A few years ago, I had the immense privilege of traveling to Israel with a study group, and touring to see many of the sites that I had read about, but had only seen in my imagination. To see each place in panoramic vision, and to realize that these were real, true places, brought such appreciation and insight, that I just had to write down some of my thoughts. I share them here.
REFLECTIONS ON NAZARETH
Nazareth may have been an unimpressive little place--an unwalled village of maybe 200 people.
But it was a great location for growing up. The town was about the size of my home church as I was growing up. Jesus and His family lived there for about 25 years, and the culture was not as transient as ours, so pretty much the whole town knew young Jesus, Mary's son. His teachers, His mentors, His family, His friends and peers, they all lived right here.
As I say, the location couldn't be beat. Just on the edge of town is a cliff overlooking the Jezreel Valley. As long as you didn’t play soccer too close to the edge, it provides a magnificent view, with a sharp dropoff. Of course, as a boy, I’m sure Jesus was always careful about his soccer ball—not like his little brother James. I imagine that young Jesus was taken there often by His Sabbath School teacher. From that spot, He could see the entire history of the saints of old unfold before Him.
On this ridge, we are facing south. Off to the left is the Jordan River, and to the right is the Mediterranean Sea.
You can practically see both bodies of water from here, the whole land is so compact and rich with the history of the saints and sinners of the ages.
Just off to the left, hiding the river, is Mt. Tabor. It is a very noticeable mound over the valley. Jesus would be Transfigured there, and the disciples would see the Kingdom come with power. Just beyond the hills behind Nazareth is Cana, and then Galilee, where Jesus would spend much of His ministry. Straight ahead and over the mountain range is Jerusalem by about 60 miles, where He would finish it all.
Swinging around just a bit is the place where Deborah rallied the people of Israel to great victory, and straight ahead is the battlefield where Saul and the Israelites were defeated and Saul and Jonathan were killed.
Slightly to the left is also Mt. Gilboa. At its foot Gideon had the men drink from the stream, and God delivered Israel right out here with only 300 brave men. It is also the area where Jezebel died in Jezreel.
Mt. Carmel is over there to the right, where Elijah bravely and miraculously withstood her prophets.
Across the valley, just over the hill is the town where Elijah brought a young man back to life. In this side of the hill is the town of Nain, where Jesus would likewise bring a young man back to life.
Megiddo is off to the right of Nain, just a bit. It has always been a crucial city, constantly fought over. Armageddon will be the final scene of a showdown between the nations and the Lord, and the armies will fill this huge valley. The Lord Almighty will win.
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold. Stories like that make a man walk straight.
Oh, and this cliff? In Luke 4, we are told that Jesus began His public ministry and all the people of Nazareth spoke well of Him. He had just turned 30, and I imagine this was to be Jesus' first sermon in the synagogue of His hometown. The entire town was there, smiling and proud of their miraculous and well-mannered (if a bit peculiar) homey. Every eye is on Him. He reads from Isaiah and says that it is fulfilled this day! Such gracious words! We are so pleased!
Then the message of Jesus takes a turn, as Jesus quotes two Old Testament stories of how God chose to bless Gentiles. There was the widow in Elijah's time, and Naaman the leper. Was Jesus saying that God chooses Gentiles? They are suddenly infuriated. He is not our little boy-turned-prophet, but a terrible heretic, worthy of death. As one, they grab Jesus and rush Him to, you guessed it, the cliff.
There, they surround the young man Jesus. His back is to the edge of the cliff as He gazes at his mentors, his teachers, his family and his friends. They look at Him, and then beyond Him to the valley of history. In my mind's eye, the crowd is awed to silence by this scene. Somehow, they cannot move to act on murdering this One who quotes stories they had told Him, even though they don't understand.
Later, when a woman is caught in adultery, Jesus would have a similar showdown with the religious leaders. One by one, they are silenced by his silence, and, while there is not repentance or resolution, at least there is a stalemate. Jesus slips through the crowd and left them.
Nazareth had been a great place to grow up. But the Prophet much eventually move on to Jerusalem to die. It’s right behind him, straight ahead about 60 miles.
REFLECTIONS ON JERUSALEM
Jerusalem is a microcosm of the ironic world that Jesus came to save.
Jesus came to save worldly hawkers in a dirty, narrow city, selling baubles and trinkets to spiritual pilgrims-turned-souvenier shoppers, all hardened to the historical holiness of their surroundings.
Jesus came to save people with a prevailing spirit of religion (however well-intentioned) that all but cancels out the simple grace of God by its elaborate embellishments to straightforward truths. In an effort to make a holy spot seem somehow more profound, it becomes obscurred under layers of ritual, tradition and decoration.
But here is truth: This is the very world that Jesus entered, knowing full well what damage they would do to Him and to His message. And He came anyway. And still does.
He came to an elaborate temple, with decorations, drama and festooning that had nearly obscured the sacrifice that rolled back sin.
He came to the religious leaders, who loved their dress and their positions. They were proud of all they had done for God, of their religious spirit, and of themselves (not necessarily in that order).
He came to those selling their wares and making their money in that Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, hardened to the holiness of their surroundings.
I knelt in the midst of the organized rubble, and kept asking, "What have we done to You, Jesus? Father, forgive us, for we know not what we do."
And yet,
With all of the speculating and profit-taking, the truth remains that Jesus really was here.
Right here. Born, lived, suffered, died, rose, and ascended, right here in these streets.
It's a powerful experience I want my postmodern friends to have—
Jesus is not just a Good Story, but God in the flesh—
Emmanuel, God With Us.
And He still is today.
REFLECTIONS ON BETHESDA
"Do you want to get well?" He asks. "If so, then be well. Act on it. Take up that palet and go home."
Peter sees Jesus from the boat. "Invite me to join You," Pete asks. "Come," the Lord invites. "Step out and walk. You can, you know."
Jesus takes two loaves and five fish. He sees 5000 men. And in faith, our Lord gives thanks and begins to distribute the food.
The principle is ripe for the plucking:
No, you don't know how to.
No, you never have before.
Yes, it makes no sense. But God has whispered something to you, hasn't He? Act on it.
I'm not describing a mail-order, name-it-and-claim-it religion. But I'm describing what Jesus did.
Some call it faith.
REFLECTIONS ON GALILEE
He went on foot or by boat wherever He went, so it makes sense that He didn't travel far.
Yet, the region seems more like a neighborhood, by our standards. Like the Greater Cincinnati area. Even the big trips to Jerusalem were more like travelling from Mason to Dry Ridge, or the Ohio River to Dayton.
So how did this itinerate Preacher make such an impact in such a small, insignificant corner of the world?
He did it by turning religion on its head.
He did it by living His message.
He did it by fully equipping a few men to keep it going.
He did it by the signs and wonders He performed, right here, signs that still bring pilgrims here to wonder at their Creator. You can stand in Capernaum, or go out to the middle of Lake Galilee and see it all.
He really healed a paralytic right over there at Peter's home.
He really walked on water, right there, and had Peter join Him.
He really taught from, slept in, and calmed the storm from that boat, right over there.
He really healed this demoniac from Gadarene, and the pigs died right over there.
Too many witnesses, too fickle a crowd, peace-loving disciples who changed the world, not through aggression, but through faith working itself out in love.
In this region, there are grim reminders everywhere you look that this area is a hotbed of violence. Matters are settled by intimidation and outsmarting the wiles of your enemy. Jesus is as stark a contrast to that way of achieving peace as can be imagined:
He let Himself be wronged, let Himself be cheated, didn't even try to rescue Himself or cast blame. He showed mercy to the fallen (Remember Mary, from Magdala? That's just right over here, the next town around the lake. Seven demons!), and the only ones He criticized were the religious leaders, whom He called hypocrites.
But then, considering where He lived and what He taught, it's easier to see the contrast with their pompous behavior. They were so removed from (above?) the common folk that their hypocrisy was easy to see, once it was pointed out.
Then there are these wind-and waves, storm-and-peace, shining-robe, walk-on-water miracles that only the disciples saw. That was a part of their training, too, I suppose, to believe in what seems impossible.
REFLECTIONS ON ISRAEL
Dare I pray it, God? Let me see Israel as You see them. What is Your heart concerning Israel?
Oh! No! I see but a glimpse and it is too much! Much too beautiful! Far too painful! I weep. Is this what You see?
Let me see no more. No, yet I want to see it. Beautiful. Painful. The Bride of Christ. Your love for her. Your chosen people. Their rejection. Your rejection. Your love. Your broken heart.
The songwriter says that Your tears grow into the hands that serve the outcasts. As I join You in Your broken heart, what will spring from my own tears?
I pray for the Kingdom! I pray for the Arabs, (more than a third of the population, but less than 2% are Christians). I pray for righteousness and justice to flow down like rivers in this place, or for God to discipline the very-secular state of Israel (most here are atheists). I pray for the believers to flourish. I pray for peace. I pray for repentance. I pray for the message of Jesus to go out to all (not just to Israelites). I pray for the Armenians. I pray for the Bedouins. I pray for the Arabs. And I pray for the Jews. Above all, I pray for You to do Your will, whatever that looks like, as You wish.
Secular Israel needs us to pray that they will see the end of their headlong pursuit of financial prosperity and their obsession with military security. Lord, may they see that the so-called freedom they see embodied in America is only a ruse, and that they are in to their flesh: modern art, immoral lifestyle, diamonds and guns. Let them find the Prince of Peace and the Spirit of Holiness.
Religious Israel needs us to pray that they will see the futility of trying to please a holy God through keeping the Law. They love the written law, which is good, but they have not yet seen that the Scriptures are what speak of Jesus! Prayers have substituted for the sacrifices, but without the shedding of there is no forgiveness. They need atonement, Lord, and they need You to take the load of their sin problem. Their Messiah came to deal with sin and guilt, but they have looked for political deliverance for all these years. Deliver them, Jesus!
Oh, Jerusalem
Hear Yeshua cry over you again
May the Glory fall on you like rain
Jerusalem
Oh, Jerusalem
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
Pray that love and justice reign in her
That God will heal the divisions of men
And gather all His children to her
City of God that bears the Sacred Name
The Prince of Peace, your King of Glory came
You stoned the prophets, your Messiah died alone
And now your wounded history lies within these stones
You have fallen for my good
As God said you would
Yet rising from the dust
Springs a covenant of love!
REFLECTIONS ON BETHLEHEM
In Galatians 4:4, the Bible says "In the fulness of time, God sent forth His Son . . .."
I remember learning in seminary from Lewis Foster that there are two Greek words for time: Chairos and Chronos. Chairos means a moment of opportunity. Chronos means a set point on a calendar or watch. He said the word used here is Chronos. In other words, God had set a time in place, and He sent Jesus when the time was right. The circumstances were also right, but they were not a happenstance opportune moment, but were aligned with the time set by the Sovereign One from the foundation of the world.
And so, Adam was created, Noah survived the Flood, Abraham was called out, Jacob had twelve sons, Moses led them back from Egypt and gave them the Law, David and Solomon built a great kingdom and Temple, Assyria destroyed ten of the tribes and turned back, Babylon conquered all of Assyria plus took the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem into captivity, Persia conquered Babylon, and Cyrus sent the captives back to rebuild the Temple and repopulate the land, Greece Hellenized the entire Western world and gave them a common language to propagate the Gospel, Rome conquered Greece and ushered in the Pax Romana, the Maccabeans revolted but never shook free, Herod rebuilt the Temple and claimed to be the king. And then, and only then, was it the fullness of time.
Jesus, You chose to come to earth. Such a planet of unworthy idolators! Why us?
Jesus, You chose to come as a Jew. None of them were, or are, saints, You know. Why them
Jesus, You chose to come to Bethlehem. Not a prominent town by any stretch. Why there?
Jesus, You chose to come in the fullness of time. Stars and planets aligned to provide a sign; Greeks, then Romans, united the world; the Temple, the priesthood, the Forerunner John, the census, the slaughter, the king, the empire, the Law, the language, it all aligned in the perfect time and place.
I don't know why You have chosen this planet, these people, this land, at this time. But in the fullness of my own time, I have also been born and was introduced to You. We were meant for each other, You and me, but I'll never know why.
Such a small place. Such an unimpressive entrance.
But then again, that's how You entered me, too. Thank You that You came at just the right time.