On the ninth day of the 10-day pilgrimage, we visited the Upper Room. This was February 11th, which was just under two months ago at the time I write this. Although past invasions would have leveled any second-story room in the city centuries ago, this is the right area or spot. It has clearly been rebuilt.
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| The Upper Room as Viewed from the Entryway |
Jerusalem's older sites are crammed in, leaving narrow roads upon which we walk. As we neared the site, I rather loved the look of the building from this side. I'm pretty sure this is the same building.
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| Approaching the Building with the Upper Room |
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| Entry to the Upper Room Site |
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| Upper Room Site Entry |
After entering the site, we climbed an exterior staircase to enter the room itself. To provide a little more of the environment, I looked down to the right and took a photo of that courtyard.
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| Steps to the Upper Room |
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| Courtyard Outside the Upper Room |
A moment later, I would get my first glimpse inside the Upper Room.
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| The Upper Room as Viewed from the Entryway |
VERY quickly, one notes several things. It is VERY empty, as the crusaders tended to make things. There are things that don't look very Israeli, Jewish, Christian, or Roman. One is the marker that helps Muslims know which direction Mecca is. What? Oh, like many places in the Holy Land, the ownership changed over the years. At one time, this had become a Muslim place of worship. Oddly enough, the majority of the major structures in the place are of Muslim origin.
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| This Way to Mecca! (In the Upper Room) |
Here is a window with Arabic writing. One thing I will note is that although Muslims tend to know Arabic, the language is not unique to them. Even the Holy Land Christians tend to speak and write in Arabic. Hebrew is more for the Jews. People who live there tend to know both languages, plus English.
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| Arabic Window |
The corner of the room, right next to the exit is a spot where the Muslims would have had addressed their congregation. I believe they added the dome on top. But when one looks more closely at the pillar, there is symbolism from Christianity. It's pelicans feeding on the flesh of their mother. This is not Muslim symbolism, and thus this likely existed before the Muslims took over. The symbolism was common in early Christianity to represent Jesus in the Eucharist. Mother pelicans who lack food for their young will gnash into their own flesh and offer their body for their children. And with this room being the site of the Last Supper, where the Eucharist was instituted, the symbolism forms a great marker for the location. The Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus.
During the Last Supper we read of how the evil one entered Judas. He was present and had just witnessed the miraculous site of Jesus making himself present in what had been mere bread and wine. Later in the Bible we would hear of this as being that which eating of it would bring eternal life. The only other thing in the Bible that was said to achieve that was the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. No one managed to eat of that in the Old Testament. Sin had entered the world first, and God wanted to spare his children from an eternal life of separation from Him. He needed to send us himself in Jesus to redeem us before we dared eat of the fruit of that tree. The cross on Calvary would be the new tree. Jesus would be the fruit and the New Adam. But the evil one didn't know what was going to happen, even though there were so many things in scripture illuminating the path. The Passover itself finds fulfillment in so many ways.
The evil one would see this multiplying and sharing of Jesus in a way that he knew would bring God's people graces beyond anything he had ever encountered. I believe it was this act that led him to seek as quick of an end to Jesus (and his Apostles who had been empowered and commanded to do this as a memorial sacrifice). Judas had already lacked faith in the Eucharistic concepts, so he was a prime target. He would then hand over Jesus in Gethsemane later that night.
Note: I usually post just one of these in any given day, but I plan to post something about that site as well today.
As one looks around the room, one sees a tree on the opposite wall from the marker for Mecca. This is a very modern addition. It's only been there since earlier this century following the visit of an Israeli head of state. The tree represents the Tree of Life, which is so fitting for this location.
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| Tree of Life |
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| Tree of Life (closer) |
Due to a lack of mention of the exact location of the new Pentecost in the Bible, many people consider this site the location where the Pentecost accounts began. With more consideration of where they could baptize 3,000 people and where that many people could have been, people now realize the Temple was the likely site where the Pentecost account ended. Some suggest the Temple is the site of the whole Pentecost account. There is a room that's closed off to almost everyone that's just up a few stairs to the left of the Mecca marker and to the right of the Tree of Life. That room is where it is said the Holy Spirit manifested as tongues of fire. We did not go there. We moved along.
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| Looking Back Up After Leaving the Upper Room |
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| Looking Down Around the Area Near the Upper Room |
If anyone wishes to learn more about the Eucharist and the Catholic Mass and how it lives out the heavenly liturgy documented in the Bible, I strongly recommend reading or listening to Scott Hahn. He had avoided Catholicism for much of his life, until he dug into the Bible. As he was teaching students what he found to be a Biblical liturgy, a student who was a former Catholic pointed out that everything he was saying was Catholic. And the more he dug into things, the more he found the Catholic Church to be the True Church, and the Eucharist to be the real presence of Jesus. When one learns just a little from Scott, you'll see great richness in the fulfillment Jesus achieved.
From here, Jesus and most of the Apostles (not Judas), would have sung hymns per the Passover custom, and headed to the Mount of Olives, specifically Gethsemane. One can get there in roughly 20 minutes on foot, and if it was dark, perhaps a little longer. (We didn't walk)
To follow the sequence of events of the life of Jesus, then continue to Gethsemane...
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