When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” –John 19:5
The Ecce Homo Arch marks the beginning of Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa.
Author Archives: Mike Mason
Pontius Pilate (Chapter 55 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews. Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” –John 19:21-2
The Sacred Pit (Chapter 54 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. –Psalm 88:6
The night Jesus was arrested He was taken to Caiphas, the high priest, where He was tried summarily and beaten.
Holy Steps (Chapter 52 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
Having finished praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. –John 18:1
Here is where this book began, at this ancient Roman stairway known as the Holy Steps. Standing beside these steps on a hot Jerusalem afternoon, it suddenly struck me: Jesus walked here.
The Rock of the Agony (Chapter 51 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed. –Luke 22:41
If this book were about the trees of the Bible, rather than the rocks, we would now be at the heartwood of our story: the Garden of Gethsemane, home to an ancient grove of olive trees, some of which may be two thousand years old.
The Stele of Bethphage (Chapter 48 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. –Mt 21:5
When I first heard about the “Stele of Bethphage,” I laughed.
The Stones Cry Out (Chapter 47 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. –Luke 19:40
What is more inert, more inanimate, more incapable of voice than a stone?
The Destruction of Jerusalem (Chapter 46 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down. –Mark 13:2
Jesus could be such a killjoy. One of His band of Galilean rustics, agog with wonder at the sights of the big city, exclaims, “What magnificent buildings!”
Christ the Cornerstone (Chapter 45 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. -Mt 21:42
Here we come to one of the central messianic images in the Bible.
The Forbidding Placard (Chapter 44 of Jesus: His Story In Stone)
He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. –Eph 2:14
So far we have examined impressive first-century remains from the Temple Mount platform and from some of its auxiliary structures. When it comes to the Temple itself, however, the fact is that not a single positively identifiable stone survives.