Today, I would like to take you for a walk round The Garden.
It is situated in East Jerusalem near The Damascus Gate. On entering the Garden you walk up the path to Skull Hill. There, you can see the old rock face that first excited archaeologists to look at this area as a possible place where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. It is Mount Moriah where Abraham promised his son that God would provide a lamb. It is known, that executions took place here at the time of Christ. Jews and Romans used execution sites where people would be passing by, because they wanted people to see the fate of lawless. Also, it was customary for people to shout at the victims as they were dying. This area was such a place as 2 roads met here. The road from Damascus and the road from Jericho. So, there were plenty of travellers, as there are today, because now, it is an Arab bus station.
The area was known for 'stoning'. Stephen was stoned here. So this was a known place of execution. Can you remember the time Jesus was taken by a crowd to a high place and they tried to push him off. That was an attempt at 'stoning'.
When Jesus hung on the cross, he had been subject to the cruelest of physical abuse. Beatings, that made his back like a 'ploughed field'. The pressing of the 'crown of thorns' into his head. Those thorns were not like rose thorns in your garden, but very long thorns that would have done grave damage to the head of Christ; then his beard had been plucked out. Isaiah said He was 'unrecognisable'. He would have been covered with blood.There was also the indignity of total nakedness as he died.
All humanity was represented at the cross. Christ, central dying because he loved us. The thief to his right asking Jesus to remember him, and the one on his left wanted nothing to do with him. That is just how it is now, with all who look at the cross.
When Jesus died, a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a closet disciple, decided he could hide no longer. He asked permission to take the body of Christ from the cross before the Shabbat began. He removed the body and wrapped it in linen to restore dignity to the broken, torn body of Christ, and he laid it in a garden tomb he had bought for his family. The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem is just a short way from the execution site know as Golgotha and it was here 2000 years ago. Gardens at this time grew produce and in our Garden there is a wine press that predates the death of Christ. This garden was a vineyard, and there is an empty tomb that bears signs of Christian burial and other features that give it credibility.
Is this the tomb Christ was laid in? We can't be certain, but we do know that Christ was buried in this area. We also know that after 3 days God raised him from the dead and he vacated the tomb, met with his women disciples, and then the men, and even barbecued breakfast for them on a Galilean beach. So, it's not the place that matters, it's the person Jesus Christ.
So in this beautiful garden here in Jerusalem, we celebrate Christ. We remember his death in communion, but we his followers know he lives.
On Easter morning there will be a service here in the Garden, when 2000 people approx will worship the risen Christ. It will be live streamed. Link: event.cbn.com/eastersunrise It will also be available on the cbn website if you are still sleeping at time of transmission.
It is situated in East Jerusalem near The Damascus Gate. On entering the Garden you walk up the path to Skull Hill. There, you can see the old rock face that first excited archaeologists to look at this area as a possible place where Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. It is Mount Moriah where Abraham promised his son that God would provide a lamb. It is known, that executions took place here at the time of Christ. Jews and Romans used execution sites where people would be passing by, because they wanted people to see the fate of lawless. Also, it was customary for people to shout at the victims as they were dying. This area was such a place as 2 roads met here. The road from Damascus and the road from Jericho. So, there were plenty of travellers, as there are today, because now, it is an Arab bus station.
The area was known for 'stoning'. Stephen was stoned here. So this was a known place of execution. Can you remember the time Jesus was taken by a crowd to a high place and they tried to push him off. That was an attempt at 'stoning'.
When Jesus hung on the cross, he had been subject to the cruelest of physical abuse. Beatings, that made his back like a 'ploughed field'. The pressing of the 'crown of thorns' into his head. Those thorns were not like rose thorns in your garden, but very long thorns that would have done grave damage to the head of Christ; then his beard had been plucked out. Isaiah said He was 'unrecognisable'. He would have been covered with blood.There was also the indignity of total nakedness as he died.
All humanity was represented at the cross. Christ, central dying because he loved us. The thief to his right asking Jesus to remember him, and the one on his left wanted nothing to do with him. That is just how it is now, with all who look at the cross.
When Jesus died, a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a closet disciple, decided he could hide no longer. He asked permission to take the body of Christ from the cross before the Shabbat began. He removed the body and wrapped it in linen to restore dignity to the broken, torn body of Christ, and he laid it in a garden tomb he had bought for his family. The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem is just a short way from the execution site know as Golgotha and it was here 2000 years ago. Gardens at this time grew produce and in our Garden there is a wine press that predates the death of Christ. This garden was a vineyard, and there is an empty tomb that bears signs of Christian burial and other features that give it credibility.
Is this the tomb Christ was laid in? We can't be certain, but we do know that Christ was buried in this area. We also know that after 3 days God raised him from the dead and he vacated the tomb, met with his women disciples, and then the men, and even barbecued breakfast for them on a Galilean beach. So, it's not the place that matters, it's the person Jesus Christ.
So in this beautiful garden here in Jerusalem, we celebrate Christ. We remember his death in communion, but we his followers know he lives.
On Easter morning there will be a service here in the Garden, when 2000 people approx will worship the risen Christ. It will be live streamed. Link: event.cbn.com/eastersunrise It will also be available on the cbn website if you are still sleeping at time of transmission.
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