If You Plan To Follow In the Savior's Footsteps...

...you better be prepared to walk. A lot.  Jesus was a hiker!

 I think the thing that surprised me the most about visiting Israel was the landscape and distance between the places we know Jesus lived and taught.  Things aren't nearly as close to each other as I imagined them to be.  For instance, Capernaum is not an easy jaunt from Nazareth.  The Galilee is quite far from Jerusalem.  The places Jesus would go to teach and pray and prepare for the Atonement are all on inclines - large and steep ones. The idea that Christ was a perfect being always seemed to describe his spiritual self but, if it matters, I'm fairly that perfection could be equally attached to his physical self.  More than once, while Maureen and I were hoofing it up to a place Christ had been, we'd say to each other, "Jesus must have been in seriously good shape."

If I sound irreverent, I don't mean to be.  Most of the time, we rode buses up roads that twisted and climbed to where Jesus had been.  We know he was raised in Nazareth upon returning from Egypt and although it is hard to imagine the small village in the midst of this current sprawling city, you can still see how many hills and vales there are to go up and down.





When visiting Nazareth, our bus took us to the top of Mt. Precipice. From that peak, we listened to the story of Christ returning to Nazareth after being gone for some time and the people there had heard reports of the miracles He had performed and of the following He was gaining.  Once there, it was said,  (I'm paraphrasing) "Wait a minute. Isn't this the carpenter's son?" as if they couldn't believe such a popular and holy man could be someone from their own rinky-dink hometown.  They were so angry with him when he replied that a prophet is honored everywhere but his own country that they supposedly chased him to the top of this very mount, where he leaped off to escape.  Now, in the picture above, I put a red arrow pointing to the Church of Annunciation where it is believed the virgin Mary received the news from the angel Gabriel that she would give birth to Jesus.  It's pretty far away from Mt. Precipice and there are lots of hills between there and the mount we were on.  For him to run away, up this mountain and then over it, well...like I said.  He was a fit man.



We learned this mountain was the known spot for Jewish execution which was typically done by stoning.  The executors would throw whomever was condemned off this steep drop and then he, or she, would be stoned.  You can see there is no shortage of rocks to use.


Maureen imagining the scary fall.


Maureen, after saying, "Did you take a picture of me with that scared face?"







Off in the distance is Mt. Tabor, which is believed by most to be the Mount of Transfiguration. Christ is described as going to a high mount apart from others.  The other contender is Mt. Hermon, which is the highest peak in Israel and closer to the Galilee.  It is definitely high.  When we were at the top of that mountain, I imagined Christ climbing in sandals and was amazed by his effort to be somewhere more sacred, which mountains tops were often considered.  I wish it hadn't been so hazy when we were touring the northern part of the country.  It cleared up during the later part of the week.



The vast majority of towns are built on the hillsides and not in the valleys.  As we drove past town after town, I wondered if we do it wrong here in the states where our fertile valleys don't come at such a premium because there are more of them.  It also made the scripture of a city on a hill being impossible to hide come alive these cities are readily visible from anywhere.



Tiberias, the largest city on the Galilee, is actually home to an LDS branch in the holy land.  They meet in that home furthest to the edge of the top of the mountain near the top by the tall palm trees.  Another city on a hill.



In Jericho, we visited the site believed to be the mountains where Christ fasted for 40 days and nights and was tempted.  You can see how with that sharp drop off, Christ might have thought he could leap off or turn stones into bread.  But, again, he had climbed to the top.



Even thinking of him walking between Jerusalem and Jericho is quite something.  They aren't that close.  I mean, relatively, they are, but it's like walking from Salt Lake to Provo with more than one peak to cross.  This tree is Zacceurus's tree from the scriptures.  Probably not the actual tree but a really old one in the center of Jericho, which is the oldest continually lived in city on earth.  It has been in existence for 10,000 years!




The most significant climb of Christ's life was the Mount of Olives.  Not in terms of elevation gained but  in purpose and setting.  The Mount of Olives is separated from the city walls of Jerusalem by the narrow but deep Kidron Valley.  You really have to walk down and then back up to get from place to place.  We visited the Mount of Olives on Shabbat, Saturday for Jewish people, and walked down to the bottom.  It was very steep.  I hate that I have this ugly red coat on in this picture and others but it was so, so cold the first 2 days we were in Jerusalem (like 30 degrees but a more bone chilling 30 degrees than the same temperature here in Colorado).  You can see the vantage point Christ would have had overlooking Jerusalem as he wept for it and its inhabitants.



A few of one side of Jerusalem from the south.  Jerusalem in Christ's time was only about 25 acres and has expanded rapidly since 1948, when Israel was established as a state.  It reminds me of any metropolitan city with safe feeling neighborhoods and rather scary ones.  But, as you can see, it is very, very hilly.





When Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount, he found the highest place of the seven springs to go to. It is quite a ways up from Capernahem, where he lived.



I think of all the hills Christ ascended in his lifetime and this one is bitter to think about.  These are the steps he would have climbed after being taken from the Garden of Gethsemane, which you can see in the in the far distance, to Caiaphas, the High Priest, for a Jewish trial.  I don't know if you can see those cars on the street just below but they are even quite a ways higher than the Kidron Valley below it.

My father asked me if I ever had the feeling while I was over there that I was standing exactly where Christ had stood.  I can't say I ever had a personal witness of any certain spot but there are a couple of places that I believe are very likely.  The rest are close estimates or traditional sites or maybe even exact sites but are so covered up from 2,000 years of various control, not to mention shrines and churches covering them.




Christ was taken to stand trial before the Sanhedrin on charges of blasphemy.  When Christ responded that they were witnesses of the Son of man sitting on the right side of power, he was found guilty and would have been kept in prison overnight before they took him to see Pontius Pilate.

Caiaphas's home had a prison underneath it, including a pit that was unescapable as prisoners would have been lowered and lifted out of it with a rope.  When we descended into that pit, now made accessible by stairs, and looked up through the hole, knowing how dark it would have been and how alone the Savior would have felt, I thought, "This is probably where Christ spent his last night on earth."



Looking down into the pit from above.



The walls once inside.









A place to read from the scriptures has been installed, as well as electric lights.  I wish there was a way to give better perspective through pictures.



Looking up.

The next place where I felt I was where Christ actually stood, or stepped, were the stairs to the temple on the south side.  These steps were the ones used to ascend to the temple mount during Christ's time.



The rough, uneven stones are original with the more square ones behind it being reconstructed.  The spacing between steps is uneven in terms of depth to the next step.  This was done on purpose so that no one could mindlessly approach the temple or even look up while walking.  By looking down at one's feet, one approached the temple with the proper humility.  We know Christ came to the temple in Jerusalem.  I'm sure he used these steps.

I think of all the many songs and phrases we use in the church and throughout Christianity about following the Savior and walking in His footsteps.  I know it means to keep His commandments and love our fellow men but it was neat to spend 10 days thinking I just might have been following in his actual earthly, dusty and purposeful footsteps.