Good Morning Ladies and Gents. It is currently Friday morning here and last night I did not have internet so I couldn't post. Here you go. Another one later tonight.
Abraham was the freaking Godfather. The Don. The Kingpin. What a wonderful way to start my morning. Beersheba is known as the city of the Patriarchs. In Genesis 22:19 Abraham settles there after the whole “sacrifice Isaac on the altar” incident. In Genesis 26:23 Isaac goes home to Beersheba after digging a couple wells and grazing his flocks in the surrounding area. In Genesis 28:10 we see Jacob leaving Beersheba. It is obvious that this was the home-base for the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It becomes the base of operations mainly because it is right along the trade routes. In the times of the Patriarchs the way to make money, if you weren’t involved in trading, was to live along trade routes and offer “services” to travelers. Services like a place to stay and eat and protection. Abraham had three hundred and eighteen trained men with him (Genesis 14:14) and along with all of their families, it made for a big group walking through. For goodness sake he was a walking city! So when travelers came through Beersheba and had to stay the night it probably went a little something like the epic scene in the Godfather where Abraham makes them an offer they can’t refuse. With three hundred and eighteen thugs I’m pretty sure you would never refuse any offer Abraham gave you, unless you wanted an accident to happen.
After seeing where the Godfather of the Old Testament and the father of my faith did business, the next place that I enjoyed thoroughly was the Wilderness of Zin. Highlighted in the Scriptures for their prominence as the place where the Israelites wandered for forty years, the Wilderness of Zin is a scary place where rain means rushing, deadly water and slippery feet proves an easy way to fall asleep (as the Bible would say). Climbing up the side of a cliff (there were steps and handrails part of the way) was stunning. Though I wish I had the skill and opportunity to scale the wall without steps it was still a beautiful sight to see and I’m glad I had a chance to see what the Israelites saw for so long after being stubborn people before God. I would not have minded if God wanted to rain down manna from Heaven as we were walking but apart from that I really enjoyed hiking up the cliff-side.
We have a chance to catch some really incredible sights on this trip and every one of them takes my breath away causing me to think about my life. Scripture says that God has, “made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before [Him]. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath (Psalm 39:5)!” Looking over a cliff into the hills of the Wilderness of Zin, watching the sun set behind the canyon, climbing up on some of the rocks around the canyon with the imminent danger of death below you, all of these things remind me how short my life can be. It reminds me how, despite my best efforts, my life is still nothing but a blip on the grid. I am humbled before God and I realize that my life is nothing unless it is focused on Him and even then I am, as Christian rapper Lecrae says, “nothing but stardust leading to the superstar.” The Gospel is a story of redemption. It is God in Christ redeeming all men to Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not just a story of Jesus dying on the cross and coming back to life three days later but a meta-narrative from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 in which God saves us from ourselves. We are nothing but vessels of glory for God and what a beautiful thing to do what we were created to do, to bring glory to God. Before Jesus we committed high treason against the King of the Universe and He had to sentence us to death because He is just. But because of Jesus the price is paid, God is just, and He is also able to be our loving Father. God pursues us relentlessly and the only way to surrender is through humility. We must stop thinking much of ourselves and make much of Him. Today was a day of breathtaking sights that broke my pride and led me to repentance before God. I’m still stubborn and I still have to be told by God and other people to shut up many times, but I’m gaining at ethic of repentance. I am learning what it means to seek God in all things at all times.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Sunsets and Giants
"Ahh! Salam and good evening to you worthy friend. Please, please come closer. [camera hits him in the face] Too close! A little too close. [camera backs up] There! Welcome to Agrabah!" ...err or Jerusalem (Aladdin anyone?). Enjoy Day 10's musings.
The sunset has always been one of my favorite things to watch and there is no better place to watch it than over a body of water. Today the Mediterranean Sea was that body of water. After the day we had it was a perfect end. I sat on some type of Roman ruin that jutted out of the rocks and watched the sun set with an orange/green/blue hue and I was overwhelmed with gratitude. But that isn’t what this trip to Israel is all about, sunsets happen everywhere.
Today we overlooked the valley where David fought for his people, his land, and most of all His God. After the Israelites complained and complained to Samuel for a king and Samuel explained to them what a king would do to them (1 Samuel 8:10-18), they still demanded a king i.e. Saul. Where was their king who stood a head above the rest (1 Samuel 9:2) when Goliath came knocking? Goliath, the Giant, should have been challenged by Israel’s “giant” Saul but he had a child go in his place. David knew how to fight for God, how to stand up to those who challenge the name of God. An interesting thing to note is that gods in that time were gods of geographical locations. Thus, the Philistine god was a god of the coastal plains and the Israelite god was one of the hills. 1 Samuel 17:43 says that Goliath “cursed David by his gods.” Goliath did not believe that David’s god could handle him in the valley near the coast. David was faithful to God, entrusting his life and the life of his family into His hands (because if the Philistines got through the valley triumphant Bethlehem would be one of their targets and that is where David’s family was). He defied Goliath showing that God is not a god confined to the hills but that surpasses mere human ideas and boundaries.
We went to a couple other places today such as Beth Shemesh and the Sorek valley. There were cities in the territory of Dan and Judah that were essential to the survival of the people of God. Beth Shemesh was set apart as a Levitical city in Joshua 21 and in 1 Samuel 6 it is the first city that the Ark of the Covenant reaches when the Philistines return it after taking it in one of their victories over the Israelites. The thing that impressed me the most about Beth Shemesh was the fact that the Ark of the Covenant was there. Unfortunately a couple people in that city died because they didn’t obey God, seventy people to be exact, but other than that a really interesting place. God’s ark was there at one point in time. Oh, and no big deal but Beth Shemesh is right by the sites of a couple Philistine cities which had land outside of them for crops through which Samson let 100 foxes run amuck in. That was a mouthful…I mean a handful? The foxes were tied together by their tails with a torch in between them, lit. In laymen’s terms Samson burnt all the crops of the Philistine cities possibly causing starvation among them if they did not figure something out quickly.
I saved one of the best views and insights in Israelite life in the territory of the tribe of Dan for last. The Sorek valley was absolutely gorgeous. It had lots of openings for caves and opportunity for vineyards on the side of the hills. The basic Israelite mentality in the tribe of Dan is as follows: a cave is three walls and a roof so if you find a cave, you find a house. We sat in one of the caves that probably served as one of those houses and I can only imagine the view these Israelites had when they stepped into their courtyard overlooking the Sorek. Anyways, as usual the views were incredible. We are sleeping in a youth hostel in Beersheba tonight and will go to the Dead Sea on Friday, which I am really looking forward to.
One of the things I’ve noticed is that I thoroughly enjoy going to the sites when we read the passages of Scripture in which they are important. Otherwise they are just another historical site to me. The Scriptures come alive as we read them in the places that they are naming. I can see the soldiers coming down and massacring the Philistines when Goliath was killed. I can see Samson letting burning foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. I can see all of this and I’m glad to have seen it. More to come in the following days ladies and gents. This is still just the beginning.
Monday, January 10, 2011
A Pit-Stop at the Well and Afternoon Dead Sea Scroll Reading. Just Another Day in Jerusalem.
“Shepherd’s Log, January 10th in the Year of our Lord 2011. Today I went down to the well of our father Jacob. Had to park my sheep outside of the Greek Orthodox Church above the well but it was worth it. I took pictures with my iPhone and those will come later but it was worth it. I can’t believe that after all these years Father Jacob’s (I use the American way of spelling it for the sake of clarity) well is still available. Though they have built a church, a beautiful one at that, over it I am still so impressed by all the history that a well can possess. I remember the stories my grandfather would tell me that his grandfather told him that his grandfather told him and on and on until some woman told him (him being my great-great-great-…..grandfather). She told him about Jesus and how He guessed her whole life’s story. It was a trick, I’m sure of it. Those Jews are always trying to take advantage of us. I stoned one yesterday. I’m pretty sure that old man won’t be coming around Samaria any time soon. Serves him right…”
Good evening from Jerusalem. I hope your day has gone/is going well and that the Gospel of our Savior has led you to repentance and joy more today than yesterday but not as much as tomorrow. Today we visited multiple memorable sites including Jacob’s well and Mount Gerizim. In the New Testament Jacob’s well is associated with the story of the Samaritan woman at the well (cf. John 4:12). I was attacked by the idea that Jesus had been there and for the rest of the morning that is all I could think about. I hung out around the well that Jesus drank at, spoke at, changed a woman’s heart at (who consequently changed an entire town’s heart) and I remembered what the Gospel was all about. Jesus saw through the woman’s make-up covering the blemishes of her life (and doing a bad job at that. She was at the well at the middle of the day for goodness sake, if that doesn’t scream outcast I don’t know what does) and after revealing who she knew she was He offered life. He reached out when He saw her heart, when He heard her say, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things (John 4:25).” He knew she was looking. Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush. “I who speak to you am he (4:26).” It doesn’t get any clearer than that.
My day did not end there. After Jacob’s well we made our way to Mount Gerizim. Deuteronomy 27:11-13 explains that half of Israel stood on Mount Gerizim to bless the people and half on Mount Ebal to warn of the curse. We stood on Mount Gerizim today and looked across a valley to Mount Ebal. The people of God stood these mountains and pronounced the blessings of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and the curses of 28:15-68. Let’s just say I was glad to stand on the mountain from which the blessings were pronounced. I’m glad God opened my eyes to His grace and I chose life.
We left Mount Gerizim and arrived at Shiloh, an archaeological and theological smash that creates black holes in universes and causes Bible majors to drool. In 1 Samuel 1-3 we find an interesting story concerning the birth of Samuel, the fall of Eli’s son’s Hophni and Phinehas, and the calling of Samuel. The Scriptures say that Samuel’s mother, Hannah, went to the temple at Shiloh (so we were standing on the ruins of where the temple, with the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of GOD was) to pray for a son. When she gave birth to Samuel she gave him to the service of the temple under Eli. Eli’s sons screwed up big time and God killed them. With all of that going on Samuel is ministering under Eli and, as 1 Samuel 3:3 says, he was sleeping in the Holy of Holies when he was called by God. So not only was Samuel born where we were standing, but it was where, at one time, the presence of God came down. I know, I know, His presence is in all of us now, but what a place to be! I was expecting scorched ground where flowers grew that sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy” on a 24-hour basis. Sadly, no flowers, but I had a wonderful opportunity to remember that the God that came down at Shiloh has pursued me, saved me, and keeps me now by His Holy Spirit. Oh, and on another note we saw a replica of the Temple in Herod’s days today which was gorgeous. Oh, oh , oh, the Dead Sea scrolls too. No big deal.
Good evening from Jerusalem. I hope your day has gone/is going well and that the Gospel of our Savior has led you to repentance and joy more today than yesterday but not as much as tomorrow. Today we visited multiple memorable sites including Jacob’s well and Mount Gerizim. In the New Testament Jacob’s well is associated with the story of the Samaritan woman at the well (cf. John 4:12). I was attacked by the idea that Jesus had been there and for the rest of the morning that is all I could think about. I hung out around the well that Jesus drank at, spoke at, changed a woman’s heart at (who consequently changed an entire town’s heart) and I remembered what the Gospel was all about. Jesus saw through the woman’s make-up covering the blemishes of her life (and doing a bad job at that. She was at the well at the middle of the day for goodness sake, if that doesn’t scream outcast I don’t know what does) and after revealing who she knew she was He offered life. He reached out when He saw her heart, when He heard her say, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things (John 4:25).” He knew she was looking. Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush. “I who speak to you am he (4:26).” It doesn’t get any clearer than that.
My day did not end there. After Jacob’s well we made our way to Mount Gerizim. Deuteronomy 27:11-13 explains that half of Israel stood on Mount Gerizim to bless the people and half on Mount Ebal to warn of the curse. We stood on Mount Gerizim today and looked across a valley to Mount Ebal. The people of God stood these mountains and pronounced the blessings of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and the curses of 28:15-68. Let’s just say I was glad to stand on the mountain from which the blessings were pronounced. I’m glad God opened my eyes to His grace and I chose life.
We left Mount Gerizim and arrived at Shiloh, an archaeological and theological smash that creates black holes in universes and causes Bible majors to drool. In 1 Samuel 1-3 we find an interesting story concerning the birth of Samuel, the fall of Eli’s son’s Hophni and Phinehas, and the calling of Samuel. The Scriptures say that Samuel’s mother, Hannah, went to the temple at Shiloh (so we were standing on the ruins of where the temple, with the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of GOD was) to pray for a son. When she gave birth to Samuel she gave him to the service of the temple under Eli. Eli’s sons screwed up big time and God killed them. With all of that going on Samuel is ministering under Eli and, as 1 Samuel 3:3 says, he was sleeping in the Holy of Holies when he was called by God. So not only was Samuel born where we were standing, but it was where, at one time, the presence of God came down. I know, I know, His presence is in all of us now, but what a place to be! I was expecting scorched ground where flowers grew that sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy” on a 24-hour basis. Sadly, no flowers, but I had a wonderful opportunity to remember that the God that came down at Shiloh has pursued me, saved me, and keeps me now by His Holy Spirit. Oh, and on another note we saw a replica of the Temple in Herod’s days today which was gorgeous. Oh, oh , oh, the Dead Sea scrolls too. No big deal.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Temptation and Compassion (Not At The Same Time Though)
Good evening from the Holy Land. It is currently 8:30 in the evening in Jerusalem and today was exhausting. We visited the sites of Old Testament and New Testament Jericho, Gezer on the coast, and the wilderness Jesus was tempted in. It rained a little but the view from the wilderness was glorious. Jericho was magnificent and Gezer had lots of ruins for a couple college guys to run around on.
I’ve seen mountains before so I wasn’t sure that I would be too impressed with hills. Yet, the moment we walked out on the hills overlooking the wilderness where Jesus was tempted all I could say was, “Wow.” The account in Matthew 4:1-11 has a very mystical feel to it. After Jesus fasted forty days the Devil comes. The first temptation is food, obviously. But then the Devil takes Him to the temple, which is not necessarily just around the corner. And then Jesus goes to a mountain overlooking the kingdoms of the world. It all has an ephemeral feeling to it, but as I stood there overlooking the wilderness I saw it. Among the Bedouin homes and flocks of sheep and goats that were out there I imagined Jesus walking among the hills. It was treacherous and it was unforgiving. He wasn’t eating anything and as my stomach growls now I remember Hebrews 4:15. He has been tempted as we are and was without sin. By the grace of God we have a High Priest who can sympathize with us!
I’ve written earlier that I’m really only impressed with the places that Jesus had been at and it held true today. We went to Jericho and though we had class in another one of Herod’s extravagant palaces all that I thought was cool was the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. A Jewish tax collector for the Romans, Zacchaeus, as Aubrey explained, was a paradox to say the least. Tax collecting worked like this: Caesar set the taxes that were to be collected and his officials collected them from officials who collected them in smaller regions who collected them from officials who collected in various towns and villages. You bought into the business of tax collecting because Rome was only interested in what they required, whatever you charged above that was yours to keep, so if you don’t mind being hated by the entire town you were collecting from you could make a lot of money. Now add a Jewish man into the mix and you produce a very lonely and wealthy man. Zacchaeus was hated by his people as a traitor and a cheat and was disregarded as a lowly Jewish man by the Romans. Jesus comes into town and sees the desperation in his eyes as he is watching in the Sycamore tree (which has delicious sycamore nuts by the way). He calls him down and goes to his house to have dinner. This so moved the heart of Zacchaeus that he repented and Jesus proclaimed salvation upon his house. I had never read that story with Zacchaeus in mind. I didn’t see what Jesus did for him in coming to his house. The compassion that Jesus had is absolutely remarkable and unfortunately I missed it until I actually sat in Jericho and imagined what was going on.
We saw a gate that Solomon built in Gezer and, like I mentioned earlier, another Herodian palace. I wonder if I’m the only one that feels like after a while it’s just a bunch of rocks. The only thing that brings the ruins we visit alive to me is when we read stories in the scriptures that connect to what we are seeing. Another highlight of seeing all those ruins is when we climb all over the ruins, including the Canaanite standing stones. I am excited about going to other places without boundary lines so that we can explore even more. I am very glad that our group is the adventurous type and that the guys are gung-ho about climbing on the ruins and exploring.
My insights today are few. The temptation as well as the compassion of Jesus stood out to me as we were engaging in our field study today. I saw my Savior agonize and I remember the agony that racks me when I am tempted. I remember the shame I feel when I give in and I am reminded of the price He endured because of my sin. I remember the place He has brought me from and the compassion He has had on me. I remember the times I feel alone and I am overwhelmed by His presence as I pray. It is in those times where I see the compassion and loving kindness of God that I cannot find the words to describe the love I have for Him. If I had a singing voice I would sing to Him, but I write much better than I sing so I’ll continue to express my devotion to Daddy by attempting to contain all that He is with inadequate words.
Friday, January 7, 2011
He didn't walk away
The road to Jericho is right there. Right there. He could have slipped away. He could have packed up and avoided it all, but He didn’t. Of all the places we went to today the Garden of Gethsemane was the only one that brought me to my knees. The Garden of Gethsemane in my mind’s eye has always been a forest-type place Jesus went to pray one night. It, like many other stories in the Gospel did not connect very well as I read. But today, I saw two things.
One, the Garden of Gethsemane is not a luxurious forest or garden with flowers that sing the praises of God as the sunlight filters through to show Jesus praying. It was an olive grove. It was amidst trees that were used by farmers to produce olives to eat and sell. It was on the Mount of Olives and as Luke 22:39 remarks, was a place Jesus visited often to pray at. It overlooks the city and reminds me of where I sit when I pray while here in Jerusalem. I can see the city and the sunrise and I am extremely humbled. I’ve been reading in First Corinthians and Paul keeps harping on this idea about the Gospel freeing you and, at the same time, calling you to give up your rights for others. Jesus gave up His rights once again, like He had been doing day by day, in the Garden of Gethsemane that night.
The second thing I saw was that the Garden of Gethsemane is surprisingly close to Jerusalem. It is also along a road known as the Ascent of Adumim which leads to the city of Jericho. Jericho is not just a city in the Old Testament that Joshua played music around and the city walls fainted from the amazing Jazz skills of the priests of Israel. Jesus went to Jericho multiple times. He healed a blind man named Bartimaeus there and also hung out with the short guy Zaccheus. Jericho is also mentioned in the parable of the Good Samaritan and the road that Jesus refers to in that story is the Ascent of Adumim. And just outside of Jerusalem, on the road to Jericho, was the Garden of Gethsemane. The agony of His death was upon Him and the way out was right there. If He left now He could slip away. He could have passed on drinking the cup of God’s wrath. But He didn’t. Jesus prayed, “not as I will, but as You will…may Your will be done (Matthew 26:39, 42).” The agony of the cross was not just that it was looming, but that it was looming and He could walk away.
Honestly, the Garden of Gethsemane caught my attention the most today. We saw the Herodium (or Herodion) south of Jerusalem in the West Bank and it was absolutely incredible. Herod the Great defeats the Parthians and then decides to erect this monstrous building upon the site of his victory. But that isn’t enough. Herod decides to cut one hill in half and place it upon the next hill to make it bigger. Water is not readily available so at great expense to himself he brings water to the fortress and stores it in huge cisterns. The banquet-hall-turned-synagogue room was also incredibly preserved. The fortress boasts an amphitheater and excavations have revealed what many believe to be Herod’s tomb. Though there is no definitive evidence because it has been smashed to pieces (not many particularly liked Herod), it is in the fortress and most of the evidence strongly supports that it is his tomb. All of that, along with the barbaric stories of Herod killing his own children and gathering all of the prominent Jewish leaders to have them executed when he died so that people would appear to be mourning his death, was great. It was remarkable. But after walking through it I didn’t take much away except that Herod was off his rocker. And that Roman architecture (because Herod liked to copy it) was gorgeous. It really doesn’t do it for me. What takes my breath away is when we visit places that Jesus stepped foot in. My roommate sometimes laughs at me because I’m going off the spiritual deep end when I talk like this but it really leaves me without words. I walked into the church right next to the Garden of Gethsemane today and I sat down with tears in my eyes and my head in my hands. I was brought low before where my Savior agonized over the toughest decision of His life here on Earth.
I’ll leave you with this thought today: all of the places Jesus was and the stories He used to teach were not crazy holy places and things in which people walked two inches above the ground when they went to the market with golden light following them (ok I may have exaggerated that a bit). But really. Jesus used what He knew and what other people knew. Teach people with things they understand. Tie theological principles to where they are at. Explain to the New Yorker how the guy the Good Samaritan helped was like a stupid guy walking around a dark alleyway in Brooklyn at night. Explain to the Cuban how telling people about Jesus is just like telling stories around the domino table. Use what they know and teach them what you know.
One, the Garden of Gethsemane is not a luxurious forest or garden with flowers that sing the praises of God as the sunlight filters through to show Jesus praying. It was an olive grove. It was amidst trees that were used by farmers to produce olives to eat and sell. It was on the Mount of Olives and as Luke 22:39 remarks, was a place Jesus visited often to pray at. It overlooks the city and reminds me of where I sit when I pray while here in Jerusalem. I can see the city and the sunrise and I am extremely humbled. I’ve been reading in First Corinthians and Paul keeps harping on this idea about the Gospel freeing you and, at the same time, calling you to give up your rights for others. Jesus gave up His rights once again, like He had been doing day by day, in the Garden of Gethsemane that night.
The second thing I saw was that the Garden of Gethsemane is surprisingly close to Jerusalem. It is also along a road known as the Ascent of Adumim which leads to the city of Jericho. Jericho is not just a city in the Old Testament that Joshua played music around and the city walls fainted from the amazing Jazz skills of the priests of Israel. Jesus went to Jericho multiple times. He healed a blind man named Bartimaeus there and also hung out with the short guy Zaccheus. Jericho is also mentioned in the parable of the Good Samaritan and the road that Jesus refers to in that story is the Ascent of Adumim. And just outside of Jerusalem, on the road to Jericho, was the Garden of Gethsemane. The agony of His death was upon Him and the way out was right there. If He left now He could slip away. He could have passed on drinking the cup of God’s wrath. But He didn’t. Jesus prayed, “not as I will, but as You will…may Your will be done (Matthew 26:39, 42).” The agony of the cross was not just that it was looming, but that it was looming and He could walk away.
Honestly, the Garden of Gethsemane caught my attention the most today. We saw the Herodium (or Herodion) south of Jerusalem in the West Bank and it was absolutely incredible. Herod the Great defeats the Parthians and then decides to erect this monstrous building upon the site of his victory. But that isn’t enough. Herod decides to cut one hill in half and place it upon the next hill to make it bigger. Water is not readily available so at great expense to himself he brings water to the fortress and stores it in huge cisterns. The banquet-hall-turned-synagogue room was also incredibly preserved. The fortress boasts an amphitheater and excavations have revealed what many believe to be Herod’s tomb. Though there is no definitive evidence because it has been smashed to pieces (not many particularly liked Herod), it is in the fortress and most of the evidence strongly supports that it is his tomb. All of that, along with the barbaric stories of Herod killing his own children and gathering all of the prominent Jewish leaders to have them executed when he died so that people would appear to be mourning his death, was great. It was remarkable. But after walking through it I didn’t take much away except that Herod was off his rocker. And that Roman architecture (because Herod liked to copy it) was gorgeous. It really doesn’t do it for me. What takes my breath away is when we visit places that Jesus stepped foot in. My roommate sometimes laughs at me because I’m going off the spiritual deep end when I talk like this but it really leaves me without words. I walked into the church right next to the Garden of Gethsemane today and I sat down with tears in my eyes and my head in my hands. I was brought low before where my Savior agonized over the toughest decision of His life here on Earth.
I’ll leave you with this thought today: all of the places Jesus was and the stories He used to teach were not crazy holy places and things in which people walked two inches above the ground when they went to the market with golden light following them (ok I may have exaggerated that a bit). But really. Jesus used what He knew and what other people knew. Teach people with things they understand. Tie theological principles to where they are at. Explain to the New Yorker how the guy the Good Samaritan helped was like a stupid guy walking around a dark alleyway in Brooklyn at night. Explain to the Cuban how telling people about Jesus is just like telling stories around the domino table. Use what they know and teach them what you know.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Imagine with me...
So I think running up the steps of the Temple Mount humming the “Rocky” theme song was not anywhere near what was going on in Jesus’ time (not so much because “Rocky” didn’t exist but because running up the steps to a holy place was probably frowned upon). As we sat on the steps of the Temple Mount I imagined the voice of Jesus carrying over the sound of all the people coming in and out. I saw Him pointing to the men carrying heavy loads and remarking what was recorded by the Biblical authors in Matthew 23:4. I watched Him turn and point to the Pharisees turning people away from entering the temple and heard Him say what Matthew recorded in Matthew 23:13. I was very taken aback when Aubrey, our tour guide/professor, explained that the Holy of Holies was sometimes referred to as Heaven because it was where Heaven touched Earth. All of a sudden the words “shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces” from verse 13 became much more concrete. Jesus could very well have played with a double meaning but He was truly an incredible teacher. He used what was around Him to teach common people and grab their attention. Aubrey explained that Rabbis tended to teach at the temple steps. They would gather a big following just because so many people were coming into the temple. Jesus knew how to speak (using memory triggers and things people understood) and where to speak. Just another reason to smile at my Savior.
I’m actually regretting not bringing a camera because all of the sights we are seeing can be used like Jesus used the things around him, as memory triggers for the people I’m speaking to. I want to be able to show them what I have in my mind’s eye when I describe what the text of the Scriptures is describing. The question I plan on wrestling with throughout this trip, the “so, what?” question was blown apart today, especially when we sat right by the pool of Bethesda.
It becomes something so much more different than ruins when I see Jesus in my imagination walking around the areas I’m walking around. I can see Him asking the man if he wanted to be healed (John 5:6). Besides becoming real to me, the stories coupled with the actual place clear up some fuzzy spots my imagination would fill in with incorrect information. Aubrey explained the background of places like the pool of Bethesda where cults believed the various pools in that area had healing powers. Roman soldiers used it many times and it is incredible that Jesus showed up and says, “You don’t need this, I can heal you.”
We had started the day sitting on the roof of what was believed to be the upper room and the room of the last supper. And after walking along the road around the temple and sitting on the steps of the temple my imagination’s thoughts came back to me when Aubrey was talking about the place where it all started, what was going through their minds? Aubrey suggested that since the disciples had the last supper in that house they went back to the same house because the family was sympathetic to Jesus and His followers. I can’t imagine how frightened they must have been. They came back, dejected and scared because they had nowhere else to go. The silence around my locker room when my high school basketball team lost a game does not compare to what must have happened in that room. The craziness that broke out when a voice breathlessly yelled that Jesus had resurrected and the wide-eyed expression of the disciples when Jesus showed up must have been spectacular. I can see why all of this matters. I can see how the Bible becomes more than just a collection of stories. The Old Testament begins to look more like a foundation than a fairy tale. Jesus is a person who made His dwelling among us (a memory trigger that John wrote in John 1:14 that the Israelites would definitely have understood because of the forty years of wandering where they made their dwellings all over the desert). The word in the Greek is literally “tabernacle among us.” John 1 is riddled with memory triggers like this and it is beautiful to see what John means throughout all of these beautiful places in Jerusalem. Today’s field study’s impressions? Imagination coupled with accurate data causes the stories of the Old Testament and the New Testament to become more than awesome, but actually breathtakingly real.
I’m actually regretting not bringing a camera because all of the sights we are seeing can be used like Jesus used the things around him, as memory triggers for the people I’m speaking to. I want to be able to show them what I have in my mind’s eye when I describe what the text of the Scriptures is describing. The question I plan on wrestling with throughout this trip, the “so, what?” question was blown apart today, especially when we sat right by the pool of Bethesda.
It becomes something so much more different than ruins when I see Jesus in my imagination walking around the areas I’m walking around. I can see Him asking the man if he wanted to be healed (John 5:6). Besides becoming real to me, the stories coupled with the actual place clear up some fuzzy spots my imagination would fill in with incorrect information. Aubrey explained the background of places like the pool of Bethesda where cults believed the various pools in that area had healing powers. Roman soldiers used it many times and it is incredible that Jesus showed up and says, “You don’t need this, I can heal you.”
We had started the day sitting on the roof of what was believed to be the upper room and the room of the last supper. And after walking along the road around the temple and sitting on the steps of the temple my imagination’s thoughts came back to me when Aubrey was talking about the place where it all started, what was going through their minds? Aubrey suggested that since the disciples had the last supper in that house they went back to the same house because the family was sympathetic to Jesus and His followers. I can’t imagine how frightened they must have been. They came back, dejected and scared because they had nowhere else to go. The silence around my locker room when my high school basketball team lost a game does not compare to what must have happened in that room. The craziness that broke out when a voice breathlessly yelled that Jesus had resurrected and the wide-eyed expression of the disciples when Jesus showed up must have been spectacular. I can see why all of this matters. I can see how the Bible becomes more than just a collection of stories. The Old Testament begins to look more like a foundation than a fairy tale. Jesus is a person who made His dwelling among us (a memory trigger that John wrote in John 1:14 that the Israelites would definitely have understood because of the forty years of wandering where they made their dwellings all over the desert). The word in the Greek is literally “tabernacle among us.” John 1 is riddled with memory triggers like this and it is beautiful to see what John means throughout all of these beautiful places in Jerusalem. Today’s field study’s impressions? Imagination coupled with accurate data causes the stories of the Old Testament and the New Testament to become more than awesome, but actually breathtakingly real.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Gospel in All These Ruins
I was absolutely sure I wanted to walk through Hezekiah’s tunnel. I was also absolutely sure that I would never forget what I would see today. For some reason going to places where people are buried doesn’t really do it for me. I don’t understand the draw of seeing bones (or more likely a box or memorial) of someone who lived a long time go and did really great things. What I am most drawn to is places that have significance for what happened there. Places like Golgotha and Hezekiah’s tunnel. My imagination runs wild and I imagine the people. I imagine who they were and what they were thinking. I try to place myself in the same situations and it is absolutely incredible how real everything becomes to me.
Yet, one of the major questions I found myself asking all of today was, so what? So what if I just saw an ancient house that was burned? So what if I just encountered what might be David’s palace? What’s the point? If it is merely to enjoy a great experience fueled by imagination I would find this trip though entertaining a bit pointless. I can get imagination-laden experiences anywhere. If I wanted to see ruins and different cultures I could go places other than Jerusalem and enjoy them more. The issue is I want to become a pastor. It was apparent to me that if I was going to be talking about all these places and people and events in the Bible I should know them as well as I can. But, I do not think that visiting ruins will help me preach well if it does not connect from my notebook to my thoughts.
As I wrestled with this question and asked Aubrey, my professor, I realized something standing on the City of David and reading the psalms inspired by it such as Psalm 121. The “hills” are not just a metaphor and “Mount Zion” is not just a name. These are real people using real places to form word pictures to talk with God. It blows my mind that in Psalm 121:1-2 it says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” And I was looking around the City of David at all of the hills, the same hills the psalmist was writing about. You look around Jerusalem and everyone around her wants to kill her. She is in the way. She is small. And God has promised to bless her? Where are you God? The Psalmist’s confidence is in Yahweh, the Creator God. All of a sudden this whole trip was centered on one thing, “How do you make the text relevant to the people reading it?” How do you convey what the writer was feeling and thinking? Aubrey mentioned this in class and I was taken aback by how obvious the statement was. The writers of the Bible were not thinking about other people when they were writing. Isaiah did not wonder what his writing would sound like to an American college student or a German theologian.
Besides looking at the context of the Scriptures and placing myself in the shoes of the writers, I answered the question of so what, like this: Each of these places and each of these stories points to the meta-narrative of Christ redeeming all things. I saw the Gospel in City of David when I imagined the psalmist’s passion when he wrote Psalm 121. I saw the Gospel in the Siloam pool when I imagined Jesus healing a man. I saw the Gospel when I imagined Jesus commenting on the eighteen who died under the tower in Siloam explaining how the world works (Luke 13:4-5). Bad things do not just happen to bad people. Bad things just happen. It is the Gospel that reconciles man to God and the Gospel that makes these places relevant to our souls. If the Gospel did not shine through these places they would be just that, places. They would be ruins that tell us about history but do not affect our history. So far, seeing Hezekiah’s tunnel, the City of David, the pool at Siloam, the ruins of the broad wall, and the burnt house, among other things have pushed me to understand the Gospel. I want to see everything through that lens. Granted I do not want to stretch what I am seeing to fit my preconceived notions, but seeing glimmers of Christ and redemption in all these things have made me smile and thank God for a salvation as great as this.
Yet, one of the major questions I found myself asking all of today was, so what? So what if I just saw an ancient house that was burned? So what if I just encountered what might be David’s palace? What’s the point? If it is merely to enjoy a great experience fueled by imagination I would find this trip though entertaining a bit pointless. I can get imagination-laden experiences anywhere. If I wanted to see ruins and different cultures I could go places other than Jerusalem and enjoy them more. The issue is I want to become a pastor. It was apparent to me that if I was going to be talking about all these places and people and events in the Bible I should know them as well as I can. But, I do not think that visiting ruins will help me preach well if it does not connect from my notebook to my thoughts.
As I wrestled with this question and asked Aubrey, my professor, I realized something standing on the City of David and reading the psalms inspired by it such as Psalm 121. The “hills” are not just a metaphor and “Mount Zion” is not just a name. These are real people using real places to form word pictures to talk with God. It blows my mind that in Psalm 121:1-2 it says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” And I was looking around the City of David at all of the hills, the same hills the psalmist was writing about. You look around Jerusalem and everyone around her wants to kill her. She is in the way. She is small. And God has promised to bless her? Where are you God? The Psalmist’s confidence is in Yahweh, the Creator God. All of a sudden this whole trip was centered on one thing, “How do you make the text relevant to the people reading it?” How do you convey what the writer was feeling and thinking? Aubrey mentioned this in class and I was taken aback by how obvious the statement was. The writers of the Bible were not thinking about other people when they were writing. Isaiah did not wonder what his writing would sound like to an American college student or a German theologian.
Besides looking at the context of the Scriptures and placing myself in the shoes of the writers, I answered the question of so what, like this: Each of these places and each of these stories points to the meta-narrative of Christ redeeming all things. I saw the Gospel in City of David when I imagined the psalmist’s passion when he wrote Psalm 121. I saw the Gospel in the Siloam pool when I imagined Jesus healing a man. I saw the Gospel when I imagined Jesus commenting on the eighteen who died under the tower in Siloam explaining how the world works (Luke 13:4-5). Bad things do not just happen to bad people. Bad things just happen. It is the Gospel that reconciles man to God and the Gospel that makes these places relevant to our souls. If the Gospel did not shine through these places they would be just that, places. They would be ruins that tell us about history but do not affect our history. So far, seeing Hezekiah’s tunnel, the City of David, the pool at Siloam, the ruins of the broad wall, and the burnt house, among other things have pushed me to understand the Gospel. I want to see everything through that lens. Granted I do not want to stretch what I am seeing to fit my preconceived notions, but seeing glimmers of Christ and redemption in all these things have made me smile and thank God for a salvation as great as this.
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