Footsteps of Jesus Pilgrimage Day 9 - An Afternoon in the End of Holy Week

After lunch back at the college for lunch, we were bused up Mount Zion – The Western Hill. Here we come near the end of holy week, with the last supper, trail and denial.

First we went to the Cenaculum or the Upper Room – or at least a building situated on the traditional site of the upper room. Tradition situates this site with where Mary may have stayed/lived. Next door is the Dormition Abbey - Hagia Maria – an alternative site for the Virgin Mary's death. We tried to find this later but my map reading skills deserted me. Honestly, we started out from where we wanted to go, found our way into the Old City through the Jaffa Gate, wandered around for awhile trying to work out where I wanted to go, and then saw it back where we started, too late to even try to go there. Bonnie had had enough by then anyway. Fair enough.

So back to the Upper Room. Over the centuries this has been a church and a mosque, and currently the site is within a Jewish School. It is a much more contested space than when I was here in 2005. The space below which houses the “Tomb of David” is now a synagogue – and we did not go down to see that this time. We entered and left by a different way than we did in 2005. There is more evidence of violence with bullet holes and broken windows. Deeply contested space. Despite it being such an important site in the story of Jesus: the venue for the last supper and the washing of feet as a model of leadership; was either a place where the disciples stayed or at least met and dined while they were in Jerusalem, especially after the crucifixion; and the site of the gifting of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; it was hard to get past it being this weird and contested space. And to be honest I was tired, and there wasn’t a lot of lead in to get my head in the right place. I am thinking about what that place represents now I am writing this more than I did while I was there.

We then walked down the hill to Saint Peter in Gallicantu. I remembered this place from 2005. It is the site of Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas, and where Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed. It is also the place Peter and John were held in prison. Like so many holy places, the current church was built in the 1930’s on the site of old Byzantine and Crusader churches. Sculpted bronze doors connect the church with the events at the Cenacle when Jesus predicted Peter’s triple denial with the place it occurred. Next to the church are Roman steps which Jesus would have walked down from the last supper to the Garden and his arrest and then walked back up after his arrest to Caiaphas’s house and first trial.

The Upper church is built in a neo-Byzantine style and commemorates the trial. It has amazing mosaics depicting the story. The most stunning feature of the church is the large stained-glass window under the dome: “From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew, 26:64)

The crypt is built over a deep pit that tradition says is where Jesus was held, and where Peter and John were later held. It occupies a large space cut out of the rock and extends outside to the excavated Roman step street. It may be the courtyard where Peter was when he denied Jesus, sitting around a campfire with the guards. The church has three mosaics which show Peter denying Jesus, Peter lost in his sin, and the Risen Jesus affirming him as the rock of the church. Outside in the courtyard is a wonderful sculpture of Peter’s denial with a crow on top of the column in the middle. We looked at this while dean Richard led us in a reflection on Peter’s denial of Jesus and asked how we deny Jesus in our lives.

When we first arrived at Saint Peter in Gallicantu Dean Richard
showed us the view out across the Kidron and down to Bethany behind the Wall. We could see where Jesus would have come, and where we had walked that morning. We looked back at the Old City from the southern end, to Al Aqsa and the additions built by the Templars. And we looked down the Silwan Valley – a Palestinian community created out of the Nakba in 1946 when the original inhabitants thought they were briefly moving into the safety of Jordanian controlled territory as they waited for the fighting to end so that they could go home. When the fighting did end, they were prohibited from returning, and their land was confiscated. Now they live in occupied and annexed East Jerusalem and live at the mercy of an Israeli government that really would like to move them out. While the archaeological work is amazing, and we enjoyed the fruits of that work, in places like this, where the digging is happening under houses, and in some cases, housing is confiscated and

demolished to make way for that historical work. Coupled with that Zionists are moving into the area to claim it for Israel, flying large Israeli flags on their properties as a form of intimidation. These families lost everything in 1946. They have been able to rebuild their lives, but now are under threat again, with many under threat of eviction and demolition. On some of the houses are painted murals of eyes. I Witness Silwan is an international public art project in support of Silwan’s longstanding fight against dispossession. Murals depicting the eyes of local and international leaders, activists, workers, and more, are scattered across the hills of Silwan, East Jerusalem and can be seen from miles away. “The staring eyes say to people that we see them and they should see us too…we want to say that we are here — we love our land and our home.” - Jawad Siyam, Director of Madaa-Silwan Creative Center. Jesus' pain and death which we were walking is lived out in the stories of people all around these holy sites. There is much work to be done in God's work of building the Beloved Community of love, hope and justice.

Bonnie and I chose to walk back through the Old City, enjoying the yummy treats, the bustle and the people. Our time in this holy and difficult place was coming to an end.

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