In the footsteps of Jesus

This post is really long and I have way too many photos to post. I'm considering adding them all to a photo site instead of bloating this entry even more. Suggestions are welcome.

I’ve had a fascination with Christian imagery for as long as I can remember. It’s an epic story of good and evil, told and retold in pictures by different people in different times, each giving their own vision to the greater fabric of legend. Years of art history and travels to museums and churches abroad fostered this love of Christian art and thinking, and I was thrilled with the opportunity to see the places recounted with my own eyes. The Via Dolorosa, the route that Jesus walked on his last day, is memorialized as a pilgrimage with 14 Stations of the Cross, tracing his journey through suffering to salvation.

I began walking along the southern wall of the Old City, at times along the ramparts built by Suleiman, and along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount. This side is not seen by most Jewish tourists, though the walk around the southern and eastern sides affords views of the Hulda Gates on the south, the original entrances to the Temple, and the Golden Gate, the gate through which, according to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will enter Jerusalem. Opposite the Temple Mount is the Kidron Valley, and beyond that the Mount of Olives, which also features prominently in the life of Jesus. The Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu being closed on Sundays, I walk along the Muslim cemetery that flanks the Eastern Wall and through the Lions’ Gate to the Muslim Quarter, past the ridiculous traffic caused by a truck trying to go in and a van trying to go out. The first thing I see is a small market in the plaza selling everything from nuts to knock-off Barbies and cologne. Farther down a wall has engravings illustrating the 14 Stations.

1. Jesus is condemned to death

The tour traditionally begins in the plaza of a girls’ school, but unless you take the tour along with the monks on Friday afternoons, this spot, where Pontius Pilate sentences Jesus, is closed to the public.

2. Jesus takes the cross

A complex built here includes the Chapel of Condemnation and the thorn-themed Chapel of the Flagellation. On the floor of the Chapel of Condemnation is some of the original Roman pavement with games carved into it. This is reputed to be the Lithostratos, where the Roman soldiers gambled for Jesus’ clothes. Father down the road is what’s visible of the Ecce Homo Arch where Pilate declared, “This is the man.” Under the church built on the site is a network of rooms and cisterns in use at the time of Jesus. Past the arch is a chapel marking one possible site of Jesus’ prison. Groups of Jews in black hats and coats mill about the shops, crowded among throngs of Arabs shopping in the market. I make a small detour out the Damascus gate for a look at East Jerusalem, where markers of Israeli nationalism and Arab culture butt against each other.

3. Jesus falls for the first time

A small chapel was built here by the Free Polish Army in the 1940s. Beautiful though modern chapels along this route and in Jerusalem in general seem to be common; this was unexpected, as I was hoping for something more ancient. A nearly toothless man named Walid decides that he will be my tour guide and brings me downstairs.

4. Jesus meets his mother

A mosaic on the floor shows footprints of where Mary may have stood. Walid then takes me through an unmarked door on the street to the Austrian Hostel, and to the views of the area from the roof. Realizing I may not finish before dark if I don’t hurry, I plead with Walid that I can do the rest on my own and thank him for his trouble. On the street is another marker of the meeting of Jesus and Mary, though I don’t know if it’s above the chapel below or a differing tradition. Traditions, I find, differ greatly on the locations specified in the 14 stations.

5. Simon takes the cross

Whatever is here to mark where Simon of Cerene took the cross from the ailing Jesus is closed. I keep walking.

6. Veronica wipes Jesus’ face

Story goes that St. Veronica wiped Jesus’ face with a handkerchief and the impression of Jesus’ face was imprinted on the cloth. Known as the Sudarium, it is in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Whatever is here to mark the spot and the home of Veronica is also closed.

7. Jesus falls a second time

This is in the middle of a packed marketplace set up in the narrow streets. Butchers, barbershops, restaurants, and shops selling shoes, antiquities, and pirated movies line the passage. Some guy is blocking the door to the chapel with his stand. No respect.

8. Jesus speaks to the women of Jerusalem

A marker on the wall points to the spot.

9. Jesus falls a third time

I wander through the Coptic monastery at the leisure of some old monk, before getting kicked out by a younger one. Down below a Coptic chapel is Helen’s cistern, allegedly found by St. Helen, mother of Constantine. The acoustics are incredible, and a woman sings a hymn as per the guidebook’s advice, the notes rising and echoing across time. A number of Ethiopian Coptic monks live in tiny shacks on the platform before the entrance to the Holy Sepulchre plaza. They’ve been here for a while, though changing allegiances and feuds between Israel, Egypt, and Ethiopia have kept more of their fellows away. Through an Ethiopian Coptic chapel is the plaza before the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Stations 10 to 14 are inside.

10. Jesus is stripped of his clothes

A small side chapel viewable through a window marks the event. Walking into the church and up the stairs to the station, the huge diversity of Christian traditions is very apparent. Ancient Byzantine architecture is flecked with Orthodox excessiveness, Catholic elegance, and chapels from diverse groups over the ages.

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross

An altar adorned with silver plates donated by the Medicis sits below a mosaic of the scene in this Catholic chapel. A woman reaches up to touch the wounds on the mosaic, as if the mosaic itself was a holy relic.

12. Jesus dies on the cross

Lanterns hang by the dozens over the Orthodox chapel. Figures of Jesus, bloody and in pain, doting Mary, and doting Mary, stand before an ornate silver wall of reliefs. It borders on gaudy, and exists in stark contrast to the more restrained chapel to its right. This is the climax of the pilgrimage. The emotion is palpable. Women dab at their tears. A line forms to touch the rock of Calvary through a disk under the altar. The mood is only broken by a noisy Israeli tour guide and his boisterous group. I tag along and follow them downstairs to the Chapel of Adam with the Rock of Golgotha, cracked by divine earthquake, Adam having many parallels to Jesus in Christian thought. After waiting for one of the various services to pass, I walk back upstairs.

13. Jesus is deposed from the cross

Nestled between stations 11 and 12 is a small shrine of the Stabat Mater, or Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows. Down below in the entry to the church is the Stone of the Anointing where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial. Pilgrims kneel to pray and bring their heads to rest on the red rock.

14. Jesus is laid in his tomb

In the center of the rotunda is the holy sepulcher itself, the Aedicule, the tomb of Christ. Held in place by steel girders since an earthquake decades ago, cracks and seams bulge with notes left by pilgrims, much like the Western Wall. I can’t bring myself to duck (translation: bow) and go inside the chapel, so I watch the service from outside. I explore the many chapels around the church and then find my way back through the Christian Quarter and back to the German Colony. My feet ache and my entire being is exhausted. Despite not having a personal religious connection to Jesus, I felt the sorrow and salvation. The journey has touched my spirit and I think I have gained a new understanding of the human condition. Congratulations on getting this far. Now we both sleep.