Transcription of the Video: City of a Great King: Part 2

The ancient land of Israel is a testimony and evidence of the greatness of what God did in that country, a testimony to the truth of the words that we find in the pages of the Bible.

Okay, we're standing at the base here of the corner of Herod's Temple platform. If you remember on the model, it was at this point maybe 100 feet or more above our head that there was a tower. And on the corner of that tower was the place where the priests went to blow the shofar. 

In fact, the stone there that was found that said, "the place of the blowing of the trumpet" actually was thrown down and found below, here, in this pit where it had fallen from up above. But here, you get a sense of the size and the glory of the stones that Herod put here. 

Now, up above us here, you see the spring of an arch. That was the arch called Robinson's Arch. That arch came out behind us. From there, the stairway came this direction toward me, descended down here into the lower city so that you could walk on down toward the Tyropoeon Valley or around the corner here to the left of that broad staircase to get in where the pilgrims went in.

So there were two exits or entrances on this level. One was here, came down this way. The other one, Wilson's Arch, came across on the bridge to the upper city.

Here in a pile, not ever having been excavated, just left the way the excavators found it, are the stones that the Roman soldiers and engineers through off the top at the time they destroyed this city. 

Josephus says that hundreds of thousands of people died in that slaughter. I just want you to feel the awful terror of this place as those Romans came here and spent months systematically destroying and undoing what Herod had spent years, and the Jews had spent years, building. And I think Jesus weeping over the city was his awareness as his insight into the future that this was about to happen.

Herod chose the upper city as the place where he would live in Jerusalem. On the western edge, overlooking the Hinnom Valley, Herod built a magnificent palace where he spent his time when he was in Jerusalem.

On the northern end at the point where his palace or this part of the city was the weakest, he had built a large fortress. And to protect that fortress, he had built a series of three towers in a triangular shape. The largest, the tallest being 150 feet high. He had named it after his brother, Phasael. The one to the right, he had named after an unknown friend named Hippicus. We don't know anything more about him. And to this side, the very graceful and beautiful tower, he named after is favorite wife, Mariamne, the woman that he himself had had strangled because he doubted her faithfulness to him.

The palace itself is divided into two parts. And in between the two, a series of gardens and of pools, a variety of exotic kind of plants and trees that Herod had put in there - typically Herodian. A couple of things that happened here, we can say with some certainty from the Bible. The first one is at the beginning of the life and ministry of Jesus. 

The wise men came from the east. And they came to Jerusalem because the star that they had seen indicated to them that a king had been born in this part of the world. And they came to the one they thought would know the most - that being the king of the Jews at the time - Herod. Herod of course was very upset about it and eventually the slaughter of the babies in Bethlehem results. 

The other event comes at the end of Jesus' life. Herod the Great, the one who built this magnificent city had died and his son, Herod Antipas was here for Passover. Now we don't know for sure that Herod was staying in this palace, but it seems logical because it was the Herodian Palace after all. And at that time the Galilean teacher, Jesus, had been arrested. And he had been taken to Pilate, the Roman governor who probably resided in that huge fort there just to the northern end of the Temple Mount. 

Pilate sent him here on the night of his arrest and interrogated by Herod and then eventually sent back to Pilate, who condemned him to death. So we can imagine at the end of his life, Jesus being brought here and having an audience with Herod. 

Here, the large palace of the high priest Caiaphas - or at least so we think. We don't know that 100%. But very likely, Caiaphas’s palace looked very much like this. Caiaphas was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was the high priest, the chief priest. He was a Hellenistic individual. He was happy with the Roman and the Greek lifestyle. And as such, was considered to be illegitimate in the priesthood by many religious Jews such as, for example, the Essenes. 

Archaeological excavations have revealed a number of beautiful mansions belonging to the families of Sadducees from the time of Jesus. One of them, recently opened to the public, probably belonged to a priestly family and possibly even a family of the high priest. 

While no one is saying that this was the home of the high priest Caiaphas, it's possible. At the very least, it helps us to appreciate the context to which Jesus was brought as he was interrogated by the Jewish priests prior to his crucifixion. 

We're in a mansion that dates back to the period of Jesus' time. When Jesus was on earth and when the disciples were on earth, people were living in this mansion. It very likely belonged to a priestly family based on the number of ritual baths that are in here. Also other kinds of finds in terms of bowls and dishes with information on them, indicating they belonged to priestly families. 

Another thing I think that strikes me as the opulence of the place. You see the Mosaic floors, the wine cellar over there filled with jars still standing there. The beautiful stoneware tables which were ceremonially clean because they didn't absorb material like clay did. The bowls, the plaster, walls up here painted different colors that look so beautiful and so glorious. Bathrooms with Mosaic floors. Absolute beauty. 

Now actually, there are three major walls in this part of the city of Jerusalem. The first wall goes from the towers - Herod's towers, Herod's fort - to the Temple Mount itself and actually connects there on the Temple Mount next to the arch that carries the bridge across. And that's called the first wall because it was the first wall to be built, and at that time, the whole city of Jerusalem was in this direction and over there on the Temple Mount. 

The second wall, which was built by Herod the Great, the same one responsible for most of this city, is the one that begins here by Herod's towers and goes primarily to the north as it covers around the business district and the northern part of the city. Eventually, it comes back and joins with the fort just to the north of the Temple Mount called the Fort of Antonia. Shortly after the death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus, Herod Agrippa built the third wall. 

Now within each of the sections of the city enclosed by those walls, Jesus had some interaction in his ministry. Let's talk first about the section inside of the second wall between the second wall and the Temple Mount called the business district. Probably the dominant feature in that section of the city is that huge fortress with the four giant square towers on each corner with a broad staircase coming down toward the business section of the city. 

When Herod initially built this city, he built it under the authority and the power of the Romans. The Romans had given him the right to be king. They had put them power. They had provided troops and funds to enable him to control this area. And so he had to build a place that was appropriate for the Roman garrison. He named that glorious fortress after his patron, Mark Antony. And it became known as the Antonia.

It's in the western half that most scholars believe Jesus was taken for his trial before Pontius Pilate. Now the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus was taken to be tried before Pilate to a place called Lithostrōtos or the Pavement. Very likely, that pavement is in the Antonia Fortress just inside of those gates that stand at the top of that long, broad staircase. If that's true, Jesus himself was taken there before Pilate - probably bound, standing before him. 

And those who accused him stood out on the stairway. And the trial went on back and forth between those Sanhedrin officials, those Sadducees, and Pilate himself who had to make the decision. 

Eventually, Pilate decided that it was in his best political interest to sentence an innocent person to death. And so he listened to those who accused Jesus, and he had Jesus flogged, and he sent him out to die.

The New Testament teaches us that Jesus was both the Passover sacrifice and the scapegoat. Now the scapegoat was an animal that was taken to the Temple, and following a ceremony, the priests would symbolically transfer the sins of the people to the head of the goat. And the goat would be taken outside of the city to the east to the wilderness to die and in that way, show the people that the sins of the people had been carried away. They had been taken away out into the desert and they would not any longer interfere with the relationship between God and the people.

So the Book of Hebrews says, Jesus is our scapegoat. He's taken outside of the city wall, and he's taken outside to die. And in that sense, God is illustrating to us that our sins too have been completely removed. They're no longer effecting our relationship with God.

According to Roman law, executions took place in very public places along city streets or outside of city gates. And often, city gates were the choice the Romans used. Over near the garden tomb, over near that location which some see as the possible place where Jesus was crucified is the Damascus Gate - the present location of the Damascus Gate. Right there near that location was a very large public gate, the main north entrance into the city of Jerusalem. 

First of all, you're sitting on the gate that was the Damascus Gate. Again, remember how we understood that a gate is like a room inside the city. You're sitting on the roof of that gate room. The main northern entrance of the city of Jerusalem is right here. 

The second I thought I'd point out is as you just stand up here and you listen, you have the music, the sounds of people. If you look, you have the dress, the smells of the food and the spices and just this sense of culture. Very similar kind of feelings to what Jesus would have had. If Jesus was taken to be crucified probably through the northern gate, he would have come down the street here. 

Now realize, his street is below. But this would be the kind of route and not too dissimilar day. This is Friday, the holy day for the Muslim. So in the morning, everybody's out buying the last things they need for their meal and so on, and it's a big crowd. And that would have been similar to Jesus except he was here on the Passover crowd. It's the same kind of feel. That's why it's so neat to be here on Friday, because that's market day. And I just look down there, and it seems so foreign, so curious. But then I think of Jesus' reaction to crowds like that - of his sense of compassion.

And somebody said last night, "Can I feel compassion for people that are that different the way he did?" 

We're down in an archaeological dig, down much closer to the level of Jesus' time. And what you see here is the main northern gate from the Roman period, technically from the Roman period following the time of Jesus. 

After this city was destroyed in 70 and then again in 134, the Romans rebuilt this gate. However, we can say that the gate is built on the approximate location following the same general outline and certainly with Herodian stones. So I won't tell you that Jesus touched this stone in this place. What I will tell you is that what you're looking at is the gate that looks the same as what Jesus looked at coming from the same place. Now you can hear from the bustle that the city gate was always a very busy place. 

There actually were three openings: this small one here, a much larger one in the middle, and then another small one on the outside. So actually, you're looking at the little gate, if you will, of a huge massive gate. Notice the size of the column. Maybe three feet in diameter that would have gone-- you can see where it would have gone up the side. And another one here. Imagine the glory of that Roman gate that one day about 2,000 years ago, a busy day like this was the site where a condemned prisoner was taken out carrying a cross to be killed somewhere in the immediate area here. 

We just came out of the Damascus Gate, so we're just outside the city gate here. And then if you came just across the road, you'd come to that quarry. And very likely, they would put the victim down below in the quarry and stone them to death from the top of the quarry. 

To some people's minds, that makes this a logical place for the crucifixion. But the view is in Roman law, you executed people in public places by main roads or main gates, particularly in places that the local population considered to be disgraceful.

So maybe this is a logical choice. I'm not saying it happened here. I'm saying I'm trying to give you an impression of what it was like. So when Jesus was taken to be crucified, whether it was this spot or another, he came through a busy city street, out a main gate, and just outside the gate, he's crucified. 

The most significant part of the city of Jerusalem is the Temple Mount, the place where God had originally spoken to Abraham and Isaac, where God had commissioned David and Solomon to build the Temple for his Jewish people, where God's presence had lived among his people for more than 1,000 years. It's amazing that this place that had such an impact in human history now becomes the place where the Kingdom of God is extended beyond the Jewish people to those of us who are Gentiles as we have become part of that Kingdom. 

We are now the new Temple as God's Spirit fills us and lives within us to bring his Kingdom beyond the boundaries of this city to all the people of God's world.