For 2 months I have been struggling with the right words for this blog about the Holy Sepulcher. And now I hope it doesn’t take me 2 weeks to write it. I have finally decided to start with my positive thoughts about this place and then the negative ones. Are you ready? Let’s go! Okay, so back in November at Thanksgiving my husband and I took our first trip to Israel. We were both super excited. We had a list of places we wanted to visit and the Holy Sepulcher was one of them. The morning we decided to go we made sure to get there as early as possible. When we got there the first thing we looked at was the marble slab that they say was where Jesus’s body was put in preparation for His tomb. It was decorative and definitely worth looking at.
After that, we walked over to where the line was to see inside the Holy Sepulcher. I think we waited for half an hour and I’m not sure what we were waiting for. Finally, the line started to move. They let 4 people in at a time and you had to be quiet and no pictures were allowed inside. So my husband and I followed the very crowded line of people and we waited our turn to walk inside the Holy Sepulcher. We stood there, we looked around inside it. Again it was very ornate. And all I could think to myself was “this is it, this is where they say Jesus was buried.” Honestly, I can’t describe how I was feeling at that moment because I think it is indescribable. After that, I started watching people and their reactions to this Church and the Holy Sepulcher and my mind was starting to go a mile a minute. I’ll explain what I mean soon. My husband and I explored the rest of these churches and we actually found a spot that we found more fascinating than the Holy Sepulcher.
During our stay in Old Jerusalem, we found ourselves back at the Holy Sepulcher one last time so we walked through it again. Mostly because we wanted to see that one spot that we liked one more time. As we were walking around I was observing the people again. This is where I explain myself. So while there I was noticing how other people were reacting. Some of the people were crying. One lady kneeled down on her knees, crying, and kissed the place where Jesus would have been lying down inside the Holy Sepulcher. I saw others kissing the slab where they say Jesus’s body was prepared for the tomb. I have no problem with people walking around inside these churches. And I understand looking at everything in amazement. But, I do think it’s wrong to kneel down and kiss a piece of slab or where Jesus’s body quite possibly was buried. That isn’t a place of worship. Doing something like that in my opinion is more like using the Holy Sepulcher as an idol.
Jesus didn’t die on the cross so we could use His tomb as an idol. He died for our sins and He kept His promise and rose again on the third day. He isn’t in that tomb anymore. He hasn’t been in there for a very long time, so to kneel down in front of it and kiss it I feel is not something Jesus wants anyone to do. Visiting it, yes. Walking around it sure. Idolizing it no. And before you get mad at me, these are my thoughts and opinions. Please feel free to have your own.
Kathleen Smith author of Miscarriages My Story, Brooklyn Raised Livin’ Upstate & Hey You Moments to Remember. Blogs about a variety of things. Has her own podcast Kathleen’s Korner and she is the CEO of BearsWithApps. OH, let’s not forget her YouTube channel