I will admit straightaway that I was completely wrong about the Holy Land Experience. I was sure that I would find cheap and tasteless replicas and a stomach-churning parody of the life of Jesus. Instead I found a simple yet graphical representation of key events from the Gospel that not only held me spellbound but which also led me to ask questions of myself. I was literally amazed.
We visited at Easter 2005 and when I entered the "Jerusalem Street Market", complete with stalls selling all manner of videos and religious paraphernalia, I felt all my pre-conceptions being realised. However, as we wandered at our own pace through the "Dead Sea Qumran Caves", or the "Wilderness Tabernacle" I was really taken by the simplicity of the experience. It was Easter, it was hot, it was silent, and here I was watching ornately caparisoned Roman centurions lead a bearded "Jesus" through a Calvary dotted with palms, to the Cross ....
I know this will sound bizarre, but in so many ways I felt like I was really there - that I had gone back 2000 years, and was present at the Crucifixion...As I watched the empty winding sheet, abandoned on the cross and moving gently in the breeze, I was genuinely moved, and because of that I was puzzled and full of questions....
Later, as the evening cooled and as the wind picked up, we joined a large crowd in front of the "Great Temple" and enjoyed the theatrical representation of some of Jesus' sermons. As I watched these episodes unfold - stories which I had been familiar with since childhood - they came alive to me and I felt again that I was present in a different time and that I could catch a faint tang of the excitement and emotion out of the past. I have rarely felt 'religious' before or since, but there in a theme park in Florida watching Jesus die for our sins I felt full of emotion...
Well, there I go again. Sentimental echoes from childhood or profound religious experience? Please, give this place a chance, and decide for yourself. I've not even mentioned the wonderful Scriptorium or the incredible model of Jerusalem circa 66 A.D. Take a drive up I4, past the Universal exit, and bring an open mind...
David Evans
Email : FloridaVillaWithSpa@hotmail.com
