On Holy Ground
Alongside a very small group of Christian pilgrims, I was given the honour today of being one of very few non-Muslims to spend time inside the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third most holy site, atop the old Temple Mount. It was humbling to take off my shoes and step on the ground considered so holy by so many different people of faith. Then, from the Al-Aqsa Mosque we moved from the platform to the exterior ruins, where for centuries Jewish people have grieved, wailed, and offered prayers to God at the Western Wall. As I put on my kippah, and placed my hand upon the wall where so many have before me, I felt the deep brokenness of a conflict I am only beginning to understand. The site of both the first and second Temple, where King David’s son once built, and where exiles would one day return; the place where Jesus entered to shouts of Hosanna, and stood before the judgement of the Sanhedrin.
The air of history is palpable in this place, but so are the deep divisions, the tribal lines, and the longings for claim. As I prayed on the southern steps of the old Temple, looking at the overlain brick that now blocks the entrance arches (a place where Jesus, his disciples and St Paul surely walked), I was overcome by the reality and the promise of the incarnation of God. No temple could contain Her, no rock or stones would ever be enough. For Jesus himself was the Holy of Holies – the suffering Messiah that so many long to touch.
I am humbled to have placed my stocking feet on holy ground, and to have touched the tear stricken rocks of long suffering prayer, but the Temple I seek was with me all along on this journey; the rock of my salvation sought me out years before I began any pilgrimage. Jesus is the Temple and the Rock we are looking for – destroyed and built back up. He will not be claimed, or owned, or reside in any one house. And instead of calling us to stand on holy ground, He fills us with the Holy Spirit, and makes the ground we already stand upon holy. A long way to come to find out I had already laid my eyes upon the temple of God, but so incredibly grateful to have found the destination upon the journey I’ve taken.
“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.” – Psalm 122:1-2