January 1, 2010 The Dead Sea, Jericho, and Jerusalem

A wonderful day! The weather was good, but turned chilly at Jerusalem as we adjusted to some 4,000 change in elevation.

Leaving Galilee always gives me some sadness. It is a place of beauty and nature, of nurturing and triumph for Jesus, but “he resolutely determined to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:15) and immediately is rejected in the first village on the road. He went to Jerusalem to die, as all the prophets before him did.
We journeyed south along the Jordan River. Along the way the landscape changed from a productive land to that which would be good for sheep grazing to wilderness – grey mounds of rock and dirt with little vegetation even in the rainy season. We passed Bet She’an, a marvelous archaeological site that shows 26 levels of cultures. After passing the exit to Jordan, we turned east to the Dead Sea. There we bobbed in the Sea for about 45 minutes. People who had never floated before were able to stand up straight in the water without touching the bottom and without treading water. Many mimicked reading a newspaper while sitting/floating in the water. Many also covered themselves with the mud that is sold around the world for face masks and the like. I think everyone enjoyed it.

We headed into Jericho next, stopped at an ancient sycamore tree claimed by the locals to be the very tree Zacchaeus climbed in order to see Jesus. (Luke 19:1-10.) Jericho was also the site of several miracles of Jesus involving healing the blind. It was his final stop before going to Jerusalem. Jericho is also famous, of course, for the walls that fell down during the Israelite invasion under Joshua about 1250 BC. We visited the Tel of Jericho, which displayed civilization after civilization down to some neo-lithic age about 10,000 years ago. Walls showed it was a city with walls and civil organization millennia before the bronze age, even before pottery. Jericho is an oasis with warmth and water year round. Food can be grown there and people could live in some comfort. No wonder it was populated for so long – and still is
We ate there as well. Overlooking the tel (hill) is the mountain of temptation, said to be where Jesus sparred with the devil in the Judean wilderness. There is a monastery there as well.

We left there to go to Jerusalem. We visited part of the Mount of Olives, and had Mass at a church called Dominus Flevus. (the Lord wept.) (See Luke 19:41-46). The church as the best view of the old city of Jerusalem as found anywhere. After this we visited the Garden of Gethsemene and All Nations Church, which is designed to look like a garden of olive trees under a night sky. It contains a large rock which may be where Jesus prayed the night before he died.

We checked into King Solomon Hotel, just a block or two from the famous King David Hotel rested, showed off the remnant of the Dead Sea salt, warmed up and had supper. Afterwards three of us went on a reconnaissance mission, to find a good way to the Old City for the early morning walk.

Please keep us in your prayers. Many of the pilgrims are suffering from weariness, chills, diarrhea and most likely dehydration. We aren’t sure whether we are drinking too much unbottled water or not enough water in general. I personally checked in, took a long hot shower and then a long hot bath. I’ll have a aspirin and get to bed early. I think I’ll be ok.

Some science for those interested: the Dead Sea is about 24-26% mineral substance in the water at this time of the year, which allows us such buoyancy. I’ve heard, but haven’t verified that the fact it is the lowest place on earth as 1,300 feet below sea level, that the additional amount of thick atmosphere screens out the UV rays,.
For you star gazers, the full moon is washing out most stars, but Orion is seen fairly high in the south at 11:00 p.m. The front end of the cup of the Big Dipper can be found at 11:00 pm at about three-o’clock as it rotates around the North Star. I think it is more like seven o’clock around the North Star at that time at home.

Thank you to the followers. We welcome your comments now that I have access to the Internet again.