The King and His Cross

Day 29

For the third time in our Two Months of Discovery we find ourselves treading upon the holiest ground of all. The Garden of Gethsemane, The Courtyard of Caiaphas, Pilate’s Praetorium, The Via Dolorosa, Calvary. These places have been sanctified beyond reckoning by the blood of Jesus. And what shall we say about holiness of the Garden Tomb where the body of Jesus laid from Friday evening till Sunday morning? If ever there were holy ground, surely this must be it.

Our journey with Jesus today began on one mountain and ended on another. We began at the Last Supper in the Upper Room on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and we ended Luke’s Gospel watching Jesus disappear into the clouds as He ascended to heaven from the crest of the Mount of Olives.

Our salvation has a geography. It has a geography because we are saved by events, not ideas. Events happen in a place. I have been to these places and I’ll never be the same for having been to them. The places testify to me that what Jesus suffered was real. These places remind me that the resurrection is the greatest fact in history.

I was talking with a man yesterday who knew I’d been all over the world and he asked me, “Of all the places you’ve been, which is your favorite?”

I replied, “Paris is beautiful, Rome is wonderful, India is exotic, Sydney is stunning, but without a doubt my favorite place is Jerusalem.”

“Why is that?”

“Because of Jesus.”