Christian Hospice

Christian Hospice

The spiritual battles I witnessed and heard about in Israel, especially in Jerusalem, reminded me of what I read about the trench warfare during World War I. All sides are battle weary and resigned to staying in their trenches. Few venture into the no man's land, and those who do face both enemy and friendly fire.

During my visit, I once found myself next to an orthodox Jew in the lobby of an Anglican Christian hospice in Jerusalem. After greetings and some small talk, I asked him, "If I gave you a book about Jesus, would you read it?"

Before he could answer, the manager of the Christian hospice jumped in to cut me off, then sheepishly begged the man to ignore me. I waited until the man left the lobby, then confronted the manager. Instead of apologizing, the manager declared that while I may speak to Jews about Jesus elsewhere in Jerusalem, I was to refrain from doing so inside his Christian hospice and certainly not in the lobby.

When asked why his hospice was off limits to the Gospel, he said they had their way of telling people about Jesus and outsiders were not to be a part of it. When asked how many new Christians "their" way had borne, the manager conceded that they were still working on their first.

Speaking of battles, the painting above, found hanging in the lobby of the Masada cable car station, depicts the battle of Masada in which about 1,000 Jews held out atop the impregnable plateau against a Roman legion. The battle actually never took place as painted; the night before the Roman siege mound reached the plateau, all but 7 of the 1,000 committed suicide.