Israeli people were very friendly and welcoming. Even if you don’t speak Hebrew, It was pretty easy to get around once we got in the larger towns and tourist areas since it is an Israeli high school graduation requirement to learn English. Hardly a language barrier here at all. Shopping was a breeze since it is national policy in Israel that tourists do not have to exchange their currency. We could pay in US dollars, Euros, Sheckles, or any other currency we happened to have. The food was good, full of fresh vegetables and marinated meats. And with a little patience for security checkpoints, it felt very safe. I would truly consider coming back someday, especially to Jerusalem so I could spend more time in the Old City and visit some other Biblical sites that we only had time to drive by or find on a map. Convincing Rob to join me is a whole other story. I know not to push my luck, though; I’m just thrilled we got to come here at all!
Today’s itinerary was action-packed again. With Haifa as our starting point, we headed northeast and spent most of our time around the Sea of Galilee. Interestingly, the Sea is actually a moderately sized lake. You can drive around the entire thing in about an hour, and you can pretty easily see all its shore from anywhere along it. So why is it called a sea? Apparently none of the people in the Bible near the lake had ever seen anything bigger, including the Mediterranean which is only about 35 miles to the west.
That was probably the most striking thing today: how much smaller and closer together some key Biblical places actually are. In the Bible, with all the odd and difficult to pronounce places, it seems like stuff is spread all over the place. In actuality, you can easily see many places from each other.
For example, our first stop today was at the north end of the Sea of Galilee at the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount (the famous “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” speech). Literally just down the hill from there, like a 10 minute walk down a modestly sloped grassy hill, is the place where he performed a miracle of turning two fish and five loaves of bread into enough to feed the 25,000ish people (if you count the women and children in addition to the recorded 5000 men) who came to hear him speak that day. Then another 15 minute walk down the road and you are at the town of Capernaum where Jesus lived for a bit and where he preached in a synagogue. All right there together within spittin’ distance of each other.
In reading about these places in different books of the Bible, I have had a hard time keeping everything straight and imagining Jesus traveling around from place to place. He honestly seemed like something of a pinball, bouncing all over the countryside. But now having been here, I literally saw how proximate all of those Biblical locations are and realize that Jesus didn’t really travel far at all…at least by tour bus standards.
After our stop in Capernaum, we traveled along the eastern side of the Sea along the Golan Heights area. My radar dinged a bit when I heard that name, having heard it a lot on the news when I was a kid and while I didn’t know where it was, I knew it was dangerous. Today the Golan Heights is a just a quiet mountain ridge of olive trees dotted with oleanders, wild bougainvillea, and groves of banana trees. Not very scary at all these days.
At the very southern end of the Sea of Galilee we stopped at the River Jordan. Some astute and accommodating folks have turned part of the river into a baptismal. This is to allow Christians today to get baptized in the same river and in the same general area that Jesus did.
It was an interesting complex, with areas set aside for people to easily walk down cement stairs into the river. There were handrails in the river to allow people to steady themselves. A few areas had seating to allow for ceremonies. For amenities, you could rent or buy all sizes of baptism gowns and flip flops. You could also buy empty jars or jugs so you could take home some of the murky river with you. And lastly, there was a pretty extensive gift store selling all sorts of religious and secular trinkets to commemorate your visit…or not.
There was a group of maybe 20 people who were dressed in white satin gowns and were going through a ceremony that I’m sure eventually culminated in a group baptism. What I found especially moving, however, was witnessing two very quiet, very personal baptisms. One was a teen girl who was dressed in a white gown and appeared to be there only with the person baptizing her. As she rose from the river a third time, she looked visibly moved to the point that I felt it was not mine to watch so I looked away.
Another baptism seemed a bit impromptu and was done by a small family on one of the cruise tours. The father of the group said a blessing over the others in his family while they performed a ritual involving sprinkling and crossing themselves with the river’s water. I’m not sure if that was a baptism or not, but it was obviously a spiritual moment for them and beautiful to observe.
We had lunch at another kibbutz, with even better salads and wine. This one’s for you, Bonnie.
The last stop today was Nazareth. It is another very hilly city and very busy, although not as much as Jerusalem. Nazareth was where Jesus grew up so I was expecting to see something more than we did. What, I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t really say much about Jesus’s youth, so I guess expecting to see his school or where he played soccer was a bit unrealistic. What we did see, though, was the place where it is believed Mary was told (by the angel Gabriel) that she was going to give birth to, well, God in human form. Like most things in this part of the world, the spot was enshrined in a huge church and today is the largest Christian Church in the Middle East (called the Basilica of the Annunciation).
So from a Biblical standpoint, yesterday was mostly about the birth and death of Jesus and today was more about his life on earth. Although we didn’t stop, we also passed where he performed a few other miracles including passing through the town of Cana where he turned water into wine. (That would have been an especially fun stop!) And the Sea of Galilee was where he reportedly walked on water and where he preached from a boat. It was mind-blowing all day to look at this relatively quaint lake and realize that so much of Christianity was born on its shores.
One last story. And it is a personal one. I again found myself in tears today, although this time I was prepared with Kleenex. It was at our first stop, the Mount of Beatitudes. It is a small rolling hill that rolls to the water’s shore. It’s just a hill, not a mountain, not some grand location with rugged rocks or commanding views. Really not anything special in the landscape. But it was here where Jesus gave what most Christians consider to be his most notable sermon, where he tells people how to live a righteous life in accordance with God. In some ways, it is a sort of a short handbook about to “How to Live Christianly.”
So we arrive and there was a small chapel on the hill that commemorates what happened there. As we walked to it, I started feeling that feeling again, with a pounding heart and deep breaths. Before we went into the chapel, we stopped in a small shaded garden while someone read Matthew 5: 1-12…the beginning portion of the Sermon on the Mount. As the words were read, I swelled with emotion and knew the tears were coming. There was something so powerful about hearing those words, HIS words, while in the place where he spoke them. We went into the chapel and I eventually had to sit down in one of the pews. If I hadn’t been in public, I probably would have been blubbering, as the emotions were so strong. And I’m not sure I can even describe the emotions. I wasn’t sad, I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t in pain. I just needed to cry. And so I did. And that was the only time I did all day.
I am still putting all of this together, this highly emotional, tear-producing experience I am having visiting some of these holy places. I know I will eventually need to write about it. And I know that whatever I write will be highly personal. I need some more time to reflect on what this all means and whether I can share it. I am trusting that I will know what to do when the time comes.
So we have left Israel and tomorrow we will be in our last new country. We are heading southwest and are trusting the cruise line to revise our itinerary yet again if security calls for it. Yeah, we’re excited and nervous. But we survived Israel, which was a whole lot more welcoming and easy than we anticipated. Maybe tomorrow will surprise us, too? If so, please let it be in a good way!
2 comments:
YUM!!!!! Love you, too. ~ B
I'm just moved by the immenseness of it all.
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