Well, where do I begin? We left early (as usual) from our Royal Scots Hotel in Tiberias. Built in 1800s by the Scotland Anglican Church as a hospital and converted into a first class hotel in early 1900s. Did I mention that Tiberias is the third holiest city in Israel - after Jerusalem and Hebron?
First, the Sea of Galilee is not really a "sea." It's a big lake. It's 650 feet below sea level and is 120 feet deep at its deepest point. Beautiful blue water. Realizing Jesus spent much of his ministry on or near the Sea of Galilee...realizing he saw the same hills and landscape...pretty overwhelming.
As we arrived in Cana (remember, it's where Jesus performed His first miracle (our Israeli guide who is an expert on history and the Bible gave us detailed information on Jewish wedding traditions and why Jesus performed the miracle on the third day of the wedding). From Cana, you can see a hill that looks very much like a big belly button. In fact, it's Mount Tabor where Jesus was transformed in front of several disciples and where Moses and Elijah appeared.
From Cana we also saw the mountain near where Elisha raised the Shunammite woman's dead son back to life. If you don't remember the story, see 2 Kings 4.
Cana is only two miles from Nazareth, our next stop.
First, you need to know that there are two sites that compete to be known as "Mary's Annunciation. We visited both. Actually we visited three churches, one of which does NOT claim to be the site of the Annunciation. One is a Greek Orthodox Church built over what is purported to be Mary's well (where she grew up). The second is the Church of the Annunciation which is built over the ruins of the original town of Nazareth. Did you know that Nazareth's population was only 120 to 150 in Jesus' time? Really small. Anyway, the Church of the Annunciation has a Grotto that is claimed to be Mary's house and where the angel appeared to her to tell her she was to bear a child.
The third church is Christ Anglican Church Nazareth. This is where Larry Hall and I were invited by its Rector to co-celebrate Sunday's worship service. Our challenge was, the service is done half English, half Arabic. That's because the congregation is Arabic Christians. And 46 of us only speak English. Larry and I both appeared dazed and confused as he walked us through the service. OK you read the Gospel in English after I read it in Arabic. You read half the Prayers of the People in English after I read this half in Arabic. We'll stand together at the Altar - you sing the Lord's Prayer in English while I sing it in Arabic...well, you get the picture. But, guess what? It turned out beautifully. In fact, I was half choked up during the service and as they exited, about half our pilgrims had wet eyes, too. It truly was moving to hear the two congregations saying and singing the familiar liturgy in two different languages although as one family.
We also saw the synagogue where Jesus taught - or at least the site of where the original synagogue was. Remember, in an earlier post, I told you that the common phrase used here is "It is reportedly the site where..." You can imagine that, lacking photographs to document such things, there is seldom total agreement on where certain things (such as buildings) were.
I asked our guide how many days it would have taken Jesus to walk from Nazareth to Jerusalem - something Jesus did quite often. He said it's about 45 miles and would have taken Him about 4 days! plus, he said the journey was full of dangers such as bandits and natural hazards. No wimps were they!
Last on our schedule was a trip to Acre (known in Hebrew as "Akko.") and known in Jesus' time as Ptolemais. It's not known if Jesus ever visited there but the assumption is He did since it's so close to where He spent His ministry. But we do know Paul spent time there. It's on the Mediterranean and what we saw was a fortress built by the Crusaders in 1200. Huge with underground secret passageways and sophisticated latrine and waste disposal systems. In fact, Napoleon tried to capture the fortress in 1799 and failed when he got through the first protective wall but got trapped before he could get through the second wall. Fascinating tour if non-Biblical.
Again, as we traveled north of the Sea of Galilee toward the Mediterranean coast, I was reminded of how much the terrain looks just like the Hill Country of Texas. Rocky and hilly in one part and tall hills covered by green trees and vegetation in the next. But it's also clear how rugged the people of the Bible were to walk many miles each day across inhospitable terrain nd sometimes inhospitable people to get where they wanted to go. Especially our Lord and Savior who traveled throughout the region including frequent trips from the Sea of Galilee area into what is Jordan and into Jerusalem.
Get out a map or Google Israel and study the distances and the topography. It's really a beautiful country unfortunately being torn by religious strife. Christians, which in 1947 made up 27 percent of the population, now is only two percent. They're being driven out by both the Jews and the Moslems. Each blame each other. But, it's a reminder that we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We're to pray for God's chosen people. As Christians leave Israel, everyone suffers.
Tomorrow we go by boat across the Sea of Galilee. We visit the city of Capernaum where Jeus did the majority of his mighty works and healed many. It became, in a sense, His home city. We'll visit the ruins of a house purported to be Peter's and where Jesus stayed a number of times. We'll visit Bethsaida where the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes happened and where the Mount of the Beatitudes is located (of course, where Jesus taught the Beatitudes to the multitude). Last, we'll visit Caesarea Phillipi where Jesus asked His disciples "Who do the people say I am?" and Peter answered "You are the Christ. The Son of the living God."
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