The Galilee Region, Day Two

Another day, another early start. Our guide Hannah loves those early mornings! Actually, it's been great because the time for supper is set by the hotel and in order to get back in time and still have a full day, we need to leave early.

We began with a devotional led by Dr. Bob Kaylor, Lead Pastor of Tri-Lakes United Methodist Church in Monument, Colorado. After a nice morning coach ride we arrived at our first pilgrimage site, Caesarea Maritima.

Caesarea was a magnificent city built by Herod the Great in the first century B.C. to honor Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor. Herod developed a safe harbor to attract ships on the Mediterranean in order to increase trade and bolster the importance of his kingdom. It is a ruined city today in the midst of a beautiful national park established to preserve this important site. Christians consider Caesarea important because Peter launched the Gentile mission here when he visited the home of the Roman Centurion, Cornelius. His whole household, or oikos, was converted and Peter experienced a kind of conversion himself as God spoke to him about extending the invitation to a life of discipleship beyond the Jewish world. Largely because of these actions, the Good News about Jesus has reached us. In the Roman theater, my daughter, Lydia, read the Biblical narrative recorded in Acts 10. I taught about the importance of reading and applying the text to our lives today, lives more focussed on the individual, and less on being an extended family on mission. Peter didn't travel alone when he went to visit Cornelius, but was accompanied by members of his oikos, his extended family on mission, and we are invited to model our lives after Peter's relational approach to life and mission. Hannah then took us to view a replica of the "Pilate Stone," an important archaeological find. It is a stone with an inscription mentioning Pontius Pilate, historically linking this site with the Biblical narrative. Bob explained that Pilate's home base was here and that he only ventured into Jerusalem during major festivals when trouble could potentially erupt. Pilate never appreciated or understood how to deal with a people who only worshipped one God.

Our journey then took us along the ancient road, the Via Maris, a major trade route linking Egypt to the northern kingdoms of Syria, Anatolia, and Western Mesopotamia. Along the way this route passes through the Jezreel Valley and travels through a narrow pass next to the ancient city of Megiddo. This is now a large hill on top of which city after city was built and destroyed and rebuilt over the millennia. As the trade route was vital, it became the focus of clash after clash between competing empires, each new victor erecting a city on top of the ruins of the last. With a history of commercial and military importance and near constant warfare over several thousand years, it's easy to see why God would use this as a metaphor for the final conflict between the armies of God and the forces of evil. The Hebrew name of this place is Har Megiddo, from which our Armageddon is derived. Megiddo, like Caesarea, is a National Park, but it has the additional distinction of World Heritage Site. We toured the ruins, seeing city gates built in succession by Bronze Age conquerors, and by Israeli Kings Solomon then Jeroboam. Here we heard a reading from the Book of Revelation and Bob shared a devotional concerning the hope we have because of Jesus and the ultimate victory of God and his purpose.

Grotto Inside the Basilica of the Annunciation

Ismael, our coach driver, then took us to Nazareth, the home place of Jesus. We visited the splendid Basilica of the Annunciation, a Roman Catholic Church built by the Franciscans in 1969 over a much more ancient site that served as a church in the Byzantine and Crusader periods. The church commemorates the announcement of the Angel Gabriel to Mary that she was to conceive and bear the Son of God. A small grotto is all that remains of what is purported to be the childhood home of Mary and the place of the blessed event. In the courtyard one of our pilgrims read Luke 2:26-38 and we prayed before entering the church where we were to remain silent.

On the Mount Precipice

After visiting the church, we moved through the crowded streets of Nazareth to the Mount Precipice, the place some believe the events of Luke 4 occurred. Jesus had been reading from Isaiah 61 and announced that this reading was fulfilled in his ministry. Bob taught about this, explaining that these are the things predicted to come true when the Kingdom of God arrives and that Jesus was making the provocative claim that the Kingdom was indeed arriving, being initiated and established in and through his ministry. That didn't go over real well and his fellow Nazarenes tried to throw him off a cliff. No one in his family seemed to have stepped in to stop the violence, but Jesus managed to miraculously escape and from there made his way to Capernaum, where he set up a new extended family on mission.

It's been a long and good day and tomorrow we will eventually make our way to Jerusalem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Linda Welch Howlett]

Through your narrative I am visiting these places again. I am so glad that Lydia is experiencing this. Loved the picture of her reading the Scripture.

[junedwight@windstream.net]

Thank you!!!