Paul’s Fifth Day in The Holy Land
Day Five in the Holy Land. Thursday 19th February 2009
Who would have thought, that on my 26th birthday I will be celebrating it on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, in a pilgrimage trip that was gifted to me only by the grace of God through others. Today I went to some amazing places, but to be on my birthday made it that extra special. All thanks to be God!!
The Primacy of St. Peter.
The first visit of the day was to place where John chapter 21 Peter meets with Jesus and Jesus asks three times ‘do you love me’, and Peter responded ‘Yes lord, you know that I love you’. This site was where Jesus and Peter reconciled with each other and the Roman Catholic Church, with whom I am apart of, believes through faith and tradition that Peter was officially commissioned by Jesus to become the first leader (Pope) of the Church on earth after, he had left them. We had mass here and it was quite a beautiful morning. On the foreshore by the Church there is three amazing heart shapes cut from rock, which date back to the third centenary!! (Even back then they considered a heart shape to represent love!!). Sadly the water doesn’t come up to place where Jesus reconciled with Peter (where the church stands) and it about 30m away, so there has been a massive drop in the lake levels. But I cant leave this place without telling you about these little creatures that live on the lake foreshore called ‘Coneys’ they really look quite funny, like little rats crossed with stoats and maybe with a little guinea pig in there too?? For me the place was very peaceful and I was even invited to come back and volunteer by the Franciscan monk at the church, I think it’s because I liked his Spanish named cat, the name which I have forgotten. Ill be back thou.
The Town of Capernaum, Peters house.
We then visited the very old town of Capernaum, Jesus’ town of his ministry and where he based himself and Peter and most of the his disciples where discovered, the town it self was destroyed by a earth quake in the first centenary and had never been build upon ever since (it is actually a prophecy too) but yes this was where Jesus performed many miracles, preached in the amazing Jewish synagogue which still stands today. Peter’s house is still there, and the Catholic Church built a church on top of it which looks like a bit of a spaceship, but inside to get to look down into Peter’s home and were Jesus would have stayed. But I learnt a lot about this town when we visited, one key point is that this town was utterly crucial to Jesus’ ministry, as this town lived on the caravan trade road that lead to down through the Jordon valley (that road we travel up to Galilee on) to Jerusalem and then this road would also go to Egypt and then further down into the deep of the African continent. This trade route also lead up to Damascus the there you could go onto to Persia or on to Turkey and Europe. So if you would like people to know about you and the message you are preaching, for Jesus Capernaum became the place where this message could spread, and spread fast it did!! And this is why he wasn’t that keen on doing the miracle at the wedding in Cana, as Cana is very small. This was also a tax point for the Romans for all that are travelling to Jerusalem, which is why Jesus found Matthew here. The stone walls of most of the town are still present and they were very packed in with no one having housing space. Just from visiting this amazing place and having a great guide has helped a lot in my understanding of Jesus and his desire to bring the Kingdom of heaven upon earth, and why he had not much time to do the work his father wanted him to do, as it wouldn’t take long until the Jewish power players in Jerusalem heard about this Jesus of Nazareth.
The Golan Heights
Well this was the first time I have ever been in a war zone and hopefully the last… its not an active war zone but there is a huge stalemate between Israeli and Syria from the Six war where Israel took a lot of the heights and the area around the Sea of Galilee. This area does not have many people living here and it only really consists of farming, army bases and of course… land mines. I was a little bit freaked out about this place, but its ok as we where on the bus and as long as we didn’t go for a walk anywhere, I would still have my own legs. Syria really wants this area back and will only continue peace talks with Israel when this are is given back. Israel with its control over the Sea of Galilee (the only place for fresh water in the Holy Land) makes this process difficult.
Caesarea Philippi
So we come to the place of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus took his disciples on a little field trip up here, now its quite far away from Galilee but on the road to Damascus. When the geeks arrived here they found this massive cave in the wall and through it to be the gateway to the underworld, Hades itself. So a couple of temples where placed here and one at the entrance of this cave to people here worshiped the Greek god Pan, and this is where the tale of this place turns….well ‘evil’ is the word I would like to describe it. In this temple babies would be sacrificed here and then thrown into the cave, now water came out from this cave and if the blood runs out with the water, it was a bad omen, so if the blood stayed in, good omen. But sacrificing babies is anything but a pure evil, and so when we got there I was fine, but when I started to walk across the stone bridge and up to the temple and cave area, I started to feel quite heavy and sick, I couldn’t bring myself around to take any pictures in this place and upon this massive rock surface it felt like there was this massive wall, not physical but something spiritual here, so I got down from the area as soon as possible and praying a lot at the same time. But this is where it goes from darkness to LIGHT, Jesus was of course here and brought along his disciples along with him (and they would have been @&*% scared to say the least), to really truly say that what He was doing at that time and what they where to do in the future will over come this place. But for me today knowing that the Church is still fully alive and active in the world and these ‘gates of Hades’ have been broken down and destroy is a true testament to God’s promise that he wants his kingdom of Love upon this earth. What I experienced today I don’t think I will ever forget and it has strengthened my faith and the knowledge that Jesus has overcome evil for good!!
Church of the Loaves and fishes.
We head now back to the Church of the Loaves and Fishes, a church build on the spot here Jesus created a massive meal for over 10,000 people just from 5 loaves and two fish! This church is right next to the Primacy of St. Peter and is a lot older, and like many churches is build upon an even older church dating back to 300 AD and even earlier church was build below!! The mosaics on the floor are quite amazing with pictures of early symbols of the Christian faith, symbols I had not even through they would be even Christian symbols e.g. like peacock and pelican birds.
Fish and Chips for lunch.
With the day being centred upon the Sea of Galilee, we would not complete it without tasting that famous fish, St Peters fish of the Sea. Famous as it was probably fish by the fisherman disciples themselves. It goes along nicely with chips salad and of course pita bread/hummus.
We are sailing!!
The next trip was awesome, we had a half an hour sailing upon the Sea of Galilee!! Yes we all go upon a boat but I wasn’t able to walk on the water, sadly folks I didn’t try. We read from Matthew 14.22 – 33 where Jesus walks on the water and I truly tried to think of what it would have been like, but we weren’t in a storm and it would have been a smaller boat, with fish inside (or massive fishy smell!) and there boat would not have been very commercialised unlike the one we where upon. Amir our guide gets sea sick so we where left alone, the Pilgrimage team actually crazy, including myself, I don’t know what it was but its like we had heard of this Jesus walking on water for the first time or maybe there was something placed into the St Peters fish we ate earlier. They placed up the England flag on the boat, on the day I forgot to bring the New Zealand flag along with me!! Next time…
Mount of the Beatitudes.
Now this is the most beautiful, stunning, peaceful, awesome and holy place around the Sea of Galilee, there is an octave church placed on the higher part of the place where by tradition Jesus proclaimed the Beatitudes, his guidelines for living for his followers. It was at the end of the day and I could not just go back on the bus and go on the quick bus drive back down to the hotel. So myself and a small group of us walked down the mount, and yes the sun was setting and the Sea, mount and the area was still and perfect, I’m still getting goose bumps now just writing about, and that were I will stop as I cant really write about it as its perfect and that isn’t even a word that can describe this area… I really truly invited you to experience what I experienced here on the mount.
Mount of the Beatitudes Cave.
On our walk down we found a cave, could this be the place where it was preached and/or Jesus slipped away to have some quite time, the small group of us pondered on the possibilities …
The End of the Day of all my Days.
To end this day, one that was on my birthday, and one that I had never experienced before I just sat next to the Sea of Galilee reflected on the life that Jesus has given me up to now and what he really has in store for me for the future, will I walk on the water with him? I thank God for all that has been given to me and what is yet to come…may the next 26 years complete me more in Christ.
‘Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine’. Ephesians 3.20
