At least not that my dense-self has seen.  Doing God's will doesn't mean easy or happy, right?  Then again, if trying to do something seems like swimming upstream constantly, doesn't that seem like it goes against God's will?  Doesn't that seem like a "sign"?  Like, if I am doing God's will, God's way, shouldn't the path be easy and straight?  Nope.

I understand "for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough".  That seems to be talking about being strong enough to resist temptation.  Strong enough to do the right thing, strong enough to stand up for what's right, strong enough to say NO to Satan and his ways and the ways of this world.

But "walk the rough road".....now what does that mean?  What makes this road rough?  Boulders to stumble on?  Twists to confuse us?  Holes to turn our ankles or trip us up?  Hills to climb, steep or slippery accents?  Or is it rough in a metaphysical way?  The path is very straight but narrow with many sinful behaviors and enticing  to knock us off?  High winds to make us unsteady and threaten to blow us off the edge?   

Do worldly treasures and ideas and people constantly push or pull at us to knock us off?

Well my ASA - that's my Anonymous Spiritual Adviser - (Have I ever told you I have a spiritual adviser, only she doesn't know it?  She's one of the most spiritual people I know and she surprises and guides me all the time!)  said it's like perspective in art.  God is our focal point. 

perspective drawing with a focal point

We are suppose to make a direct line to Him, no matter where we start or are.  But we fall, we stray, we get lost.  And by the great mercy of God, He adjusts the path so that it again leads straight to Him. 

She said that although He planned a specific path in the beginning, the path of His will is like a constantly turning compass point.  No matter which way we twist and wiggle and backtrack, it's always going to point a straight line to God.  Staying on that line is His Will.

No matter how many times I stray, no matter how far to the left or right or away from his Will I go, no matter how many times I sin, He has infinite mercy and patience with me and he "redraws" my path to heaven, His will for me.  

Every single time I repent or confess or try again, I get a new, straight-line to God!

How beautiful is that?  : )

I love knowing the God will show me the way to him, no matter how lost I am.  

When we were in Jerusalem, we got lost.  

Plaza outside the Jaffa Gate

The entire tour group had exited out the Jaffa Gate after a full day of events in Old Jerusalem.  It was sunset and Mom and I stood with everyone and marveled at the mix of old and new, the ancient wall of the City of David and the modern highway running beside it.  

Besides that, I realized I was very near the same location as Mitch had years ago!  I remembered his photograph when he was a junior in college (and suppose to be in Egypt, not Israel....but that's another story) and was trying to remember just where he had been.  

Mitch in Jerusalem, 2004

There was a gorgeous sunset which made a perfect backdrop to the beautiful spot.  Mom & and were happily taking photos and enjoying ourselves on the plaza/bridge. 

Jerusalem is a constant mix of ancient & modern

When all of a sudden we realized we were alone!

It's a sickening feeling to look around and know your group is gone and you have no idea which way they went.  We looked around and saw a very glittery and modern-looking shopping mall leading off the plaza - they must have gone in there for more shopping!  

Mamilla Mall in Jerusalem

We took off quickly down the wide, tiled walkway between the very expensive shops.  Everywhere were lights and people and beautiful clothes, jewelry, keepsakes and gifts mixed between outdoor cafe tables and musicians and artistic statues!  It was lovely and such a contrast to the ancient shops we had just come from on the other side of the Jaffa Gate!

Well, no matter how hurriedly we walked, we didn't see a soul we knew.  No one from our group was to be seen in the wide promenade, nor at the cute cafe tables, nor through any of the enticing windows to the very high-end stores we were passing.  
 
Uh Oh.

I could feel my stomach sinking and my stress rising.  In fact, very quickly I was beginning to panic.  It was getting dark and what if they didn't realize we weren't with the group???

Ah ha - modern technology to the rescue!  I grabbed my phone and began to text Di!

"We are lost!  Where are you guys!?!?!?"

And she texted me right back with a location - they were on the bus parked along a lower street down the stairs from the Jaffa Gate.  I ran ahead to the next break in the stores, ran out onto the wide steps and looked - there were more than a dozen buses parked up and down the street and after a minute I spotted ours about 2 from the end!

THANK GOD!

Looking off of the Mamilla Mall to the street below - full of tour buses

Mom and I made our way to them as fast as we could and jumped on the bus.  Hillel and Mickey were talking outside the door and Hillel looked at me with that exasperated, you-are-always-last-on-the-bus look.  I smiled and we went to our seats.  What a relief!!  Whew!

What a lesson that was.  Pay attention.  Stay alert.  And when you are lost:  Phone A Friend!

It's a lesson for my spiritual life too:  Stay on track, pray for guidance, and when I feel lost, call someone spiritual and get some advise to help me find my way back to God's path!

Dear Lord, Thank You for placing people in my life that can help guide me to you.  Thank you for the Holy Priests, my holy friends, my holy family members who help me on my path to heaven!  Amen.

2012 Pilgrimage to Israel - Day 8

A Troubling Visit to Mt. Zion

King David

The Tomb of King David may be the only site we visited that made me feel like I needed to go to confession!  I am ashamed to admit that we were not very reverent.  I know this sounds really strange, but it felt fake to me.

First of all it didn't make sense to me at the time that the tomb of such a famous Jewish king was literally in the basement of a Catholic church.  Thinking back, being below the modern ground does make sense in that they probably built a church over the top of it, and then another over the top of that.  So it makes perfect sense now....

But at the time it wasn't clicking for me.

Actually, research after returning home says that "The tomb is located in a corner of a room situated on the ground floor remains of the former Hagia Zion a ancient house of worship; the upper floor of the same building has traditionally been viewed as the Cenacle of Jesus."  (that's the "Upper Room"!

Maybe that contributed to my confusion at the time, but looking back, why wouldn't God's Providence put his son's last meal, such an important event, over the resting place of one of his chosen men?).

After going through a dark hallway, they took us to what seemed like a back room.  It was really like a storeroom or something. There wasn't any sign or indication that there was on-going construction or that it was a temporary exhibit.  To tell the truth, I thought we were taking some kind of shortcut through the building. It was like we were backstage or something. 

Women's Entrance to the Tomb of King David

Anyway, we entered a room that was divided by a make-shift looking wall of bookcases.  There was a small table with paper yamakas for the men. I think at that point I was thinking “what is this?  Where are we exactly?”

The men in our group got very silly at this point and began to snicker and giggle about wearing the headgear.  There wasn’t any sign telling women to cover their heads. 

The men went left.  Women walked forward through the arched doorway in the picture above.

Men's entrance to the Tomb of King David

We walked past a couple of mis-matched desks pushed up against the wall across from some random and mostly empty bookcases.  Going through a broken-looking door with exposed concrete and gravel on the floor, we entered another storeroom.  What a mess!  Past the haphazard curtains into a third room.

This last room was divided by a heavy dark curtain.  We women were on the smaller side, maybe only 1/3 of the actual size of the room.  In front of us was a partial casket draped in maroon velvet sticking out of the divider.

We were so crammed in there that we could hardly move.  (There were around 20 of us). We couldn’t see over the curtain but we could hear Hillel talking, although I couldn’t make out what he was saying.

About that time an arm shot up over the partition and FLASH!  Someone took a picture.

We heard someone on the other side of the room begin giggling so I held up my digital camera and shot a picture of the other side.

Everyone wanted to see.  Course, it was the men from our group milling around in the other 2/3’rds of the room.  Their side wasn't much nicer.  The casket drape on their side of the partition had all kinds of gold symbols embroidered on it.

Well all the wives in our group who were little short women wanted me to take pictures with their cameras cause I’m tall.  The men were sticking their tongues out and making faces and worse, and we got really disrespectful at that point!  It just snowballed!  OH the shame of it!!

I will say that I felt pretty darn silly in that room looking at the foot of a coffin as it stuck through the drapes. Talk about separate but not equal!!  It was like something in the sideshow of a carnival.

Everyone was silly and giggled and got ridiculous about the whole picture-taking-over-the-drapes thing.

Maybe being allotted the foot-end of the casket just seemed so insane when clearly I’ve never experienced any prejudice because I am a woman?  (yes, I know, men and women are not treated equally in foreign countries, but this just felt so ridiculous!).

I just made no connection whatsoever to this place and the King of Israel.  It was like being at a side-show at the fair, and when you walk behind the curtain it’s not a space alien, it’s a deformed set of Siamese-calves floating in formaldehyde.  I felt like i was being suckered or faked out by the shabby feel of the store-room atmosphere.

The Tomb of David, King of Israel

Since returning I've read reviews on King David's Tomb...

 "As a woman traveler I forgot what it is like to be treated like a second class person."

 "Disappointing"

"Too much of a coincidence that the Christian site of the supposed 'upper room' adjoins the place of King David"

"For a site that apparently has such significance to certain people, I found that it was very poorly maintained."

 "I was quite taken aback by being treated like an inferior member of the species, it came as a big culture shock! If you're offended by gender discrimination, I'd suggest to give this place a miss..."

 "If you beleive it - it may be a very powerful experience. If you don't connect on the emotional level, it's just a place, an unusually dirty and neglected one, with many odd people and habits"

So it appears I was not alone in any of my thoughts or feelings regarding the site.  But I still feel terrible about the whole thing.  I am sure God was not pleased. This is the tomb of David!  The killer of Goliath!  The writer of the Psalms!  The King of Israel!  The City of David is named for him!

This is a place that is holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews.

No, it was not a spiritual experience for me, it was unsettling.  Troubling and disappointing.

2012 Pilgrimage to Israel - Day 8