Last week I was blessed to take a trip of a lifetime to Israel with my wife. I had wanted to go for some time, but with scheduling (and budgeting) I couldn’t make it work.
Then last year I couldn’t shake the impression that God wanted me to go. I felt so strongly about it that we renewed my wife’s passport in preparation. I prayed about different trips with people I knew but none of them worked out. Then a friend reached out to me about joining a pastor’s trip to Israel. It was the perfect fit I had been praying for!
While I was in Israel and visiting the different sights I kept thinking about 4 things…
1. Real places and real people.
The culture that I pastor in is one of doubt and skepticism. While people in my community may appreciate the basic teachings of Jesus, some doubt whether the Scriptures are historical or accurate.
In Israel you can visit all of the places of the New Testament and even many of the Old Testament. You can walk along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, you can see the ruins of the Jericho walls, you can sit by the stream David did as he wrote many of his Psalms. You can be baptized in the same river that John the Baptist baptized Jesus in. You can see the hills where the shepherds kept watch over their flock by night in Bethlehem. You can walk on first century streets. You can hold an ancient coin in your hand that has Pontius Pilot’s name on it. You can touch the walls of Herod’s temple. You can see the empty tomb. You can spend a lifetime visiting and exploring all of the historic places from the Bible. I was only able to scratch the surface while I was there.
No one in Israel seems to doubt whether Jesus was a real person. No one doubts whether the stories are about real people and real places, no more than we doubt the places of our own country’s history. The very rocks testify to his existence.
The fact that we live 5,614 miles away makes it easier to think of the Bible as a book of stories. I didn’t get that impression from anyone in Israel. In fact, I saw with my own eyes the ruins of real people and real places.
While I visited these historic sites I kept thinking about something Jesus said to Doubting Thomas after Jesus invited him to examine his nail-scarred hands and pierced side… “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” (John 20:29) I saw the empty tomb with my own eyes, I walked where Jesus walked, I didn’t feel like it took a lot of faith to believe Jesus in Israel and it made me appreciate all the more the true, genuine faith of those who believe and haven’t seen with their own eyes.
2. Gratitude for the Catholic Church
Different Christians’ traditions have preserved special sites around Israel for everyone to enjoy today. If it hadn’t been for their foresight many of these places wouldn’t be there. It’s easy to forget Israel hasn’t always been a country. The territory has switched hands many times over the last 2000 years. The Catholic Church has done the lion’s share of this work of raising money to purchase the sites and funding the archeological work over the centuries.
I was grateful to have a place to pray on the Mount of Beatitudes, for the opportunity to see Peter’s Mother-in-law’s house, and to see the first century synagogue in Migdal where Jesus would have taught. Those experiences wouldn’t have been possible without the Catholic Church.
Preserving different locations started all the way back in the third century when Constantine sent his mother, Queen Helen, to establish 3 churches in Israel. One of the original churches is still standing and it’s the oldest church in the world (the Church of the Holy Nativity).
3. Worldwide love for Jesus
At each holy sight we visited I saw Christians from all over the world, and at each site they were praying and singing in their own language. At the Mount of Beatitudes we ran into Christians from Nigeria, by the Sea of Galilee Christians from Ethiopia, by the Pool of Bethesda Christians from Korea, at the church of the Nativity Christians from Greece. I heard so many different languages spoken every place we went by Christians all on the same pilgrimage.
Jesus isn’t a cultural product of the West. Jesus has billions of followers from every corner of the globe and I could clearly see it Israel. Each group was so excited to be walking where Jesus had walked. Each culture was joyfully singing songs to and about Jesus. It honestly made me excited for Heaven! We couldn’t speak each other’s language but we could recognize our common love for someone named Jesus.
4. I was never concerned for my safety
In preparation for this trip my wife and I finally did some things we knew we should have done a long time ago, but never did. Things like setting up a will, a health care proxy, a living will, and power of attorney. We put them off because honestly who wants to think about dying? But with this trip to Israel my wife insisted that we get those documents ready. Understandably so, the way Israel is often portrayed you would think you were entering a war zone. But there wasn’t a single time I was concerned for my safety.
If you ever get the chance to take a spiritual pilgrimage and see with your own eyes the backdrop to the Bible don’t hesitate. It’s a spiritual experience unlike any other. I have spent my whole life studying this country the size of New Jersey, but nothing comes close to walking in Jesus’ actual footsteps. (I’ll be leading a trip there February 2020 and I would love for you to join me!)
These four things were just my top of the mind observations about the country. I could write a book on what I took away and learned about my faith in Jesus. “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” (Matthew 28:9) I did and it was empty!
