Tracing the footsteps of Jesus in a small NSW country town

Auxiliary-Lieutenant Caleb Smith has always been fascinated with Biblical cartography. (Right) A map of the original Temora ‘Stations of the Cross’ walk held in 2023.

BY LAUREN MARTIN

Auxiliary-Lieutenant Caleb Smith was an OK ... an ‘Officer’s Kid’. He recalls many Sundays as a child, sitting bored at the back of the corps hall, entertaining himself by looking at the map pages in the back of the Bible.

“I’ve always been interested in maps,” he said.

Many years later, that interest has translated into a unique way of experiencing the Easter weekend – an at-scale ‘Stations of the Cross’ walk around his NSW country town of Temora, where he is the corps leader.

Designing the walk, according to Caleb, was easy. “If you just get two maps of the same scale and overlay them [one being a map of New Testament Jerusalem], you can trace out the path that Jesus would have taken on the first Good Friday. You can overlay [New Testament Jerusalem] onto pretty much any suburb, anywhere really. It’s very easy to do, I can highly recommend it!”

The Stations of the Cross walk, held on Easter Saturday, took people on an experiential journey from the arrest of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane (Hillview Park), through to his death on the cross at Golgotha (the footy field), with the High Priest’s house and the Roman Fortress along the way.

“It conveniently worked out that the main Herodian street of Jerusalem lined up with our main street,” said Caleb. He said that the location of the Temora McDonald’s fast-food restaurant was at the Jerusalem map location of the Roman Fortress. “We thought that was fun! The foreign empire staking its claim on our beloved town!”

The Stations of the Cross walkers stopped at the place where the Roman Fortress would have been (the location of Temora McDonald’s restaurant!)

Around 35 people from various churches in Temora, along with some interested community members, gathered for the walk, which lasted about an hour and a half.

“We stopped at each point and got a volunteer to read the Scriptures and pray as well, and we encouraged people to have a chat and share any thoughts that they had,” said Caleb.

Many of those who attended said that the walk gave them a fresh perspective of the journey that Jesus took.

Temora Salvation Army’s at-scale ‘Stations of the Cross’ walk was a popular way for community members to engage with the Easter Story.

“Someone pointed out, ‘Isn’t it weird that the High Priest’s house is located as far away from the Temple as you can possibly get?’” he said. Details like that are missed unless you take a look at the map or walk the actual route. Another thing noticed was how long it took to get from the location of the Garden of Gethsemane to the High Priest’s house, where he was first taken after his arrest.

“It’s a good 20-minute walk,” said Caleb. “They would have been in the dark. [As we walked it, we were discussing,] ‘What were they talking about?’ ‘Did they talk to Jesus ... did he talk to them?’”

He said the feedback from those who experienced the walk was encouraging.

The final stop on the Temora at-scale ‘Stations of the Cross’ cross walk was the local football field, which was the location of Golgotha, where Jesus died on the cross.

“People are very keen to do it again, they found it really meaningful. Particularly some of the people that aren’t part of a congregation that came along, they were impressed by it and found it a good way to learn through experience. They found that really positive.”

Caleb said that for anyone interested in recreating the Stations of the Cross walk in their own town or suburb, he would be happy to assist with mapping. “You just need maps of the correct scale and off you go!”