Today we hit the road at 7 AM for Jerusalem, which will be our home base for the rest of our trip. On the way we stopped to see three important sites associated with the life of Jesus. But first we stopped at a souvenir shop in Bethlehem that specializes in religious figures and scenes carved from olive tree wood. This shop is favored because it is owned and run by Palestinians in the West Bank who are Christian and known to be honest in their dealings with tourists.

Jesus was, of course, born in Bethlehem, his father’s hometown and hence the place he had to go to be counted by order of Caesar Augustus. That meant Joseph and pregnant Mary had to (according to Luke) travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It took us 2.5 hours by bus over some pretty hilly terrain, following the Jordan River valley, so the trip wasn’t easy on foot and donkey.

The Church of the Nativity is built on top of the cave (not a stable like we all learned about in Sunday School) and is the oldest original church in the Holy Land. Constantine the Great commissioned the church shortly after he adopted Christianity and after his mother visited the Holy Lands in 325 CE. It was burned down but rebuilt by Justinian in 529. The Persians and Muslims respected the church and didn’t destroy it as they did other churches. The crusading knights enhanced it during their stay in Jerusalem . The Armenian Apostolic, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches have all contributed and today have joint oversight of the church. Abraham, our tour guide, is a member of this the Church of the Nativity.

As with most religious sites, it cannot be said for certain that the cave beneath the Church of the Nativity is the exact cave where Jesus was born. But this site was first mentioned as the correct location in the second century, or within less than 200 years after the birth of Jesus, so it has good claim to the honor.

Second stop: the Shepard’s’ Field, the place where the Angel Gabriel visited shepherds in a nearby field to tell them, “”today in the City of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” There’s a church there, built in 1951-52 by the Franciscans. Archeological exploration found caves that could have been occupied by shepherds in the first century and on that basis the site was deemed to be where Gabriel appeared. There are other caves within a mile that are more likely candidates.

We next traveled to Bethany, a few miles from Bethlehem, where the tomb of Lazarus, according to tradition, is found. Again, there’s a church. The original Christian church as mentioned by Egeria and others in the fourth and fifth centuries. A mosque was built in the sixteenth century. The Franciscans built a Roman Catholic church in the 1950s and a Greek Orthodox put one up in  1965.

We were able to descend 24 rather steep and slippery steps to an antechamber perhaps 15×12 feet. From there one descends another step or two and navigates crouched down to the actual burial chamber, which is half the size of the antechamber. It is here that the casket would be placed.

Scholars say that this is most certainly not the original tomb where Lazarus was buried and where Jesus raised him from the dead. But it is likely that Lazarus was buried in a similar cave within a mile or so of this location.

As before, the significance of these sites is not their historical accuracy. They serve as a reminder of the events in Jesus’s life as told in the Gospels. Our guides urged us to look beyond the annoying crowds and not worry about taking pictures but rather to reflect on the meaning of the events these sites remind us of.

Equally interesting was Abraham’s description of conditions in the occupied West Bank territory. Abraham is a Christian Palestinian, resident of Bethlehem in the West Bank. He is quite critical of the government of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in several regards:

• Since the 1967 war, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights have been under the control of Israel. The Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority nominally share administrative responsibility, but Israel has the ultimate and often arbitrary say.
• The Palestinian Authority has no control of its borders. Palestinians like Abraham have passports that allow passage to only Jordan. He must apply for a visa to go elsewhere. Visas are issued by the Israeli government at their whim.
• Trade, both imports and exports, across the Occupied Territory boarders is regulated by Israel. This greatly limits Palestinians from developing export business within the Territory and limits their ability to obtain goods needed within the territory.
• Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA, charging 3% for their services. But, the Israelis retain the funds to balance Israel’s budget even though the tax revenues belong to the Palestinians.
• The Israelis exercise control over water allocated to the Territories. Israelis get a lot of water; Palestinians very little.
• Palestinian like Abraham to move from, say, Bethlehem to Ramallah or Bethany must cross several checkpoints where passage is again at the whim of Israeli boarder guards, many of whom are teenagers.
• Kubutzes and other Israeli settlements within the Occupied Territories makes a two-state solution difficult or impossible. He pointed to an upscale Jewish neighborhood near within the West Bank near Bethlehem with 45,000 residents. “It’s like two people negotiating how to divide a cake. One party starts eating the cake before negotiations begin. How can you divide a cake that’s already been eaten?”
• Israel justifies its policies to other countries, particularly the U.S., by pointing to God’s designation of Jews as the chosen peoples, giving them the promised land. They also point out the suffering of Jews in the Holocaust.

Despite the seeming hopelessness of the Palestinian position, Abraham remains hopeful. “Who would have predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall or the collapse of the Soviet Union? Anything can change in a short period of time.”

Tomorrow, we’re going to float in the Dead Sea.

Two more Jesus remembrances today: Cana and Nazareth

Cana, an hour or so from Tiberius but considerably higher in altitude and hence at least 10 degrees cooler, was the town where Jesus performed his first miracle. He and his mother were attending a wedding. On day three of the wedding celebration, Mary said to her son Jesus: “They’ve run out of wine. Do something!” Jesus said to her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:1-5). 

The structure of the sentence in English implies that Jesus is rebuking his mother. ”Woman” in this context is not used by Jesus as another way to say “Mom” but an acknowledgement that his mother was of a different class of person. His mother trusts her son’s abilities and Jesus does in fact turn water into wine. Not just any water: the water Jesus uses is water used by Jews for ceremonial cleansing of hands and eating utensils.

We went to Cana and a commercial wedding chapel there. Of course, the chapel is not the exact site of the wedding. Other towns nearby have a strong claim to being the actual spot. Those of us who are married had a chance to renew our wedding vows. As Judy said, “Making these vows after 50 years of experience gives us a much better idea of what we’re saying “yes” to than what a couple of twenty-something love-struck kids might believe.”

And of course, Cana Wedding Wine is available on just about every corner in Cana. We bought a bottle of a sweet variety that Judy is partial to.

Next stop: the hill where the townsfolk of Nazareth tried to push Jesus to his death. Jesus displeased the people of his hometown because he failed to live up to their expectations. This most likely is not the actual spot, being too far from what was then the center of Nazareth, a town of maybe 400 people then. Today it’s a large city of almost 80,000 people. The devotional message here was to stick to what you know Jesus would want you to do and to be, not what others expect and want you to be.

From the top of the hill we could see much of Nazareth spread out before us. The Basilica of the Annunciation could be seen. The Basilica is located where, tradition has it, the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary about her impending birth of Jesus.

From the same vantage point we could see the golden dome of the Makam Al-Nabi Said Mosque. Nazareth is divided into Muslim territory on one side of the hill and Jewish on the other.

The third and final stop of the day was a kibbutz halfway between Nazareth and Tiberius. We were on a tight schedule to make an appointment for a wine tasting at the kibbutz, so we did a 15-minute stop at a sandwich shop – falafel or shawarma and a drink for $15. Judy and I had the shawarma – thinly sliced chicken in a pita cone with veggies and humas inside.

The kibbutz wine tasting had no religious significance but turned out, for me, to be quite interesting. This kibbutz of 480 people produces wine from locally-grown produce – mostly fruits, honey and even chocolate – but not grapes. The fermented result is really a cordial or liqueur, very sweet, almost something that you’d want to serve over ice cream rather than drink. The one we bought was pistachio chocolate wine. We’ll probably take it home so stop by and we’ll give you a taste.

The interesting part for me was the kibbutz. A kibbutz is a commune of people who live and work together cooperatively. The motto is “each contributes according to his or her abilities, each takes according to his or her needs.”

The fellow giving the talk about his wine, a standup comedian of first rank, told us that of 480 residents of the kibbutz, 220 are members. Kids under 18 aren’t eligible. Anyone, Jew or not, can become a member of the kibbutz by living there and participating for two years. New members must be voted in by 70% of the members but few are ever denied. I got the impression that kibbutz members are older. Maybe it’s hard to keep the youngsters home these days.

This kibbutz was founded in 1946 before Israel became a nation. There are currently 270 kibbitzes in Israel and I believe it’s accurate to say that the kibbutz movement was instrumental in the founding of modern Israel. Further, controversy surrounds the 35 or so kibbitzes established in recent years in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights. Permanent Jewish settlements make resolution of territorial disputes between Palestinians and Israelis much more difficult.

We were back at the hotel before 3 PM and many of the group, including the Frosts, Yinglings and Ricks, spent time cooling off in the swimming pool and having wine and snacks. An outdoor barbeque is on the agenda for 7 PM. Tomorrow we pull up stakes – wake up at 5, breakfast at 6 and on the bus by 7 – and head for Bethlehem for the second half of our trip in and around Jerusalem.

Jesus was received poorly in his hometown of Nazareth. After the holy spirit descended on him, he returned to Nazareth, but the people there rejected him and were ready to throw him off a cliff to his death. “Truly I tell you,” he said to them,, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.”

So the remaining three years or so of his ministry and life were spent on the road preaching, with the center of his travels at Capernaum, a town on the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee.

We visited three sites not far from Capernaum and then Capernaum itself this morning:

• Mount of the Beatitudes where Jesus preached his Sermon on the Mount that contains the eight Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” and so on. Pastor Charlie recited the entire Sermon on the Mount from memory – very impressive delivery. 

Actually, the evidence is that the real site of the Sermon was further down the mountain where the remains of an early church can be seen. The Franciscan Order from Italy chose the site uphill as being more in keeping with the idea of a “mount” with picturesque views. Besides, there is no good parking spot for tour buses at the downhill church site. And believe me, there are a lot of buses to park at these sites.

• The Church of the Multiplication where tradition has it, Jesus instructed his disciples to feed the 5,000 men (and their women and children) with 5 loaves and two fishes. This church was established by the Benedictines from Germany.
• The Chapel of the Primacy, another Franciscan church, where tradition has it, Peter professed his devotion to the risen Christ three times. “Peter, do you love me?” “You know I do Lord.” “Then feed my sheep.” Peter, perhaps a bit dense, didn’t understand why the Risen Christ asked him the same question three times in a row. It was Jesus’s way of confirming that Peter had the responsibility to be the rock on which his church would be built.

These three sites were mentioned by a woman named Egaria, a traveler from Spain who wrote a 16-page letter to the girls back home detailing her travels through this region around 380 CE. She mentions three churches “built on rocks,” including the downhill church of the Sermon on the Mount.

Interestingly, the two Franciscan churches and the Benedictine church were established in 1932. Benito Mousseline donated money to the Church of the Beatitudes. Given the Holocaust that occurred ten years later, it is somehow ironic that Italians and Germans were building Christian churches in the Holy Land. Abraham, our guide, says there was no political motive behind these developments.

The final stop of the morning was at Capernaum, where yet another Franciscan church has been built over the remains of what is most probably the home of Peter. Graffiti markings in the ruins identify Peter and Jesus by name. Nearby are the remains of two temples, one dating from the fourth century AD built on top of another one dating from the first century AD and hence probably within the lifetime of Jesus. Of all the places we’ve visited, this is the one where it we can say with certainty that Jesus was actually present at THIS spot, not somewhere near this spot.

Lunch was at a restaurant that served loaves of bread with humas and a whole fish – head, tail and gills. Loaves and fishes, get it? I asked the lady what kind of fish we were being served. “Genuine Galilee Tilapia, not from Chins.” It wasn’t all that bad, but the bread was the real winner.

The restaurant offers boat rides on the Sea of Galilee so all 75 of us set off for an hour. They motored out offshore a ways and cut the motor. The boat drifted in the light breeze. Temperature, as always: 100 give or take. We sang songs and Pastor Charlie gave a message about walking on water: “keep your eyes on Jesus and you won’t sink,” as Peter learned when he tried to walk across the sea to Jesus.

Next, a short bus ride to the Yardenit Baptismal Site, a place on the Jordan River just south of its exit from the Sea of Galilee. For $15 you get a robe, see-through when wet, and a towel to dry off. We each entered the Jordan where Pastor Charlie gave almost all of us, those who chose to do so, a second baptism by total emersion. It was kind of neat for Judy and I to do it together. The water was warm but the nibbling minnows made us think we were back at Onawa.

It reminded me of the clear memory of my baptism at age 12 or so at College Baptist Church. The church had a baptismal behind the alter – probably four feet deep. Reverend Hendershot was an avid fly fisherman and wore his hip waders when he gave us our dunkings. 

This is not the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. That’s near Jericho but the Jordan at that point is murky and full of bullrushes and not a pleasant place to get wet. Yardenit is on the same Jordan River and is much more pleasant.

I didn’t take so many pictures today, thank goodness. The sites we visited were constrained and the tourists were thick as black flies at Onawa on Memorial Day. And you know what? One pile of 2,000-year-old ruins looks pretty much like all the others. It’s the story of what happened (or might have happened) that makes each place special.

Now we’re showered up and ready to go out on the town for dinner. We’ll see what that brings.

Dinner turned out to be good tour bus food: a fixed menu that featured pretty good salmon, rice and fries plus side dishes. OK, about what you’d expect. But then the restaurant turned up a song mix starting with Let’s Do the Twist and added in Abba, YMCA, Latin and a whole bunch more. We didn’t get back until 10 PM, which is pretty late considering we’re on the bus at 8 AM.

Today’s message was given by our tour guide, Abraham, while we visited Tel Dan in the northernmost region of Israel, the Golan Heights. (Take the history I’m about to impart with a large grain of salt. My memory of what Abraham said today differs considerably with what my quick on-line search revealed).

When King Solomon, son of King David, died the united kingdom of Israel was divided into a northern region of Israel, Samaria, and a southern region, Judah, which included Jerusalem. Jeroboam, the king of Samaria, feared that his people would want to travel to Jerusalem to worship, thereby threatening his rule. He built two golden calves and placed one at a temple in Bethel, at the southern border of Samaria and one at Dan, on the northern border as idols they could worship.  This violated the first commandment received by Moses. God retaliated and an external tribe (this is where I’m having historical problems) wiped out all the Samarians who had worshiped the golden calf at Dan. This was more severe than the punishment God handed out when the Babylonians took Israel into exile. At least then they were allowed to return. Jeroboam and his people were simply wiped out.

So much for the history lesson. Our guide Abraham’s message was: “What god do you worship? It’s easy to slip into the bad habit of worshiping someone or something other than the true God. Keep your eye on the ball.”

The same message arose at Caesarea Philippi (not to be confused with the Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast that we visited yesterday). Jesus brought his disciples to Caesarea Philippi shortly before his crucifixion. At the time, Caesarea Philippi was the Las Vegas of Israel. There were dozens of temples and Roman gods to worship. Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am.” Peter could have answered John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the profits. But he, for once, came up with the correct answer: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” So the message was the same: who do you worship?

Enough sermonizing. But you get the idea how this tour is tying in biblical references – both old and new – to the places we visit. The further back in time you go, the murkier the story becomes. Each site has layers of archeological digs that gives you a feel for how things might have been.

Next stop: Magdala, hometown of Mary Magdala, Jesus’s friend who was present at his crucifixion and resurrection. The town, about three miles north of Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee, was uncovered in 2009. Two temples, dating from between 50 BCE to 100 CE, have been uncovered. The largest is the only intact ruins of a Jewish temple from that period. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The Magdala temple was destroyed by the Romans about the same time but the site was abandoned so the ruins are still intact, unlike the temple in Jerusalem. Magdala is said to have been a center for processing of fish from the Sea of Galilee and evidence of structures used for that purpose can be seen.

The Catholic Church’s Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center has established a large and impressive visitors’ center at Magdala with chapels and conference facilities. Construction work began in 2009 which led to the discovery of the Magdala ruins.

Final stop: the Ancient Galilee Boat. Discovered in 1989 by amateur archeologists, the wooden boat remains date from the first century CE. Some call it the “Jesus Boat” and while it dates to the time of Jesus there is no evidence that he ever sailed in it. The State of Israel has built an impressive display of the preserved boat, complete with a 7-minute video and an elaborate gift shop.

Throughout much of the day we were traveling in the Golan Heights, an area sometimes called the thumb or finger of Israel. It is an area captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel considers this area to be of great strategic importance as a military buffer zone between itself and Syria and near-by Lebanon and as a point that controls water flows into the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. We saw evidence of Israeli and Syrian defense positions. We were about 25 miles from Damascus, Syria.

Tomorrow we visit several churches so knees and shoulders must be covered . Later we’ll sail on the Sea of Galilee, which is not, of course a sea but just a moderate-sized lake about 300 feet below sea level. At the end of  the day we’re going to be offered the chance to be baptized in the River Jordan.

Today’s devotional message at Beit Shean – this is a Christian church trip, recall – dealt with the evil the Devil can do, and in particular the feeling of inadequacy and discouragement that keeps us from doing things that would be beneficial or bring fulfillment to oneself or to others. Sometimes God gives a signal of His intent, as he did for Elijah on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18 v. 38). It’s not proper for us to ask God for a direct indication of His will but sometimes, the devotional message told us, it comes to us without asking. We drove past Mount Carmel, which prompted the pastor’s message.

I was on the horns of a dilemma. At Beit Shean we had an option for a standard guide-led exploration of the Greco/Roman/Byzantine ruins or to climb to the top of the tel to the site of a Roman temple, later a Christian temple. The problem: at 150 below sea level and a temperature of 102 the hike up the hill in blazing sun with no shade looked too dangerous to me. And I’m the guy who regularly climbs whatever cathedral tower or hill for the camera angle whenever the opportunity arises. I paid 5 Euros the other day to climb 180 stairs to the top of the cathedral in Munich.

So now my dilemma: am I saying “no” to the climb out of an abundance of caution or am I being tempted by the Devil to chicken out? But then my Fuji camera gave me the answer: “Approaching the Upper Temperature Limit of this Camera!” That’s all I needed. I’m not saying the message from Fujifilm was a message from God but if I wasn’t going to get the shot from the top of the hill, why take the chance of heat stroke?

I’ve got a ton of pictures to go through tonight, so I’ll just hit the high spots of each of the three sites we visited today.

Caesarea – a town on the Mediterranean halfway. Between Tel Aviv to the south and Haifa to the north, this was a town founded by Herod the Great. He named it Caesarea as a way of sucking up to the big guy back in Rome, Caesar Augustus, his boss. This town is important in Christian history for a number of reasons: Peter came here to perform the first baptism of a Gentile; Paul launched two of his voyages from Caesarea and later was held in prison here for two years before being sent to Rome for his trial and execution.

One of two written proofs of the existence of Pontius Pilot (of Mount Pelotus fame back in Lucerne) was found at Caesarea. He, incidentally, was a “spear man” and hence of a rank no greater than captain in the Roman army. He was a blood thirsty despot given Jerusalem to rule, which was of minor political importance.

The Muslims laid waste to the city as did the Crusaders. It’s a major archeological site and is now a Israeli national park.

Tel Megiddo – the site of 20 or more cities and civilizations built one on top of another over a period of from perhaps 5000 BCE to 350 BCE. Archeologists have dug down through the layers to identify the various civilizations. When one city failed another was eventually constructed on top of the ruins, creating a pile, or tel, that is about 21 meters (69 feet) above the surrounding land.

A particularly interesting feature is the well and access tunnel constructed to protect the city from enemy siege. We descended 187 steps down a pit in the ground with circular stairs that led to a tunnel some 100 meters in length, which in turn led to an underground spring. The town could access the water without going outside its protective walls, making it impossible for the enemy to cut off its water supply.

We could see the hilltop town of Nazareth in the distance.

Beit Shean – another tel structure, this one featuring a well preserved city constructed first by the Greeks, then the Romans and then the Byzantine Empire. It has the best Roman theater preserved in Israel (although the ones Judy and I saw across the river in Jordan a few years ago at Jerash equaled what we saw today). Beit Shean is also the spot mentioned in Revelations as Armageddon, the place where the battle between good and evil will occur at the end of time.

After all that, we drove north up the Jordan River to Tiberias where we checked in and had dinner. Today was a long day in the heat. Tomorrow we’re off to the north to the Golan Heights with the same early morning routine: breakfast at 7 and on the bus by 8 and more interesting biblical sites to explore.