Magyar Egyház, 1953 (32. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)

1953-01-01 / 1. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

11

JERUSALEM : THE HOLY CITY

One of the most interesting and exciting trips we made was when the plane took us from Beirut, Lebanon to Jerusalem, the Holy City. We were all excited and were in a state of spiritual exaltation when we approached Jerusalem and the places so dear to us through Biblical history. We landed on the Arab side of Jerusalem, which is divided into two parts. The Old Jerusalem belongs to the Arabs, to the Hashamite Kingdom of Jordon and the other part to the Jews, to the newly created Israel. As you know the Arabs and the Jews hate each other most bitterly. As we approached Jerusalem by taxis from the Air Field, we saw the towers, the steeples, the minarets and the old walls. Our feelings were somewhat akin to those expressed in the 125th Psalm: "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round his people.”

Here it was — our destination! The City of prophets and kings and especially of our Lord and Saviour; the birth place of Christianity and beside, the birthplace of two other world religions: Judaism and Mohammedanism; the source of our civilization.

The Old Jerusalem which does not cover a big area has many of the chief sanctuaries of Christianity, Judaism and Mohammedanism.

Here we found the Golgotha and the Tomb, where our Lord died and was buried. At the place of the Tomb there has been built a church called the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We were shown the stone on which it is believed the body of Christ was laid in order to prepare the body for the burial. Then one steps into the large room which holds the sacred place, the Tomb. In the tomb there is a marble plate where the body of Christ was reposed. Many people when standing beside it have kissed the marble slab and have knelt in prayer.

From the Tomb of Christ a flight of steps leads up to the Golgotha. Jerusalem has been destroyed 38 times (nine times completely) thus it is not easy to find the exact location of those sacred places and the entire area is covered with altars and chapels. At one place we find three holes in the rock which it is said to be the precise spot where the crucifixion took place and where the three crosses were erected. We held an impressive service at the very same place where it is believed our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. But we Protestant Christians regret that so much

Editor’s Note: The Reverend Zoltán Beky, Dean of our Eastern Classics was on an extended trip to Scotland and from there to the Near East and the Holy Land as our representative to the International Council of Christian Churches. The above article is part of his account of the interesting trip.

pomp and show covers the places most sacred and dear to us and we would love to see them in their natural state and then sit down in quiet meditation and thanksgiving.

From the Golgotha we went to the Praetorium, the barracks of the Roman garrison in the first century. Here when Paul was once preaching the Jews dragged him out of the sacred place, attacked him and planned to kill him. But a Roman soldier rescued the Apostle. A few years ago — the guide explained — the Mohammedans killed a Jew who entered into their sacred place against their regulations. How history repeats itself! At present there is a Jewish, a Christian and a Mohammedan Temple there.

According to the scholars this was the place where Jesus was arraigned before Pontius Pilate and condemned. And from here started the woeful procession taking our Lord to Calvary. The way is called the Via Dolorosa. Along the Via Dolorosa are shown the so-called stations of the Cross; the place where Simon of Cyrene was compelled to shoulder the Cross of the fallen Saviour and the spot where Jesus addressed the women of Jerusalem. We will never forget the "Arch of Ecce Homo”, commemorating the words of Pilate "Behold the man.”

From the Golgotha we went to the Temple area, the Mount of Moria, where the Temple of Solomon and its successor, the second Temple, ornamented and enlarged by Herod the Great, stood. This is the place where Abraham was ready to perform the act of supreme obedience in sacrificing his own son and where the angel of the Lord told him that the sacrifice was not to be consummated and thus a ram was offered instead. The Temple area covers a vast space in the eastern side of the city adjoining the walls, opposite to the Mount of Olives. The Temple was destroyed first in 70 AD by Titus, the Roman Emperor, and was leveled to the ground. No vestige of it remains, as Jesus had prophesied "The days will come, in which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Luke 21:6.

On the Mount of Moria there are two Mohammedan sanctuaries. One of them is called the Dome of Rock or the Mosque of Omar, which contains a huge stone on which Abraham is said to have erected his altar as he prepared to sacrifice Isaac and where the Ark of the Covenant in Solomon’s Temple was placed. It cannot be touched by the visitors, and we had to take off our shoes and enter barefooted to the sacred place. They preserve a stone there, which they proudly say Christ stepped on and the mark of his foot can still be seen. Mohammed and his followers appropriated from the Old and New Testament religion whatever suited their purpose. The accepted Jesus and Moses as their prophets.