Lately I’ve been reading about medieval pilgrimage to Jerusalem. What a fascinating and daunting journey that must have been. For the next few weeks I want to share some of my favorite “Jerusalem moments.” Most of them come from the Book of the Wanderings of Brother Felix Fabri. Fabri was a Dominican friar who journeyed from Ulm, Germany to Jerusalem in 1483.

Today’s “Jerusalem moment” comes from Fabri’s description of pilgrims being led to the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Upon being told where they were, the pilgrims erupted in sobs and groans, flung themselves to the ground, beat their breasts, kissed the earth; others lay prostrate, “forsaken by their strength.” Do pilgrims to Jerusalem react in these ways today? (Serious question—I’ve never been to Jerusalem.)

One phrase of Fabri’s stood out for me. He says:

Above all our companions and sisters the women pilgrims shrieked as though in labor, cried aloud and wept.*

What an incredible image! Pilgrims in labor, not because they were pregnant, but because their time had come. If Jerusalem pilgrimage could be described as a pregnancy—with several months of preparation, anticipation, sorrow, and trials, arriving at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was the moment of birth. It was the moment pilgrims had been waiting for, the moment they had undertaken a long and dangerous journey for. At the site of Jesus’ death and resurrection, they witnessed the rebirth of their faith.

Fabri links labor specifically with women, but his description has larger implications. It’s fitting, for example, because in the Middle Ages, Jerusalem was called the navel of the world—the place where Christianity was born.

It also recalls what the Apostle Paul said in Romans: every person who follows Jesus goes through childbirth.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together as in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:22-23).

All Christians, Paul says, are groaning with the painful expectation of what they are becoming. Do you ever find following Jesus to be such an intense struggle that it’s almost physical? It’s because you are giving birth to your faith; it’s at once a sorrowful and joyful occasion. (For more on this idea, see my essay from a few years ago.)

I don’t know whether or not Fabri had the book of Romans in mind when he talked about labor. But I like the echo. After a lengthy journey, the pilgrims’ time had come—to moan, weep, and shriek. To give birth to their sorrow at Jesus’ crucifixion and joy at the new life of resurrection. Their “labor” not only tells us about medieval pilgrimage. It’s also a picture of the sorrow and joy of our spiritual life today.

*The Book of the Wanderings of Brother Felix Fabri, vol. 1, part 1, trans. Aubrey Stewart (London: Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, 1896), 283.