Honesty Pants

One of the mountain-top experiences for Christians on pilgrimage to the Old City of Jerusalem is the Via Dolorosa -- or "The Way of Sorrows" or "The Painful Way".

Before we walked the Via Dolorosa, one of our leaders prefaced that the roads of the Old City would be like a typical market-place; simply because the roads of the Via Dolorosa are lined with shop owners who make a living from the tourists that come to the city. Because of this, we were asked to abandon our American consumeristic selves for a while and refrain from shopping. As the streets are really narrow and bustling --- it is quite a task to keep everyone (40 bodies to be exact) together, much less if someone wandered off in attempt to buy something.

The current streets of the Via Dolorosa are probably not the exact streets/stones that Jesus walked but it provides a glimpse/shadow of what it would have been like on the day Jesus carried His cross to Calvary. The worst expectation that someone could have as they walk the Via Dolorosa is that it is going to be a quiet, meditative experience. It's a day in the life for these people who make a living by selling things in their shop to customers.

My favorite part is that the atmosphere the day Jesus carried the cross would not have been any different. It would have been a spectacle - a bloody scene that would have caught everyone's attention because the city streets were the place to be.

A phrase that stood out to me as we continued to walk the Via Dolorosa was "Crucify the Flesh" --- a saying I picked up from some friends while I worked at Pine Cove when the Spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. "Crucify the Flesh" was a command we sharpied on our forearms as a reminder to die to self when our self didn't die so easily.

Most of the Via Dolorosa is uphill. They are long, narrow steps. And the entire time you are walking up, the shopkeepers are trying to grab your attention to lure you into their shops to buy something. And what they are selling is alluring, attention-grabbing, and makes you say "Ooohhhhh! I NEED that!"

I think our daily lives are exactly like walking the Via Dolorosa -- Allow me to explain.

Believers are called by Christ to die to ourselves daily -- in a sense, Crucify the Flesh. So essentially, our flesh needs to carry its cross, UP HILL, on the Via Dolorosa every day. Not easy, but so necessary.

Yet, we are so easily distracted by the alluring shops of sin that line each narrow strip of road. Sin makes us stop along the way to Calvary because whatever Satan and this world is offering seems more beautiful, more attractive, more necessary than the reason why we started out in the first place.

I am really glad the streets of the Via Dolorosa were bustling and busy the day we walked them because now, I have a vivid picture in my mind about what it looks like to crucify my flesh.

It's uphill and it's lined with attractive gidgets and gadgets that distract my heart and soul rom continuing to pursue the calling of Christ and the real purpose for which I was created to live -- to walk along The Painful Way so that I might crucify my flesh and truly live.