Garden Tomb

There are so many sites to see in Jerusalem. They all have so much history behind them and so many of them are centuries or millennia old. Before I went to the Garden Tomb I had been to the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Pools of Bethesda, and the Garden of Gethsemane, to name just a few of the major sites. Like the Garden Tomb, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher claims to the burial site of the Savior It is a large byzantine church that is supposedly built on top of Golgatha and on top of Christ’s tomb. It’s a very popular tourist spot for Christians. When you’re walking through the old city you know you’re getting close to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher when you start smelling incense, see tourist groups, and all of the shops display crosses and incense candles. The Garden Tomb, in contrast, is outside of the old city on a quiet side street away from all of the stores. It’s was noticeably more reverent there which makes it a lot easier to feel the spirit. Maybe that’s only because it is a break from the busy, dirty streets city streets, but I think it’s more than that. This spot helped me ponder and understand the amazing sacrifice or Jesus Christ better than any other place that I have been to in Jerusalem. I learned from this experience that the visiting the sites of the Savior’s life really doesn’t matter as much as remembering the purpose of the Savior’s life. Visiting the sites can sometimes help with that, but sometimes it detracts from that. In other words, the miracle is not in the place, but in what took place there. Not all, but some of the places I’ve been in Jerusalem seem to put more emphasis on the place than on what took place there. Visiting the Garden Tomb was a powerful experience for me because the spirit I felt while there helped deepened my understanding of the atonement and resurrection.

The highlight of my experience at the Garden Tomb was singing hymns with our entire group (all 83 of us). We sang for at least 20 if not 30 minutes. Some of the hymns we sang were “I Stand All Amazed,” “He is Risen,” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” The spirit was really strong as we sang. Some of the people passing by us would stop and stare and even take pictures. There was definitely a special spirit there.

Some things I learned while at the Garden Tomb: Calvary was not necessarily a hill. That fact is nowhere in the scriptures, but somehow it worked itself into Christian tradition. Just like the Garden of Gethsemane the “Garden Tomb” we visited is in ancient olive garden that dates back two thousand years. I always imagined it as a flower garden or something.