Caught in the Current

Last Friday we had intentions of traveling to Bethlehem, the city of the Jesus' birth.  We had entered into the old city at the Jaffa gate, and needed to pass through, then exit at the Damascus gate where the bus station sat nearby.  The bus station to Bethlehem, sits near where the road from Damascus joins to the road from Jericho.  Remember this point it has certain Biblical significance.

The time was around 5:15 as we moved from the Christian quarter into the Muslim quarter.  The streets in these areas are more like large sidewalks maybe only 15 feet wide, lined with shops and cafes, all selling their wares to tourists or locals.  We walked through winding streets making lefts then rights, up stairs and down, till we came to a crossroad that was congested with people. 

We walked right into a human traffic jam and to our right people jamming toward us.  Men and women began to pack around us, to the front, to the sides, and to our rear.  We could barley move forward and to move back would have been difficult.  We realized the mosque of the old city had just let out, and hundreds of Muslim men and women were all intending to exit the Damascus gate.

Slowly we all moved toward the Damascus gate.  The road had widened to about twenty feet and we were solid, all as one current flowing together on to the gate.  Later, our guides Peter and Betsy said, they had never been in such a large crowd in the old city.  It was concerning because it was not just a crowd, but a crowd of Muslims leaving their quarter, and we were obviously standing out among them. 

It was Friday nearly sunset, the beginning of Sabbath, and the fifth day of the Muslim holiday Ramadan, where the Muslims fast from all food and water for the entire day till sunset.  Friends, to go without food and water all day in this climate is a challenge to the human flesh and will affect the temperament of an individual.  Plus during this season they are praying to Allah and asking for visions, so who knows what they are seeing and hearing in the mosque.

With no choice we flowed with the current, drifting out the Damascus gate, into the streets of Jerusalem, to the station  nearby.  When we arrived, we sadly discovered we were not welcome on the bus, for they were being filled with the Muslims hurrying home to end the day's fast. 

While our guide spoke to locals about alternative routes, I looked through the bus lot just 50 yards away, and saw the rocky faced cliff called in the Hebrew Golgotha, or Calvary.  There it was, I could have walked across the pavement, climbed the 3 foot rail and touched it!  Strangely there it sits, at the edge of the dirty hot pavement.  Just outside the station were buses and cars in gridlock with angry drivers blowing their horns.  The sidewalks were full of pedestrians while the vendors yelled out their specials.  The busy place of Calvary, shoppers buying, merchants selling, travelers pushing, and we, standing in the middle.

It occurred to me it was Friday.  Jesus was crucified the day before a Sabbath, and during a Jewish holiday.  On that day and in perhaps the same general area Simon of Cyrene was caught in all the chaos and forced to walk to Calvary.  Carrying the cross of Jesus he stood there and watched him die. In my mind, I can see the shoppers buying, merchants selling, travelers pushing, and Jesus paying the price for my sin, and Simon's.  (Mark 15)