Up to the Heights of Golan!

This morning was breakfast as usual at 7am, which was an awesome spread with a lot of humus! Yum! After hearing our rabbi story of the day from Libby and reciting Shema, we got on the bus to head to our first site, Gamla, located in the Golan Heights near the border of Syria.

This time our hike started from above and so we descended down to the ancient site of the zealot city of Gamla, which was a strategic city of defense in the Jewish revolt against the Romans in the first century. In the city we had the opportunity to sit in a first-century synagogue, one that Jesus very likely would have taught in during his ministry in the region! There in the synagogue we talked about the zealots who had lived in the city and how their battle cry was Hosanna and their symbol was the palm branch. They held Torah in one hand and a sword in the other, and yet Jesus’ walk was different. His kingdom was not one to come by force but rather through weakness and the cross.

Tim Gombis shared the visual that the Roman crosses were like billboards to the world, which read that Rome was in charge and this is what happens to those who oppose. In contrast, our billboards as Christians ought to be ones of weakness, just as Paul boasted in his weakness and not his accomplishments so that the power of Christ might be made manifest. We had to ask ourselves, what kind of billboards are we to the world?

Rod also reminded us that every time we try to hide our weaknesses from each other we rob the community of the joy of serving one another. It’s so true, and community has been huge on this trip as we follow our rabbi through some harsh terrain and in some hot temperatures.

Our next site visit was Tel Dan, the old stomping grounds of one of my future professors at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, Dr. Greer. He’s a leading expert on the site where a couple great archeological finds have been uncovered. One of those is the near replica of the temple where YaHWeH was worshipped in the Northern kingdom. Everything was done according to Levitical law and the temple even faced Jerusalem. However, there was just a small tweak…see 1 Kings 12. We had to ask ourselves, what are we tweaking in our own walks with Christ, which is just a little tweak to us but a huge deal to God? The other find was a 4,000 year old mud-brick Cannanite gate that Abraham 98% likely passed through in his search for Lot. It is a world heritage site, meaning that the site is important enough that the UN has declared it off limits during times of war.

At Caesarea Philippi, we saw where horrible worship practices were performed to honor the gods Pan and Apollos.  While their way of living seems unmentionable and appalling, it is humbling to know that Jesus came to this place of pandemonium to offer new life to those living in darkness. See Matthew 16:13-28. It is very interesting to note the name Jesus uses for “Simon son of Jonah” in this place of great immorality, remembering Jonah’s call to Ninevah to preach repentance.

Our final stop was at ancient Susita, one of the 10 cities that Alexander the Great founded in a region which became known as the Decapolis.  We walked down the ancient road, smooth and strait; we saw the columns which would have lined the main street, the drainage ditch, aqueduct, and fountain. There, looking over the Sea of Galilee, we read afresh the story of Jesus taking his disciples in a boat to this other side, the pagan side, the Decapolis side of the lake. Rod taught us how the finger of God, representative of the power of God, is able to transform the Geroshim, or expelled ones. See Mark 5. That once-demon-possessed man became Jesus’ first missionary and told everyone in the Decapolis how Jesus had changed his life. We each picked up a rock and made a community standing stone, praying for people dear to us that the finger of God would touch their hearts. It was another beautiful moment as a community in this land of the biblical world.

Patrick + Jenny