His Burial and mine

As a pilgrim to Jerusalem the Christian is invited to visit two locations claiming to be the burial place of our Lord. One is much more historically convincing than the other but the less authentic is very evocative.

THE HOLY SEPULCHRE

This site dates back to the 4th century, when Queen Helena decided to mark the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of her son Constantine's empire by embodying the gospel in a number of magnificent shrines. Here, outside the original city walls, local Christians told her that Jesus died and was buried, though the Roman emperor Hadrian had later incorporated the spot into his forum. Constantine's engineers dug the traditional tomb clear of its surrounding rock and covered it with a rotunda. Destroyed by the Arabs in the 11th century it was rebuilt in the 12th by the Crusaders. Today, under the dome is a little stone house, rather like a kiosk, no more than a hundred years old, covering the tomb which Constantine was at pains to isolate from the surrounding rock. Access is through a low doorway, and since there is no exit at the other end, only half a dozen pilgrims can enter at a time. A simple stone slab marks the empty tomb.

THE GARDEN TOMB

This site lies directly north of the Damascus gate in Nablus Road. It was known originally as Gordon's tomb after General Charles Gordon who was dissatisfied with Queen Helena's Holy Sepulchre Church and searched for a more sympathetic site. This first century tomb, complete with a groove for a rolling stone was uncovered in 1883. Gordon telegraphed Queen Victoria. She thanked him but added that she intended to persevere in the tradition first established 'by our cousin Helena'. There is little possibility of the site being authentic but there is equally no doubt that it is able to recreate, in a way that the Holy Sepulchre no longer can, the kind of garden setting of the tomb in which Jesus was laid.

OUR VILLAGE GRAVEYARD

The village church in my home village dates from 1234 when it was founded by the Monks of Monk Bretton. It houses and is surrounded by numerous burial places. Today the graveyard extends across the road and has expanded up to the limits of available space. It will be full sometime this year and then those needing new graves will have to travel to the next village.
Many of our family members are buried there and this is where we shall be buried as we had the foresight to purchase a plot at the time of our parents burial - and in the same area and row.

ROMANS 6.4

"We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."