He is Risen!

On Friday I posted a tour of the Via Dolorosa.  Well, okay it was pretty late Friday night.  Today it's time to show you the empty tomb.

You saw the tomb that was in the Basilica of the Ascention on Friday.  We had a chance to go to another location that is believed to be where Jesus was laid.

Here is a picture of the hill next to the garden and tomb.  If you look, you can see a skull.

In 1842 A.D., Otto Thenius proposed that a location known as the "place of the skull" was the Calvary (Golgotha) where the crucifixion of Jesus occurred. In 1867 A.D., the discovery of the garden tomb occurred near this believed location of Jesus' death.




There are three reasons that this is believed to be the location of Jesus' death and tomb.

1. The resemblance of the skull on the hill since Golgotha means skull.  
2. The proximity to the old city.  
3. Sephardic Jews believed this was a place where the Romans stoned people and the Romans did crucifixions in the same place as they held stonings.

The tomb is within a few hundred feet of this hill.  There is a garden next to the tomb.   This is not just a decorative garden.  A cistern, a winepress from the first century was found here.

The remains of a fifth century Byzantine chapel was also found here.  On the right, if you look closely you can see something that looks like an anchor.  The anchor was used as a symbol to disguise the shape of the cross.

There are two rooms within the tomb.  There is a weeping chamber where the mourning took place and the burial chamber which has three places for burial.  This tomb was a privately owned tomb by someone of some wealth.  Getting pictures inside the tomb was pretty difficult and they didn't turn out very well but I did get a decent picture outside the tomb.

You can see the size of this tomb is pretty big.
Now compare this size to the the one at Nazareth...

We also saw some tombs along side the road one day..  If you notice, the one I'm standing next to is a whole lot bigger.  Isn't it something, Jesus wasn't put in any tomb, he was laid in one of the best tombs.  Just like he had an unused donkey to ride into Jerusalem.   Only the best for our Lord, even if it was only for three days.  

I did a little "artistic" work on the tomb photo in honor of today.  I praise God for this empty tomb.  Because of what Jesus did, I know I will be with Him for eternity.  It's not by my works, or my abilities, it's this empty tomb.  Jesus did this for us so we can be with him.

Hallelujah!