Each month this year I am posting about a cemetery we visit. April's cemetery is a most special one!! The burial place of my Lord, Jesus Christ.
There is argument of where Jesus was really crucified and buried. No one really knows for sure.
The first place we visited was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Basilica. It is a church within the Christian Quarter of the walled Old City of Jerusalem.
The church is supposedly built on the site venerated as Golgotha, the hill of Calvary where Jesus was crucified and is also said to contain the place where Jesus was buried.
When we visited, it was jam packed with people and we had to hold onto each other's hands or jackets so we wouldn't lose each other in the crowd!
There was beautiful singing going on - like chanting. I am not sure what kind of service it was, but the acoustics were awesome and the music echoed off the walls.
There is a lot of argument that this is the real location. Evidently Hadrian covered up the real site with dirt. The present site of this church has also been a temple of Aphrodite and possibly Venus too. Constantine later had that temple destroyed and built a new one. His mother, Helena, who was involved in the excavations supposedly found the cross and the tomb. This temple was destroyed and the Crusaders built another one. The Franciscans also renovated it and renovations have been ongoing. I don't understand it all, but it was interesting non the less.
There was this burial spot in another room beside the supposed place Jesus was buried. A blurry picture, but interesting. Definitely a graveyard was in this location.
Below is Christian graffitti on the walls from the Crusader period.
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An alternative location for Christ's death and resurrection is here:
Again, no one really knows. There are arguments all around. This spot was a much more peaceful place!
Our guide was a retired Australian man. He showed us the supposed location of Golgotha - the skull. Notice the Muslim cemetery at the top.
Place where the grapes would have been crushed.
Here is why it really doesn't matter the actual WHERE of Jesus' burial.
"If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins." 1 Cor. 15:17
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. 1 Corinthians 15:20
At that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:1-2
