The Garden Tomb

Today I experienced the most sacred feelings I have yet felt here in the Holy Land. We all went down to the Garden Tomb, which is where some people believe that Christ was killed, buried, and resurrected. It was incredible. I could feel the spirit from all the way outside the gate where the merchants were trying to convince us they would give a "good price." And once we stepped inside, it was almost like walking into the temple.

The garden is beautiful. They've preserved and kept it up to be an actual garden, and it's beautiful. Our tour guide first took us to Golgotha. The rocks on the side of the mountain are carved out in three places and look like a skull, which might be why it was called "the place of skulls." Our guide also told us that it was along one of the busiest roads in and out of Jerusalem. It gave me kind of a new perspective on the crucifixion. Artists always represent it as being up on a hill far outside the city, and it's just so much more heart rending to think that Christ suffered in full view of everyone who traveled the road to Jericho that day, hundreds of people.

The tomb itself was breathtaking. And it wasn't the beauty that took my breath away. Just to think that this is the place where angels announced that the Lord was risen, where He appeared to Mary, and where the apostles found the empty tomb. The experience is absolutely indescribable. I think I mentioned before that The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most holy site in most of Christianity, and the Western Wall for Jews, and these were both wonderful places to see and to see the devotion of the worshippers. But today I felt the awe and wonder that Jews, Muslims, and other Christians must feel when they visit the places that are most sacred to their faith.

Our tour guide was wonderful. He's a baptist preacher from somewhere in the south, and I was talking afterward to our Branch President and his wife, and they said that usually the guides are much more adamant about hitting the archaeological evidence of why this place is the actual site. But our guide said something very profound: "It's not the place that's important. It's the person. It's knowing that Christ died for our sins and triumphed over death." And that is what makes this place so sacred. He also said (and I wholeheartedly agree), "If God had revealed that this is the place where Christ was risen, there would be a big cathedral sitting over top of it right now." And I have to say, I'm grateful for a place that can be preserved to at least look like it would have on the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

I can't even describe to you the experience I had today. But my life is being changed with every place I go and everything I see, and seeing the Garden Tomb today is something I'll never forget.

"And this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him. That he lives!"