Holy Land Reflections 3 Pilgrimage

I share Jonathan Clark’s view of his recent visit to Jerusalem when he

wrote that ‘I don’t feel that it is a pilgrimage’.

For me this feeling begins with the clear impression that, although Jesus went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, the whole of the New Testament is set against the idea of physical pilgrimages to holy places. What remains, for the followers of Jesus who are ‘belonging to the Way’ (Acts 9.2; 18.25, 26 etc.) is a spiritual journey. We might describe it as following Jesus, or say we are trav-elling with him, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24.13). But the destination is not a physical place, and it is certainly not a holy site. If anything, using the Emmaus story, we might feel closest to Jesus not in a particular place, but ‘in the breaking of bread’.

I still treasure a book by Michael Ramsey entitled Canterbury Pilgrim, which is a collection of sermons he published just after he retired as Archbishop of Canterbury. The last sermon, written to commemorate Thomas Becket, addresses the busi-ness of pilgrimage very directly, for with Becket’s martyrdom, Canterbury became one of the great pilgrimage places of Europe. Ramsey opens with the text Becket had used for one of his last sermons, when he knew his death was inevitable: ‘Here we have no con-tinuing city, for we seek one to come.’ (Hebrews 13.14)

Christian faith is not tied to an idea of any physical holy place such as Mecca or Jerusalem. Jesus had an-nounced the end of the cult of the Temple in Jerusalem. He foretold the destruction of the Temple (Luke 21.5) and of Jerusalem (Luke 21.20-24). The Temple authorities were aware of the threat which his teachings posed. They said ‘If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.’ (John 11.48).

The gospel writers emphasise the end of the cult of pilgrimage in the tearing apart of the curtain of the

Temple (Luke 23.45) at the death of Jesus. From here, the empty tomb, and the appearances of the risen Jesus in different places meant that his follow-ers would have no particular reason to venerate the place of his temporary burial. Nothing of him remained there.

Then, the complete destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. brought an end to Temple worship. After a later Jewish rebellion was crushed in 135 A.D. Jerusalem was destroyed and both Jews and Christians were forbidden to live in the new Roman city of Aelia Capitolina. The destruction of the city Jesus would have known was so com-plete and the plan of the new Roman city was so different that it is extremely unlikely that anything remained. It isn’t even possible to follow the route Jesus would have taken from the place of his trial to the place of crucifixion. But then, for the Christians of Rome, Corinth, Ephesus or Damascus, this wasn’t important. Their Scriptures had foretold the end of the ancient holy places, and Jesus’ prophecy had come true.

200 years later the Emperor Con-stantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. It was, we understand, his mother’s enthusiasm for the places associated with Jesus which brought about a cultural change with churches built in Jerusalem,

Nazareth and Bethlehem. Marking the places central to the gospel story was an essential part of demonstrat-ing to the world that God’s Son was a real historical figure. And the ‘religious tourist trade’ which had once centred on Delphi or Ephesus could be given a new focus.

But, I would suggest, even when the pilgrimage fashion was at its height in the middle ages, holy places were not the only reason for travel. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales tell us nothing of the place of Becket’s martyrdom. The sto-ries are those shared by the pilgrims on their journey. It was still ‘The Way’ as early Christians described themselves, which was central to Christian life.

It’s something which today’s ‘pil-grim’ can all too easily miss in an age of almost instantaneous and secure air travel, in contrast with the ardu-ous journeys of a lifetime of pilgrims of old. It is ‘The Way’ that matters.Its goal is ‘no continuing city, for we seek one which is to come’.

What made it the Holy Land for me was not holy places, but holy people like Jeff Halper (mentioned in the previous Reflection) working for peace and justice in a land which has been a battle ground throught recorded his-tory. There will be more of their stories next time.

# Tom Ambrose

Roman paving stones near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The pavement, unearthed in 1977, dates back to around the time of the first Christian Church in Jerusalem. No road survives from Jesus’ day