trippin' around the Middle East
I’ve actually not been very faithful in keeping this up to date lately, but really, I don’t know how time has gone this fast. Has it really been since Turkey since I’ve written about my big road trip around the Middle East? Because since then…
I booked it through Syria…which was kind of a stick-it-to-the-State-Department’s-travel-warning stay, and ya know, we all like to do that from time to time. It was allowed because we did it “in transit” to Jordan and it was only one night. In a matter of hours we were able meet with a Syrian Orthodox priest and monk to discuss Christianity in Syria and also the compatibility of his Orthodoxy and (largely American) Protestantism. And for the all of the debatable things I could say about that, I’ll limit it to admitting that his epic beard and monkish robes were much cooler than anything I've ever seen a pastor wear. He was a big, portly guy and had a deep rumbling laugh that made you want to sit at his feet and listen to stories, or shake his massive hands so yours gets swallowed, or buy a sticker of him and put it on the front of your notebook. I chose that last one. We also went to Damascus and shopped around for a while. Proudly on display everywhere, even in the windows of the ice cream shop for all to see, where posters of Sheik Nasralla and Hezbollah. You could even buy a t-shirt. It was really sort of weird to see…but I guess that’s Syria.
Jordan was a little bit more welcoming. We were in Amman for a couple of days and went up to see Mt. Nebo, where Moses was shown the Promised Land but not allowed to enter it. I could look out over the valley below and see the corner of the Dead Sea, the Jordan River valley, and the outskirts of Jericho. Then came another two days in Petra where we pretended to be Indiana Jones in the enormous buildings carved into the rocks. I spent most of the day climbing on the mountains all around the rocks though and eventually got to the very top, which in mountain-climber lingo is to say that I summited. The next day, we got our first taste of Israeli security as we crossed the Jordanian/Israeli border. Any other border crossing has taken us maybe 30 minutes or so…add about 2 hours onto that with much more elaborate searching process and many guards packing large machine guns patrolling around and it’s a pretty accurate picture of an Israeli welcome.
And finally, we’ve been in Jerusalem for a little over a week now. It’s been a huge mix of feelings for me being here. On the one hand, I can’t believe I’m walking down the Via Delarosa—the street that Jesus walked for me up to Calvary—or that I’m praying at the Western Wall of the Temple, or that I’m checking out a breathtaking panoramic view of the old city while sitting on the Mount of Olives. It is seriously an indescribable feeling to be in these places…like I’m on holy ground…and I can physically feel it through my feet and legs. This is where Jesus walked.
But then the other side of that is that everywhere that is considered a holy site here has been through centuries of adorning and glorification. Places like the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (which the Greek Orthodox call the Church of Resurrection) are so ornately embellished with gold and silver and towering architecture that it is somewhat distracting from a the real focus of what these places represent and the events that took place there. I don’t think the last hours of Christ were filled with anything big and fancy. I guess that building all these different holy places up is in an effort to honor the significance of what happened and so I appreciate that and I did enjoy visiting them…I’d just rather be in the middle of some trees in Gethsemane instead of a huge cathedral.
This is really the most religious place in the world. The Old City section of Jerusalem is divided into quarters assigned to the Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Armenians, but really everyone is mixed around. The other day I was walking in the Muslim area of the city where people were praying towards Mecca and the Qur’an was being played over the stereo, when all of a sudden a Christian group that was carrying a cross were walking the route of the Via Delarosa singing songs and playing Christian music, while dozens of Orthodox Jews all dressed up were coming from prayer at the Temple and trying to get through the crowds. It was a snapshot into the complexity of at least three major religions competing for the same limited real estate and the inevitable clashes that are a result.
And then start the politics…
I’m not even going to try and touch that right now, but it is so important to recognize the inseparable link that is here between religion and politics. Everywhere you go here, it’s in your face…and for the most part, I’m getting hit pretty hard. And I’m glad for that.
I booked it through Syria…which was kind of a stick-it-to-the-State-Department’s-travel-warning stay, and ya know, we all like to do that from time to time. It was allowed because we did it “in transit” to Jordan and it was only one night. In a matter of hours we were able meet with a Syrian Orthodox priest and monk to discuss Christianity in Syria and also the compatibility of his Orthodoxy and (largely American) Protestantism. And for the all of the debatable things I could say about that, I’ll limit it to admitting that his epic beard and monkish robes were much cooler than anything I've ever seen a pastor wear. He was a big, portly guy and had a deep rumbling laugh that made you want to sit at his feet and listen to stories, or shake his massive hands so yours gets swallowed, or buy a sticker of him and put it on the front of your notebook. I chose that last one. We also went to Damascus and shopped around for a while. Proudly on display everywhere, even in the windows of the ice cream shop for all to see, where posters of Sheik Nasralla and Hezbollah. You could even buy a t-shirt. It was really sort of weird to see…but I guess that’s Syria.
Jordan was a little bit more welcoming. We were in Amman for a couple of days and went up to see Mt. Nebo, where Moses was shown the Promised Land but not allowed to enter it. I could look out over the valley below and see the corner of the Dead Sea, the Jordan River valley, and the outskirts of Jericho. Then came another two days in Petra where we pretended to be Indiana Jones in the enormous buildings carved into the rocks. I spent most of the day climbing on the mountains all around the rocks though and eventually got to the very top, which in mountain-climber lingo is to say that I summited. The next day, we got our first taste of Israeli security as we crossed the Jordanian/Israeli border. Any other border crossing has taken us maybe 30 minutes or so…add about 2 hours onto that with much more elaborate searching process and many guards packing large machine guns patrolling around and it’s a pretty accurate picture of an Israeli welcome.
And finally, we’ve been in Jerusalem for a little over a week now. It’s been a huge mix of feelings for me being here. On the one hand, I can’t believe I’m walking down the Via Delarosa—the street that Jesus walked for me up to Calvary—or that I’m praying at the Western Wall of the Temple, or that I’m checking out a breathtaking panoramic view of the old city while sitting on the Mount of Olives. It is seriously an indescribable feeling to be in these places…like I’m on holy ground…and I can physically feel it through my feet and legs. This is where Jesus walked.
But then the other side of that is that everywhere that is considered a holy site here has been through centuries of adorning and glorification. Places like the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (which the Greek Orthodox call the Church of Resurrection) are so ornately embellished with gold and silver and towering architecture that it is somewhat distracting from a the real focus of what these places represent and the events that took place there. I don’t think the last hours of Christ were filled with anything big and fancy. I guess that building all these different holy places up is in an effort to honor the significance of what happened and so I appreciate that and I did enjoy visiting them…I’d just rather be in the middle of some trees in Gethsemane instead of a huge cathedral.
This is really the most religious place in the world. The Old City section of Jerusalem is divided into quarters assigned to the Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Armenians, but really everyone is mixed around. The other day I was walking in the Muslim area of the city where people were praying towards Mecca and the Qur’an was being played over the stereo, when all of a sudden a Christian group that was carrying a cross were walking the route of the Via Delarosa singing songs and playing Christian music, while dozens of Orthodox Jews all dressed up were coming from prayer at the Temple and trying to get through the crowds. It was a snapshot into the complexity of at least three major religions competing for the same limited real estate and the inevitable clashes that are a result.
And then start the politics…
I’m not even going to try and touch that right now, but it is so important to recognize the inseparable link that is here between religion and politics. Everywhere you go here, it’s in your face…and for the most part, I’m getting hit pretty hard. And I’m glad for that.
posted by matt at 11:52 PM
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