Walking the "Passion" of Christ

Throughout my time here in Jerusalem, I have looked forward to the last two field trips of our stay here in Jerusalem. They are entitled as the "last week of Jesus Christ's life". I have seen these field trips as opportunities to grow closer to my Savior than ever before. Now that these trips are past and as I reflect back on them, I feel that is exactly what happened.
To start off the last week of His life, Christ left from the small town of Bethany on the Mt. of Olives to Jerusalem. The Jews, thinking that their Messiah had come to deliver them from Roman occupation, hailed Him as their King and laid palms at the feet of the donkey He was riding. This is how the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday began. They still have a procession once a year from Bethany (they had to move the route because of the wall separating the West Bank from Jerusalem) to Jerusalem and all the participants carry palm branches. Bethany was the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, as well as the place where Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. I was surprised to learn there that Christ came to Lazarus 4 days after his passing. The scripture written in Latin on the walls of the Catholic church near the tomb sum it all up: "Ego sum resurrectio et vita." or in English, "I am the resurrection and the life." (John 11:25)
Because the separation wall splits Bethany and Bethphage, two towns just a few hundred feet apart, we had to drive all the way around the Mt. of Olives to reach our next destination. On the Mount of Olives there are many churches. We visited only a few of them. First we visited a church that commemorates the march of Jesus into Jerusalem, second, the Pater Noster church, and lastly, the Dominus Flevit church. "Pater Noster" is Latin for "Our Father". This was the site where Christ gave a sermon on the Mt. of Olives and gave the Lord's Prayer. On the walls of the church, written in dozens of different languages, is this prayer the Savior gave. My NT teacher had all the students who knew different languages, go around and read the prayer out loud for the rest of the class. I came last and read the Korean one. I am sad to say this, but my Korean has suffered a bit this summer because I haven't had many opportunities to use it. I haven't been able to study it either. So as I read the prayer, I remember feeling very relieved that no one knew I was making mistakes. However, right after I began, who else would show up but a bunch of Koreans. Apparently they stood and listened to me read it and beckoned all their friends over to listen. They were all flight attendants from Korean Air and were really excited to see a foreigner speaking their language. After I finished, I looked around the group and was suprised to hear cheering. Then I saw the group of Koreans. My face turned bright red. The Koreans pulled me over and took about a million pictures with me, much to the enjoyment of my classmates. It was a random, but funny experience.
So after a thousand pictures and plenty of harassment from my classmates, we moved on. The Dominus Flevit (Latin for "the Lord wept) church is located on the Mt. of Olives, directly across from the Dome of the Rock. It is the celebrated site where Christ looked out over the city and wept because of it's wickedness. The church is in the shape of a teardrop and has a great view of the Old City from it's main stained glass window. To finish off our trip for the day, we went to Mt. Zion, a place just south of the Old City, which was once within the walls of Jerusalem. At this place is found the traditional site of the Last Supper of Christ. We gathered there in a crowded, loud room and read from the scriptures about what happened at that last Passover meal. Those chapters from John that tell about this meal, chapters 13-17, are packed full of amazing things that I have never noticed before. If you want a brief summary of them, try reading through the words of the hymn, "A poor wayfaring man of grief". A kid in our group named Steven Williams, who has a great voice, sang a few verses of it for us. It was a touching thing to think of the Savior showing the greatest acts of service by washing His disciples feet, praying for them, and eventually dying for them. It just blew me away that He would show such care for the Apostles, fully knowing the great pain that He would face in just a few hours. Even at the time of greatest need, the Savior was turned outward to others, not to Himself. What a supreme example of humility and selflessness He is!