Is This The Spot?

on March 14, 2011 by Walt Dilg

Is This the Spot?

When you go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where you go is most important.  It's not just random places, but rather places that are connected with people or events important to the faith and mentioned in scripture.  And when you go to those places, the question invariably arises about the authenticity of the location: did it happen here?  right here is the place?

Twenty centuries later it is hard to  pinpoint a location.  If you have been to some of our Civil War battlefields, you know how hard it can be to locate specific places of action, and who did what, where, and when?  And those events were only 150 years ago!  

What I have found helpful is a language that uses "levels of probability."  Some locations might have a low level of probability that the event actually happened there.  The Upper Room is a good example of a structure that was built in Crusader times, so it's clearly not the walls and floor of Jesus' time, but it is thought that it was built in the area in which the Last Supper occurred.  There is a high level of probability that the cave of the nativity is the place Jesus was born.  So too a high level of probability that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre houses the mount of Calvary and the location of Jesus' Tomb.  Yet interestingly, since the late 1800s a competing location for the tomb has appeared and won over some adherents to its claim.

Determining the level of probability comes from archaeological evidence that point to the claim mixed with a long standing though anecdotal tradition of veneration.  The fact that Christians have commemorated an event at a spot for over 1800 or 1900 years carries a lot of weight in this discussion.  Yet, as was mentioned at the Garden Tomb - "if you're looking for Jesus here, you won't find him.  He's resurrected.  He's gone on, ahead of you.  He's not here."  Nevertheless, it's a great rush to be in the area Jesus walked, taught, healed, died, and resurrected.  The locations bring the Bible stories to life in ways you never imagined.  And through the mysterious power of the Spirit, not only do the stories come alive but your relationship with God comes alive as well.  And that's because in some very special ways, Jesus is still there - waiting for you and me.