Israel in Eight Days - Part 1

It is 9:45am and we are at the Frankfurt airport, sitting on the Lufthansa connecting flight from Tel Aviv to Barcelona. We passed through security at 9:00pm in Tel Aviv with the majority of our group flying back to San Diego through San Francisco. Their flight was at 12:30am, and our flight left at 4:50am. We slept on the floor of the terminal, using our backpacks and jackets for pillows. We fell asleep exhausted and grateful for eight days leading our group of 34 through Israel. We landed in Frankfurt and grabbed a bratwurst and beer for breakfast.

We’ve just spent the last eight days touring Israel. We woke up at 6:00 every morning and walked five or six miles through ancient sites. So much time walking and talking, making new friendships and deepening old ones, sharing meals together and asking questions about what we were experiencing.

One day we began at the Church of the Beatitudes, eight walls for each of the blessings of the beatitudes. We read the first part of Matthew 5 three times, looking for a word or phrase God might have for each one of us. “Peacemakers” stood out to me. Thinking about the conflicts in Israel, Syria and around the world, we would do well to seek and make peace in our families and communities.

We continued an hour north to the foot of Mount Hermon, where Jesus asked his disciples “Who do you say that I am?” Caesarea Philippi is a dramatic place—formerly a place of human sacrifice, home of Pan, Zeus and Jupiter, and temples built into the cliff. It’s the headwaters of one of three streams that converge to form the Jordan River. Jesus was affirming his identity in the face of all other deities, and turning the disciples’ view of life upside down. Jesus is the living water that flows into and out of our lives like the Jordan flows into and out of the Sea of Galilee.

After we walked the Tel Dan trail overlooking the quiet, pastoral border of Lebanon and Syria, our guide took us up to the Golan Heights. Overlooking the United Nations compound in the middle of vineyards on the Syrian border, he told of the battles fought here. When he says “we” he means “me and those in my tank unit I commanded” or “the army I served in to protect the nation of Israel.”

“Blessed are the peacemakers…”

Coming down from the border of Syria, we stopped at Kursi, the place where Jesus healed the man possessed by Legion and cast the demons into the pigs. As we climbed up to the spot, we were met with wind, thunder, lightning and brown “dirty” clouds picking up dust and sand. We looked out on the lake where we had spent a calm beautiful morning just the day before, and saw the Sea of Galilee storm in action. In the story of Legion, the disciples had just crossed over with Jesus in a storm. After he calmed it, they said, “Who is this that even the waves and the wind obey him?” Jesus calmed two storms that day, and we were amazed with the timing of our visit.

“Blessed are the peacemakers…”

Turns out it was one of the worst storms in history, hailing in Tel Aviv and washing away a road in the Negev that killed nine young adults on a trip before their military service. But the rain paused long enough for us to celebrate our baptisms on the Jordan River. Amazing what scripture in a particular space does for our understanding. Calming storms, the waters of baptism flowing from Mount Hermon, renewing marriage vows in Cana, listening for God’s blessings that would make us the light of the world and salt of the earth.

The rain continued on top of Megiddo, the ancient tell with more than twenty layers of civilization, including Solomon’s stables. As we were overlooking the Valley of Armageddon, the rain began to pour and we ran to the underground cistern and tunnel. We sang Great is Thy Faithfulness on the stairs leading 150 feet down.

Ironically the story of Jesus is not well known here. Only 1.5% of the population is Christian. Sean and Jessica moved from Sacramento to this area to tell the story of Jesus in Nazareth and all over Israel. Sean shared with us on Mount Precipice, the place commemorating the time when Jesus was about to be forced off the cliff before slipping away through the crowd. He had just read the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue and declared that this passage was being fulfilled in him. His hometown crowd went from praising him to cursing him because his message was proclaiming freedom and blessing for God’s people, but also the Gentiles. Now the Gentile couple from Sacramento is sharing the good news in the town where Jesus grew up.

The rain continued on our drive to Jerusalem, and by the time we approached our hotel, the roads were like rivers. Jerusalem, the rain is epic, biblical, awesome. Unfortunately the news of conflict and controversy is louder than reality. I love walking from our hotel to the Jaffa Gate with first timers. It’s a safe, beautiful city with stunning views of ancient walls and sites.

Early one morning we walked down the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane, across the Kidron Valley and through the Sheep’s Gate to Bethesda, and to St. Anne’s Church where groups wait in line to sing in this church with perfect acoustics. We sang the Doxology.

Bethlehem was particularly special. We went to the Shepherd’s field and sang O Come All Ye

Faithful and descended to the cave where Jesus was born. We also went to Bethlehem Bible College to hear a short lecture on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian Christian woman who teaches the New Testament. Grace and her husband Michael then hosted us for lunch at their church. Her father, Issa, is a pastor and her mother, Diana, roasts a mean chicken. They live in a modest community in Bethlehem. Their amazing hospitality humbled us. The Christians in the Palestinian Territories are being squeezed out between the Israeli limitations for work and travel and their own government that won’t pursue peace with Israel. It’s complicated, and there may not be any political solutions in the near future. But these are real people, brothers and sisters in Christ who are trying their best to love and bring hope in their communities through their faith in Jesus.

***Continued in Part 2***