The Place of the Skull and the Garden Tomb

Today we went to a place called the Garden Tomb.  Just north of the Damascus Gate from the Old City, we walked about a block through a jumble of Arab street vendors, turned right, and found ourselves at the entrance to the garden.

Stepping through the gate was like stepping into another world.  The site of the Garden Tomb is an oasis of peace, a quiet and beautiful respite from the bustling, hurried, crowded city.  As I was getting my camera out of the bag, a brown and gray dove landed on the dirt at my feet.  Too quick for me to take his picture, I resolved to keep my eye out for him.  There were many others like him, flying around in the tall green trees that swayed in the morning breeze.  A sign of peace.

Following a rock path through the garden, we found ourselves on a platform that looked across an ancient stone quarry.  According to tradition the quarry was used by both Jews and Romans as a place of execution in ancient times.  The Bible says Jesus was crucified at a place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull.  Looking across at the cliff face opposite us, we could see the indentations for two eye sockets and a nose: the Place of the Skull.

Back in the nineteenth century a British general named Charles Gordon spent time studying this place and became convinced that this indeed was Golgotha, and that the nearby garden tomb was the tomb from which Christ emerged after the resurrection.  Without going into the details of all the archeological and historical pros and cons, I can just say that I can see what he saw in the skull-like features of that cliff face.

 

As we left that place we passed by a very deep and ancient cistern, and a large winepress (This garden would have belonged to a wealthy person, such as Joseph of Arimathea, who was a secret disciple of Jesus.  The Gospel of John even hints that there was a garden there).

Matthew 27:57-60 tells us that after Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea went to Pontius Pilate and asked for his body.  Having obtained permission, Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus and placed the body in his own tomb which had been hewn from the rock.

A few steps more down the path and there it was – the Garden Tomb, hewn out of solid rock.  

 

You can see where one wall has been damaged by an earthquake and repaired with stones; otherwise the tomb is remarkably intact.  Inside there are burial spaces for two people and a small antechamber or “weeping chamber” through which you enter.  “This is the place,” my heart said.  The gentle guardians of this place do not insist that this is indisputably the place of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, but – they sure do provide a wonderful place of contemplation, adoration, and worship.  I know what many of the historians and archaeologists say, and I also know what my spirit says.

“I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  (John 11:25-26)