Via Dolorosa

At various times today we explored the Via Dolorosa, which is the traditional path Jesus took from his judgement to his crucifixion. Along the way we say many tour groups and pilgrims. There are brass numbered plaques on the walls bearing Roman numerals showing each of the 14 stations, as follows:

1. Jesus is condemned to death.
2. Jesus takes up the cross.
3. Jesus falls beneath the weight of the cross for the first time.
4. Jesus meets his mother, Mary.
5. Simon of Cyrene is ordered by the Roman soldiers to help Jesus carry the cross.
6. Veronica wipes away Jesus's blood and sweat.
7. Jesus falls for the second time.
8. Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem.
9. Jesus falls for the third time.
10. Jesus is stripped of his clothes.
11. Jesus is nailed to the cross.
12. Jesus dies.
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross.
14. The holy sepulchre where Jesus is laid.

The setting along the Via Dolorosa is somewhat garish, contrived and strange. Each of the stations is memorialized by a small plaque in the walls of the narrow street or by some small chapel or memorial. Usually there are gift shops incorporated as part of each little chapel. The streets themselves are filled with Muslim vendors, calling out, "Hello! Shopping?" Moreover, the street and buildings one now sees are at best Byzantine or Ottoman structures--the streets that the Savior passed along are destroyed or buried deep beneath the city.

My chief interest in the Via Dolorosa is not in the "theme-park" like capitalism, but in the living people themselves who come here for whatever reason.

Along the way we stopped at a little hole in the wall restaurant in the Muslim Quarter for lunch.