House of Caiaphas at the Church of
Saint Peter in Gallicantu in Jerusalem
During each Holy Land Pilgrimage our Lakes Church Lead Pastor Dr. Aaron D. Burgner shared from Psalm 88 as he explained the biblical and historical significance of the House of Caiaphas. This church, known as the Church of Saint Peter in Gallicantu (cock's crow in Latin), marks the place of the House of Caiaphas. It's here that Jesus would be tried before Caiaphas, the High Priest. It's here that Jesus would spend the night before His crucifixion in a cold, dark dungeon. It's also here that Peter would deny Christ three times. We experienced the prison cell where Jesus was likely beaten, and the dungeon where Jesus spent the night before being crucified. It has rings in the walls where prisoners would be tied up and beaten. This is likely where Jesus was beaten before being thrown in the dungeon below it. We could see the path Jesus would have walked, going to Gethsemane from the Upper Room and returning under arrest from Gethsemane to here, including the steps beside the church that was used for ascending and descending from Mount Zion to the Kidron Valley. Jesus and His disciples most likely used them as they traveled from the Upper Room, where they had celebrated the Passover meal, to the Garden of Gethsemane. Later, Christ would use these same steps as He was brought from Gethsemane, which led through the Kidron Valley, to the House of Caiaphas. In the Courtyard of the church is a statue that recalls the events of Peter’s denial of Jesus. It shows Peter, the rooster that crowed, a maid, a servant, and a Roman soldier.
Some
people refer to a visit to the Holy Land as the fifth gospel. I guess it’s
because everything you read about in the Bible comes to life when you walk
where Jesus walked. Visiting the Holy Land engages not only one’s thoughts and
emotions, but also the senses. Seeing the cities and towns where narratives in
Scripture took place, hearing the bleating sheep on the hills outside
Jerusalem, sitting on the same hillside where Jesus preached, and smelling the
sea where he calmed the storm, makes those passages you’ve read countless times
come to life. After his arrest, Jesus was taken to the home of Caiaphas, the
high priest. Caiaphas was one of those behind the plot to have Jesus killed
(John 18:14, Matthew 26:3-4). Peter stood out in the courtyard and waited to
see what would happen. We went to that courtyard where a statue of a rooster
now stands. We then went to an underground prison beneath Caiaphas’ home where
Jesus was likely held the night of his arrest. It was a deep, dark pit. There
was one light dimly illuminating the room for us, but I could easily imagine
what it would have been like turned off. With our Lakes Church members crowded
inside, our Lead Pastor Aaron Burgner read Psalm 88 and prayed. Reading the
psalm in the place where Jesus spent his final night before going to the cross,
struck me in a way it hadn’t before. “You have put me in the depths of
the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you
overwhelm me with all your waves” (Psalm 88:6-7).
Psalm
88 is the darkest of the psalms in the Psalter. Unlike other laments, it
doesn’t end with words of praise. Despite its darkness, the psalm has brought
me hope over the years when I’ve found myself in my own place of darkness. The
mere fact that the psalm is in included in the Bible, and in the songbook of
God’s people no less, tells me how compassionate our God is. He knows how
fallen our world is. He knows our pain and invites us to share it with him. Our
grief and sorrow isn’t neat and tidy. Sometimes we can’t even put our thoughts
and emotions into words. But no matter how dark our emotions, we need to cry
out to the God who hears us, for he alone is our salvation. As Pastor Matthew
Henry commented, “before he begins his complaint, he calls God the God of his
salvation, which intimates both that he looked for salvation, bad as things
were, and that he looked up to God for the salvation and depended upon him to
be the author of it.” Like all of Scripture, each psalm has a here and now
meaning for the author who wrote it. Psalm 88 was written by Heman, one of
Israel’s worship leaders. As a worship leader, he wrote songs to help God’s
people sing to God during all of life’s circumstances, both in the joys and in
the sorrows. In Psalm 88, we can see that the psalmist obviously endured a
significant trial in his life. He was in despair. He cried out to God day and
night. He felt the weight of God’s judgement and the abandonment of his
friends. God seemed far away—so far, darkness had become his only friend (v.
18).
But
also like all of Scripture, Jesus fulfills Psalm 88. As Luke 24:27 tells
us, when Jesus walked on the road to Emmaus with some of the disciples
following his resurrection, “And beginning with Moses and all the
Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
himself.” In Psalm 88, we hear Jesus with his friends in the Garden
before his arrest echoing the psalmist, “For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol” (v. 3). Jesus stepped into the
darkness on our behalf. The night he spent in the pit was only the beginning of
all that he would endure for us. He felt the full weight of God’s wrath at the
cross in our stead. “Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me
with all your waves” (Psalm 88:7). He too was abandoned by his closest
friends (v.8). Christ took on the curse of death, the darkest of all pits.
After my visit to that underground pit beneath the home of Caiaphas, I now read
Psalm 88 with greater joy than ever before. I still rejoice that I can come to
the Father and voice my sorrows, no matter how dark. I still turn to him in
lament and ask for his help and rescue, trusting in him as my salvation. But I
also rejoice, knowing that my Savior endured greater darkness—God’s wrath for
sin—on my behalf. When it seems as though I’m stuck in a pit of despair, I
remember Jesus and the lengths he went to for my redemption. He went to dark places
I will never have to go. And for that I rejoice.
God
offers a kind of rest that is different from what our own minds would conceive.
God offers us rest in the midst of our distress. It is the only true rest—an
inner rest that comes from abandoning ourselves to the Lord and entrusting to
him whatever troubles or problems are overwhelming us. Instead of flying away,
run straight into the arms of God, and rest in his care and love for you today.
God’s promises in the Bible gives us assurance that we are not alone in this
fearful place. God has promised to be with you in every situation and to never
leave you, so you can put your trust in him. He is the source of our courage
and security. He can turn your fear into faith.
OH,
LORD, I do want my problems solved and my troubles removed, but from the
crushing weight of my burdens, I turn my eyes to you. I entrust this perplexity
to you. Enable me to find my rest in you, to discover a place of deeper
abandonment and security in your everlasting love. You are my only rock. You
are my only rest. Lord, you have said that when I’m afraid, at the very point
of my anxiety, I can put my trust in you and experience your protection. I
thank you for your Word that promises your presence with me. You are my
heavenly Father, so please hold my hand in dark and frightening circumstances,
and help me to trust you and walk close to you today. In Jesus’ name we pray,
amen.
Look
Up—meditate on Psalm 88 …pray to see what it reveals about the
character of God.
Look
In—as you meditate on Psalm 88 …pray to see how you might apply it to
your life. Be propelled to ask galvanizing questions about your discoveries:
"Because God is_________, I will_____________."
Look
Out—as you meditate on Psalm 88 …pray to see how you might apply it to
your relationships with others. Let the nature of God impact on every
relationship, for your good, and for His glory.
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