We began our trek this afternoon by going down to the the Garden of Gethsemane.
It was meaningful to pray in proximity to where our Lord prayed “thy will”.
Our intent today was to experience the journey from the garden up into the city…
The Roman fort was likely positioned nearby – at the northern end of the Temple. We walked down the Via Delarosa.
The other end of the Via Delarosa is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Golgotha and the tomb are memorialized.
It is a working Church and beautiful liturgy was ongoing.
At the end, we had walked thousands of steps, a lot of which was uphill. But the Via Delarosa is, at most, a quarter of all the steps he took that night.
That night Jesus experienced multiple hearings before two groups of Jews, Pilate, and Herod. Crossing this extremely hilly city was strenuous enough, but weakened and bloodied as Jesus was from the numerous whippings and beatings would have made it so much harder. It gives deeper meaning to Isaiah 53: “with his wounds we are healed.”
kingdom travelin' 