Written by Richelle Thompson
Psalm 122:7 (NRSV) Peace be within your walls and quietness within your towers.
These words of the psalmist echoed through my visit to Jerusalem. The highlight of our trip was to be a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest spots in all of Christendom. According to tradition, the church contains the site where Jesus was crucified and the empty tomb.
A long line of tourists waited at the church. My friend and I had stood for quite a while when the pushing began. People vied for position, muttering and jutting hips and elbows. I staked my spot, determined not to let anyone or anything delay my time to see these sacred spots.
This isn’t the way. The thought, unbidden, persisted. This isn’t the way.
I stepped out of the line and out of the church—I still have not seen the chapel or Rock of Calvary. But I couldn’t receive them with an angry heart, couldn’t walk on sacred ground as if elbowing through the line for a big-screen TV on Black Friday.
To see Jesus, I needed peace within my walls and quietness in my heart, the same as Jerusalem needed it in biblical times, and we all need still today.
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