On the rightside...

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered into the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the rightside, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here."

Mark 16:1-6

One of the only disappointments from my semester abroad (and its only a slight disappointment, trust me, I'm not complaining) was not feeling the way I expected to at some biblical places we visited. I, along with many other HUGgers, thought that we would get some sort of spiritual high just being in the place where Jesus once was or the place where Moses floated down the river. Don't get me wrong, there were very special moments that I will always cherish, but I just thought it would be that way at every place we visited. Once we all realized that we had these same feelings, we asked Dimy if previous students went through this experience. She explained to us that it was a natural way to feel and that most of our "moments" from the trip would happen after we got back, a year from now, or even 30 years from now. Well, all that to say I had my first moment a few Sundays ago during communion. I was reading the above passage when three simple words hit me so hard I almost couldn't breathe. ON THE RIGHTSIDE. "Wait, did that just say what I think it said?!?!" Oh yes, it did. You might be wondering what in the world I am talking about ...lol let me try to explain.

The first place we visited in Jerusalem was the Garden Tomb. It is one of the possible sights of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. We waited in line for a very long time to go into the empty (that's right, empty) tomb. When I finally walked in the tomb, ON THE RIGHTSIDE was the empty grave where Jesus' body once could have been (only for a short time of course).

Those simple 3 words showed me the importance of my visit to the Garden tomb. Okay, so maybe it wasn't the tomb where Jesus was buried (and place isn't the issue, its the fact that he ROSE from the dead). But those 3 words really made the Bible come to life for me in that instance. Praise the Lord for the blessing of his Son who died and rose for our sins!!!

(I think I have pictures of the tomb in a previous Jerusalem post...check it out.)