In the Depths of the Pit

Today our group spent our time considering the events of what's often called "Maundy Thursday", the day on which Jesus shared a final meal with his disciples prior to his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and his subsequent "trial" before the Jewish and Roman authorities.  It was understandably a somewhat somber day as we went first to a place near an ancient city gate where Jesus and his disciples might have entered on their way to the "upper room" that's mentioned in the Bible.  Then we made our way to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, just across the valley from the eastern wall of Jerusalem. (see photo)




Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives

We spent some quiet time of reflection there, imagining what it must have been like as Jesus agonized over what was about to happen, then as he watched his closest friends desert him when the soldiers and Temple guards came to arrest him.  We also saw what remains of the first-century steps that ascend from the valley below the Garden up to the part of the city where it's very possible that Jesus was held for trial.  In fact, it's highly likely that Jesus himself walked these steps after his arrest.  (see photo)
 


Ancient steps that Jesus may have climbed from the valley
below Gethsemane to the place of his trial before the High Priest

For me, though, the most moving experience was standing in the pit of a first-century underground prison that some speculate could have been the place where Jesus was held while awaiting trial.  (Even if it wasn't the actual place, he certainly could have been held in something very similar to this.)  The picture below was taken in this pit.

"Holding Pit" in first-century underground prison



While in this pit we read from Psalm 88 -- a psalm that Jesus probably knew by heart and that almost certainly expressed what was in his heart as he faced his trial alone, having been betrayed by one disciple, denied by another, and abandoned by all the rest.  My own heart ached as I heard these words:

 You have put me in the depths of the Pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves.

You have caused my companions to shun me;

you have made me a thing of horror to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

my eye grows dim through sorrow.

     

(Psalm 88:6-9)

As I consider what it must have been like for him, I can't help thinking about the question that all of Jesus' disciples asked when he told them at their last meal together that one of them would betray him..  Indeed, it's my question, too:  "Is it I, Lord?"