A Pilgrim’s Journey to Jerusalem
A complete pilgrimage to Israel, Egypt and Palestine is comparable to reading the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation in just two weeks, and have them come alive as never before. The first book of the Bible – Genesis, started with the following words ‘‘In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was […]
A complete pilgrimage to Israel, Egypt and Palestine is comparable to reading the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation in just two weeks, and have them come alive as never before. The first book of the Bible – Genesis, started with the following words ‘‘In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate the raging Oceans that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the spirit of God was moving over the waters, then God commanded, “Let there be light! – and light – appeared. God was pleased with what he saw.’’
It was the same pleasure that overwhelmed me when I landed on the Israeli soil on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, to commence what may end as the most valuable trip of my life-the journey through the holy land of Israel and beyond- because in the end, it was not Israel alone that we visited in this discovery of the holy places. We went to Egypt for Mount Sinai and Palestine to see the Mount of Temptation, the Jericho walls, the Sycamore tree, Elisha’s spring; and Bethlehem of the Church of Nativity. It is instructive to know that Bethlehem where Jesus was born and Jericho are both in the land of Palestine.
In these lands, a pilgrim comes face to face with the wonderful works of God since creation; and how God, by his works and words brought light into the world. The light of Christ which makes Israel the holy place it is, and shines on all who believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour of the universe.
It was a voyage of discovery that builds faith in God and in his awesome powers, which began, as quickly as we arrived from Lagos via Turkey to the David Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel-Aviv. With the airport protocols and luggage collections completed fast with the assistance of the tourists companies that facilitated our trip and stay in the holy land, and the Nigerian Christian Pilgrimage Committee. We began our pilgrimage following the footsteps and teachings of Jesus Christ to the sea of Joppa. We were made to understand that this was where pilgrims were welcomed into the holy land in the ancient days and from where they returned home. It was also where Jonah tried to run away from God and Peter had his roof top vision.
Among the holy sites there, we viewed the church built on the location of Simon the tanner’s house, proceeding north along the Mediterranean Sea taking the same route as Peter in order to pass by Caesarea Mariterma, (the aqua duct). It was from here that King Herod built his palace and took water to the city. It was also here that Cornelius became the first Roman Convert to Christianity. That day, we visited Mount Carmel and went to the Cave of Elijah inside Stella Maris Carmelite Church and Monastery. We passed through muckrake, the site of the battle between Elijah and the false prophets and crossed the Valley of Armageddon where the final battle between the Children of light and sons of darkness will be fought as recorded in the book of Revelation chapter 16: 1- 16, and moved on into the hills of the lower Galilee and as the day ended, we arrived and passed the night in Nazareth where Jesus was raised.
This first night in Israel was one that I love to describe as one of a life time fulfillment. How else do I put my joy on the realisation that I was a neighbour to the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I had thought in my early life that Nazareth was in Heaven and had ambition of being there after a holy life on earth. But Glory be to God who made it possible in my life time; and may His blessings be upon all who played positive roles in seeing me through. I slept off in this state of mind and body. When we got up the next day; some of us managed to attend the early morning group prayers as was drawn up in the time table. Some of us also had private prayers in our rooms for personal reasons.
So the Day 3 commenced in Nazareth, took us to Cana, Mount Tabor and Tiberias where we slept for two nights. In Nazareth, we visited the magnificent Basilica of the Annunciation, the traditional site of Joseph’s carpentry workshop which is now Church of St. Joseph. We could see the ancient antiquities of the Workshop, Mary’s well where Angel Gabriel met and spoke with her. From there, it was a short walk to Cana where Jesus preformed His first miracle by transforming water into wine recorded in St. John’s gospel. Here, Christians who desire renew their marriage vows. On that day, we met a wedding ceremony going on in the church that commemorates that event. We had recreations and shopping spree in shops around the vicinity. Almost every shop in Cana wanted to be identified with the first miracle of Jesus in that land. Cana’s greatest product is wine which they market and promote as if it was still that same wine that Jesus made from water. ‘Have a taste of the Cana wine!” -They would say. There were also several works of art and catholic sacramentals that were on display and most of them abstracted from Jesus miracle in Cana.
The Jewish people are great merchants than the Ibos of Nigeria. Very hard working and ready to make money from tourists and pilgrims. But I will not fail to put in this account the impressive performance of a physically- challenged old man, who played his musical organ to the admiration of many passersby; particularly myself. He lured me to himself with the song – “When the saints are marching in, Lord I want to be in that number.” I appreciated him in our usual Nigerian way. His ability and great smiles in this great disability was what gladdened my heart and attracted my goodwill. He was not begging, he offered something – music and earned more than beggars, especially love and respect for himself and his country.
We were driven up the narrow and winding pathway to the summit of Mount Tabor where we visited the Basilica of Transfiguration recorded in the gospels saw the remains of the Crusader’s fortress and took a great view of the Valley of Armageddon and Samaria and many other Biblical sites.
The fourth day was for the sea of Galilee Holy sites, Capernaum, Tabgha and Mount of Beatitudes. At Capernaum, we visited the home of Peter’s mother in-law which served as the headquarters of the Galilean Ministry of Jesus Christ, we saw the site and remains of the synagogue where Jesus taught and healed the people. The people of Capernaum pride their place as the “home of Jesus” .We got to this place late, and the gate was locked but a “miracle of sort” happened. A black catholic priest was at the gate and we had to plead that we were Nigerians and lamented our inability to get in before the time elapsed, He took pity on us and opened the gate .Our Israeli tour guide considered it a handwork of God. According to her, a white reverend father would not have opened the gate at that time of the evening.
The next day we were on the Mount of the Beatitudes, where Jesus taught on the mountain and the nearby Tabgha, which means Seven Spring. It is an area that commemorates the appearance of Jesus Christ to the disciples after His resurrection, Along this shoreline he prepared a meal for them and commanded Peter to “feed my sheep”. We had time for singing, prayers and praise worship in the church of the Primacy of Peter and the Church of the Loaves and Fishes with its beautiful mosaic floor depicting the event. Later that day we had a wonderful time with other pilgrims from other parts of the world cruising on the sea of Galilee, aboard a wooden boat built to look like the one Jesus sailed in, stopping for a time of Bible devotion, Songs , worships and praises and our day ended.
On the fifth day, we left Tiberias where we had spent two nights with our luggage to the Yardenit Baptismal site located on the River Jordan. Here, many of us who were not, got baptized and we all rededicated ourselves to the Lord. Our pilgrimage continued through the Jordan valley, the right side of which is the area of Samaria and on the left across the River Jordan is much of the Decapolis talked about in the gospel of Mathew 5, 1-20. We headed for Jericho one of the oldest cities in the world and viewed the walls of Jericho that fell down during the Israelite’s conquest led by Joshua and had the opportunity to see the Elisha spring which was polluted at a time in the Bible leading to miscarriages of pregnancies, until it was sanctified by Elisha who prayed and asked for salt to be put in it. It is from here that the Catholic Church copied the blessing of water with salt. We saw the sycamore tree where Zacheeus, the short man climbed to enable him have a good view of Jesus; and with the aid of cable cars we ascended the Mount of Temptation, where Jesus and Satan had the encounter for forty days and forty nights. It should be stated here that Israeli tour guides did not follow us to Jericho as they are not allowed into any of these Palestinian and Arab territories. They are very much isolated in the midst of enemies. This is really a very complicated region of the world. After our visits to these sites we reconnected with our Israeli guide and headed for Egypt to climb Mount Sinai.
So we moved through the Negev desert along the Arava valley to Eliat, a beautiful resort city on the bank of the Red Sea which Israel captured during the war of independence from 1948-49. We crossed Taba border between Israel and Egypt and proceeded to Saint Catherine city in Egypt at about 1 am and was harshly received by the freezing cold weather. As a result of the temperature here, which I ,as a person and many others had never faced before .The ambition to climb Mt. Sinai became a “mission impossible’ for many of us, the immediate concern and challenge was to survive the cold weather .In the rooms, the heaters were not working! We could not touch the bedspreads and blankets. They were as cold as ice blocks in a deep freezer. My partner and roommate in this journey, former Jimoh Usman and now Pastor Adams and a Doctorate student of the University of Ibadan, even though was stronger than I was in the face of this killing-cold could not but submit to the dictates of the time. We pooled our blankets and bedspreads and decided to sleep in a six-spring bed so that our body contacts could warm us up. Meanwhile, each of us was putting on two jean trousers and stockings, cardigans and jackets. It was not funny at all but we managed to sleep that way.
At almost 6 A.M. the next day, Pastor Adams woke up to realize that people who were strong and fit in the body had gone to climb Mount Sinai, following the steps of Moses to receive the spiritual stone tablets with the commandments. He shouted and rushed out .According to him; he struggled and managed to find his way to Mt. Sinai. For me, I was no longer concerned about going to Mt Sinai because, I already knew that it would amount to putting the Lord God to test by attempting that. Those who went were encouraged to follow the footsteps of Moses. There, in that cold room called guests house where we spent the night and where nothing worked, I consoled myself that I came to follow the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth not Moses of the Old testament and that while Moses was of the Jewish religion, I am of Christianity and that without climbing Mt Sinai, my pilgrimage was complete because Christ has set me free and “he whom the son sets free is free indeed, completely liberated from the curse of the law of Moses”.
So we left Egypt with very few of us making it to Mount Sinai. I never cared again to ask whether anyone went to the Saint Catherine Monastery where according to the tradition the bush burned but was not consumed and no one cared to tell me. For as far as we were concerned, Egypt meant nothing but suffering .The type we did not expect and never experienced in the land of Israel. It was then, we realized that the Israeli tour guides who saw us to the border and urged us to make sure we enjoyed Egypt were speaking in ironical terms, because I saw nothing interesting in Egypt but for the city named after Saint Catherine, perhaps the patron saint of my own mother.
As if I knew, the only call I made to my mother back there in the village in Ngor-Okpala, Imo State, throughout the two-week pilgrimage was made on my way to Saint Catherine city.
From Egypt, we had to negotiate our way back to Eliat Israel, traveling the road north, crossing the Arava valley to reach the Dead Sea. This was after a detailed border, immigration, security and diplomatic checks all combined. The level of distrust and hostility among these un-friendly neighbors in this region brought its full weight on the shoulders of all us and on an average tourist or pilgrim who had cause to pass this way. We made a stop at one of the beaches of the Dead Sea after Sodom and Gomorrah and made a brief stop to behold the remnants of the pillar of salt that Lot’s wife became when Sodom was destroyed.
At the Dead Sea, we experienced a “healthy ‘float in its salty water. It must be said here that the Israeli economy has converted the materials of the Dead Sea into a huge money spinner. We had attended an exhibition of the cosmetics products of the minerals from the Dead Sea at Tiberias and another one here in Arava. Trust Nigerians, we made a lot of purchases, especially having been told that the Dead Sea has several minerals and about ten of these were exclusive to it with its therapeutic and healing values. And we Nigerians are in search of miracles. It is the lowest point on the surface of the earth. Four hundred meters below Sea level and in contest for the on-going new seven wonders of the world. The minerals of the Dead sea are the basis of the flourishing cosmetic industry which Israel has made out of it and even export to the rest of the world. It has a salt content of over 30%, 10 times saltier than the Mediterranean Sea. It was in this water that Naaman, the Syrian army commander had the bath that took away his leprosy as directed by Prophet Elisha.
After our encounter with the Dead Sea, we moved on in our spiritual exploration heading for Jerusalem, a city on the hill located eight hundred metres above sea level, the city of David and capital of Israel, travelling along the Judean Desert passing by the Good Samaritan Inn and visiting the village of Bethany, House of Martha and Lazarus; we arrived Mount Scopus in Jerusalem that evening at about 3.30 pm Israeli time ,singing praises and worshipping God Almighty as a way of marking our own personal Triumphant Entry ceremony into the eternal city, where we spent five remaining days. We enjoyed the panoramic view of the old city of Jerusalem followed by a city tour, which allowed us to get acquainted with the city highlights and distinctive atmosphere. It is worthy of note here that 4.30 pm in Israel which in Nigeria is 3.30 pm is accompanied by darkness that every living being heads home as we do at about 7-7.30 pm in Nigeria.
The day 8 of our pilgrimage was fully spent in Jerusalem and the difference was clear as atmosphere here was unique. We commenced at the Mount of Olive, where Jesus Christ promised His disciples the Holy Spirit and from here, He ascended to the Father in heaven. Our walking tour followed the footsteps of Jesus through the Church of Pater Noster situated where Jesus taught the Disciples “Our Lord’s Prayer”. We had opportunity here to pray to our Heavenly Father and sang His praises and moved down to the Church of Dominus Flevit. It was here that Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. At the bottom of the path, where the Mount of Olives meets the Kidron valley is the Garden of Gethsemane and there are the Church and Grotto of Gethsemane to commemorate the experiences of Jesus Christ here. It was here He spent his last hours in prayer and where the disciples were resting at the time of his betrayals and arrest.
We later left the valley of Kidron and drove to mount Zion to visit the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu, the traditional place of Jesus imprisonment, trial and Peter’s denial. From here, we visited King David’s Tomb and the Upper Room, where the last Supper was held and the Holy Spirit first came on the Apostles. That day, we had our lunch in Bethlehem in a restaurant owned by a Palestinian who married a Nigerian woman. He took delight in calling us his In-laws. It was only here we had a simple meal of semovita and soup. It was like Christmas for us all in the Holy land, for a people who had grown weary of eating rice and all other unNigerian foods, pastries and cuisines .Was it coincidental that it was taken place few holy meters from the Church of Nativity, the birthplace of Jesus ,the reason for the season of Christmas?
We visited the Church of Nativity, praised and worshipped the mighty One at the Shepherds’ field and the Grotto of the Three Magi {three wise men}. Israelis do not come here because Bethlehem is in today’s Palestine territory. We had changed tour guide, a nice man dedicated to his work somehow, different from the mercantilist Jews. We dropped him to head back for the old city of Jerusalem through the Dung gate, where we spent time in prayers at the Waling Wall and submitted our petitions to God. The Wailing Wall is the Western wall of the Temple built by King Solomon. After the several destructions that have attended the temple, it is part of the original wall built by Solomon close to the Ark of the Covenant from where King Solomon while dedicating the temple asked God to grant the prayers of whoever comes to the temple to pray and worship Him. “Do for them whatever they ask so that the whole world will know you and obey you.” It is considered the holiest place on earth.
We moved to the Pool of Bethsaida where Jesus healed the crippled man. Here we prayed in the Church of St Anne dedicated to the Mother of Virgin Mary. From here, we went to Anthonia Fortress where Jesus was beaten and scourged. It was a place of reflections for us on the sufferings of Christ. Our path then led along the way of the cross stopping at the various stations until we entered the Church of Holy Sepulchre, the 14th station. We later climbed the Golgotha Hill, visited the Garden tomb and had individual prayers as there is a disagreement between the Catholic Church and the Protestants concerning the actual place of Jesus’ burial. The Catholics recognize the Holy Sepulcher while the Protestants say it is at the Garden tombs.
So, When we left the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, went through a huge Arab Market to the tomb and here we rejoiced in our risen saviour who is coming again to judge the living and the dead; and released prayers and declarations of our hearts into the air to be taken by the spirit of God to the very throne of God.
Having concluded with the spiritual component of our pilgrimage, we had time to see the historical and political aspects of the Israeli state and society. We visited the Israeli museum, where a memorial and monuments were built for the 6 million Jews, who were victims of the Holocaust in Europe during the Second World War and Hitler’s Nazism. It was a pathetic story of which I will find time to write on, in another piece. Here we made a short trip to the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth, where John the Baptist was born. We prayed in the two churches that commemorate the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist.
We finally visited the 7 stick Canderbbra-Menorah, a symbol of Israeli state, and a gift from the British Parliament, the oldest parliament to the youngest in 1948. And those who took interest went into the Israeli parliament to view and admire the Jewish architecture that constitutes the symbol of the only democracy in the Middle east. A brief get together to review this awesome experience and during which we received our JP diplomas and decorations from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism followed suit; had a one day rest and commenced our journey back to Nigeria .
Israel is not only about spirituality! I saw a people determined to survive against all odds using their creative ingenuity, which has yielded great results in their hi-tech knowhow, security prowess, tourism potentials and agricultural exploits that when they set dining tables for us, it reminded me of what Queen of Sheba saw in King Solomon’s palace; which left her breathless and amazed and she had said “What I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom is true, but I could not believe it until I have come and seen it all for myself…Praise the Lord your God! He has shown how pleased He is with you by making you king of Israel. Because His love for Israel is eternal…”
Jim-Nwoko who lives in Abuja has just returned from Israel