Tuesday, May 1 ~ Randy Hart

Our Pilgrims of Ibillin group spent a long and slightly exhausting day in and about Old City Jerusalem. The whole day was most stimulating and instructive, but two parts of it stood out in particular for me.

Devotions on Mt. of Olives

We began by visiting the Mount of Olives, followed by the Garden of Gethsemane. Pastor Luke Hyder, a member of our tour group, led a very meaningful devotional time in the quiet and peaceful surroundings of the Dominus Flevit Church (where Jesus wept over Jerusalem). The text of his talk was the passage in Luke 19:39-44 which reads “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes.  The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embarkment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and your children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you. This reflection on Jesus part preceded his entry into the temple to drive out the sellers and money changers. The devotional ended by our singing, with Luke leading on his guitar, the Egyptian tune,

“Salaam, Salaam, the Peace of God to every race.
Salaam, Salaam, the Peace of God in every place.”

Dalia Landau with Luke Hyder

The second very stimulating experience occurred at the end of the day when we met with Dalia Landau, a Jewish woman featured in the 2006 book The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan. The book presents “An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East.” It traces the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through parallel personal stories. Our session included Dalia repeating much of what was written in the book but expanded the subjects a great deal. She invited members of our group to share a number of issues, including why individually we were making this pilgrimage, what we felt the answer to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians was. Dalia is a very stimulating, animated woman who has personally done much to advance peace and understanding between Muslim, Christians, and Jews. The time together was most instructive.

I was impressed by the depth of insight expressed by several of our group during this discussion. If this one session foretells what is to come during the rest of our time together, it promises to be rewarding and spiritually instructive experience.