A Frantic Holiday!

The last eight days have been the time of Passover or Pesach as it is know here in the Holy Land.  This year it coincided with Easter, something that does not happen every year.  Of course during Passover, Jews the world over remember and retell the story of their Exodus from Egypt.  It is combined with the Feast of First Fruits which falls at the end of the seven day holiday.  Extensive preparations are made by Jewish families as all leaven is removed from among them.  Leaven is regarded as chametz (forbidden) and extensive measures are taken to do away with it both at home and in public areas.  In the grocery stores entire aisles are emptied or covered with plastic and sometimes the word, "Chametz" is written across the plastic to keep the consumer away from forbidden materials.  Many items that have nothing to do with leaven are covered just "in case" they may have been contaminated in some way.

I returned to Israel from my trip home just as Pesach was beginning with friends coming to visit two days later.  The state of the grocery stores made shopping for visitors challenging and, at times, venues have been closed to us on certain days as we've traveled.  The past three days we have been in Jerusalem for Easter and have found the atmosphere highly charged and difficult at times.  The city has been crowded with many Orthodox making pilgrimage to the Old City.  As I reflect on our time here, though we have had a wonderful time with the Dixons, there have been elements of what we have seen that have saddened us.

We began our Easter morning yesterday with a wonderful worship service at The Garden of the Tomb just outside the Old City Wall.  It was one of four such services in several languages and is the experience of a lifetime, singing the praises of our risen Savior (the First Fruits from the grave) with a thousand or so other Christians from around the World.  After the service, we moved into the Old City to see some of the sites, beginning with the Western Wall.  What an atmosphere we found!  The City was a frantic mob scene, interesting for a while, but which we were glad to exit after a several hours.

Today we visited the Mt. of Olives and a number of other cites outside of the Old City and then returned, entering by the very different Arab Damascus Gate.  We walked the Via Dolorosa, post Easter, ate lamb kebabs at a very good Arab restaurant and finished the day with a little shopping on Christian Quarter Road.

A sad moment for me came as the last holy day of Pesach came to a close and many Orthodox Jews began to rush into the Old City toward the Jewish Quarter and the Wailing Wall to complete their Pesach remembrance.  A large group of young Haredim marched past us, singing about their need for Messiah to come and carrying several yellow flags with crowns and the Hebrew word

Messiah on them.  In our current day these Jews are still looking for a Messiah.  The description given for this savior is one who understands Hebrew law, obeys it completely and will lead them to military victory.  I stood watching as they went by, saddened at how lost they are.  The Messiah has come and they have missed it.  I can only pray that they will recognize Him when He comes again. Even so Lord Jesus come!