Temple Beth Zion/Westminster Presbyterian Church Travel'Blog'
January 19, 2010 – Greetings from Jerusalem
(Tel Aviv, Sea of Galilee, Mount of Beatitudes, Old City Jerusalem, Masada, Yad Vashem, Ben Gurion Airport)
What a day! From a boat ride on Lake Galilee to our blessing/prayer service for peace upon Jerusalem on the summit across the hill from Mt. Moriah – the Dome of the Rock – where Abraham, the first Jew, first saw Jerusalem when he brought Isaac as God had instructed him. This was for several in our group the first time they had seen the Holy City and what a sight it was lit up at night – new Jerusalem to the north and the walled Old City to the south with the gold dome over the holy of holies of Solomon’s Temple.
If you could put more significant ancient sites in a day I’d be hard pressed to imagine how. On our boat ride we read the story of Jesus calming the storm just as white caps hit our bow and sprayed those of us not under cover; we read too the account of Jesus walking on the water when he saw that the disciples were struggling out on the lake against the wind unable to bring their boat ashore. Our group, feisty and fun, responded to possible meanings of those familiar stories.
Back on shore we traveled (ten minutes) to Capernaum (Kafer ‘village’ of Nahum – a local leader at the time). This was Jesus’ home on the Galilee where he came after his rejection in the synagogue in Nazareth. In Capernaum, he was warmly welcomed, performed great miracles and would return throughout his ministry.
From Capernaum we traveled a few minutes to the site on the western shore of the lake where Jesus’ multiplied the loaves and fishes – speculated to be the site since it was close to the best fishing spot on the lake.
Next stop – lunch in Tiberius, the ‘hub’city in the region with a large Arab population. St. Peter’s fish was to be found fresh in the restaurants and plentiful in the fish stores – one of the commercial fishes still harvested from the lake. Everyone who had it raved about them so I’ll see if I can sample St. Peter’s fish in Jerusalem. The reason for the name of the fish is a long fish story I’ll share some Sunday with the children.
On our way to Nazareth after lunch we passed through Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle. We saw his hometown from the top of the hill from which they tried to throw him after his ill-fated appearance in his hometown synagogue (Luke 4). Today Nazareth is a city of 80,000, in Jesus’ day it was a tiny, backwater village on no one’s radar – not Josephus or any records of the time. Across the valley from Mt. Precipice is Mt. Tabor – a stand alone smooth-topped mountain shrouded this day in clouds – where the Transfiguration of Jesus took place (Matthew 17).
Our last stop in the region was Megiddo – where Armageddon is to take place at the end of history. We visited the ruins of the ‘tel’ or fortress city – the site of 29 cities built on top of one another over the millennia – popular for its command of the three major trade routes of the ancient world. This was the scene of more battles than any other biblical location (see James Michener’s The Source).
At last we made our way to Jerusalem with high expectations for the week ahead. First stop tomorrow morning: the Garden of Gethsemane. See you tomorrow!