Sunday, April 12, 2020

April 12, 2020, column:
A tale of two empty tombs

By Mike Haynes
            We can’t be together physically this Easter, the day Christians celebrate a Sunday 2,000 years ago when scripture tells us Jesus Christ rose from the dead after he was crucified the previous Friday.
            But technology allows most of us to join virtually through live-streaming of church services and in some cases, through online meetings of small groups where we can see each other at home.
A small portion of a long line of people is shown in January 2019
as they wait to enter the Edicule, a small building inside the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem which many
scholars believe covers Jesus Christ’s tomb.
(Photo by Kathy Haynes)
            And we can be sure that, 7,000 miles away from Texas, across the Atlantic, across the Mediterranean, the hilly piece of land where Jesus was nailed to a cross, suffered and died and where some women witnessed him alive on the third day still can be visited – at least after the current virus crisis passes.

            Kathy and I and about 75 others, mostly from the Amarillo area, were blessed to have walked on that land called holy just over a year ago, when airplanes still landed in Tel Aviv, Israel, and tour buses still crisscrossed the busy streets of modern Jerusalem.
            Two locations we visited were saved until near the end of our journey – appropriately, because they are the two spots most directly linked to that first Good Friday and first Easter.
            West of where the Jewish temple stood in Jesus’ time is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. North of the Temple Mount is the Garden Tomb. Both are possible sites of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
            Before our trip last year, local Bible teacher Jim McKee told us that biblical sites in Israel can be either “authentic” or “traditional.” For example, when we touched the Western Wall, we knew our fingers were on stones that history and archeology prove were part of the retaining wall of the temple when Jesus entered it days before his crucifixion. It’s an authentic site.
            On the other hand, the Via Dolorosa, the Jerusalem streets where pilgrims retrace Christ’s trek to the cross, is in the traditional category. So much of the city’s layout has changed over the centuries, and the exact route involves so much speculation, that it’s not likely that it follows Jesus’ footsteps, at least not all the way.
            Since 300 years after the astounding events, Christians have identified the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as the authentic site of both Christ’s cross and his tomb. Although within Jerusalem’s Old City today, it was just outside the western city wall in Jesus’ time.
Visitors from Amarillo approach the Garden Tomb in the heart of Jerusalem
in January 2019. The location is one of two primary sites that scholars
believe could be where Jesus’ body was laid and where he rose
 from the dead on the first Easter. (Photo by Mike Haynes)
            In the 100s, Roman emperor Hadrian had a pagan temple built on the site, presumably to cover up the place where Christians had been coming to commemorate Christ’s death and resurrection. In 326, Christian emperor Constantine’s mother, Helena, visited Jerusalem and concluded the location was authentic. According to Dr. Donald Brake’s book, “Jesus: A Visual History,” Constantine ordered a rotunda built around Jesus’ tomb and a basilica constructed between the rotunda and the place of crucifixion. Brake wrote, “It appears likely that Constantine built the rotunda on the exact spot of the tomb.”

            After the Crusaders took Jerusalem from the Muslims in 1099, they built a huge church that enclosed the entire area of Christ’s death and burial. It’s the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Within it is an ornate structure, the Edicule, that is believed to cover the exact spot of Jesus’ tomb, although the original tomb was destroyed in the early 1000s.
            Now, the church’s interior is filled with candelabra, crucifixes and hundreds of decorations. Tourists and pilgrims form long lines to enter the Edicule and get close to the tomb site. Although visitors are reverent, the atmosphere is crowded and busy. Brake wrote, “It no longer (has) the appearance of a peaceful garden or the eerie feel of a cemetery. It now contain(s) all the religious trappings many today find objectionable.”
            We felt the opposite ambiance at the Garden Tomb, less than a mile’s walk north of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Surrounded by a modern stone fence, with traffic-filled streets on the outside, the Garden Tomb looks like what you would expect from reading the Bible accounts.
Walking through a lush garden, we came upon a rock wall with a rectangular door cut into it. Our group of about 30 quietly took turns entering the small tomb that had benches hewn into the stone. While in the garden, group leaders Tony Clayton and Dane Williams led us in communion.
A corner of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem is shown during a January 2019
visit by travelers from Amarillo. The Garden Tomb location is one of two
primary sites that scholars believe could be where Jesus’ body was laid
and where he rose from the dead. (Photo by Mike Haynes)
British General Charles Gordon popularized the Garden Tomb as the authentic site in 1883. Near the tomb, a rock cliff includes two holes that resemble the eyes of a skull with the bridge of a nose between them, and the Bible describes the crucifixion place as Golgotha, or “Place of the Skull.” Archeologists have determined that the ancient tomb is from Old Testament times, however, which doesn’t fit the New Testament’s description of it as a new tomb.
The Garden Tomb is a wonderful, quiet place amid a bustling city to pray and to picture the scene when Mary Magdalene, Salome and Joanna came upon two men in white and one told them, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” (Matt. 28:5-6)

            Based on evidence, I tend to think the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is where the greatest event in history happened. But it doesn’t matter which tomb it was. As our friend Mark said the other day, they’re both empty.