The kind of life they would have lived

What a day we had today! We were told that our new guide, Yehuda, would keep us moving, and he delivered beyond our expectations. We began our day exploring the ruins of the mighty mountain-top fortress of Masada. I was awestruck at the ingenuity of the architects of that fortress, and unsurprised that it took the Romans more than two years to capture it during the final days of the Jewish revolt. If anything, I’m amazed that they were able to take the fortress at all! I dare say Masada will sit in the back of my mind the next time I sing Martin Luther’s hymn.

From there, we took a short hike to the spring of En-Gedi. After growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan, I admittedly wasn’t particularly impressed by the little pool and small waterfall (from what I hear, there was a lot more to the spring that we didn’t see), but Dr. Greer impressed on me the power of the “living water” referred to so often in scripture. He told us about the cisterns which collected water once per year at Masada (they only collect when it rains), and how that water quickly grew stagnant. Imagine how a flowing stream would look after drinking stagnant water for months!

Our next stop took us to Qumran. It was incredible to see firsthand the location where the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and to learn about the community who lived there. The community were a part of a group called the Essenes, and this particular group sought to make God act in a big way by separating from the world and living a life very much like a monastic life (although it seems likely that they brought their families to live with them, based on some of the rules archaeologists have found at the site). Dr. Greer engaged us with a brief sermon about some of the other ways people in Jesus’ day tried to make God act and called us to ask ourselves how we tend to do the same, which gave me a lot to think about (unfortunately I don’t have space here to unpack that).

We moved on from there to enjoy a brief lunch at the traditional site where Jesus was supposed to have been baptized. Yehuda informed us that this is almost certainly not where Jesus was actually baptized, as the Jordan has moved about 7/10 of a mile away from where it flowed 2,000 years ago. He kindly did not share this with the pilgrims who were being baptized at the site – or that a lot of sewage is dumped in that section of the river.

After this (like I said, Yehuda keeps us moving), we spent a good deal of time at Beth Shan. This site was incredible. It is a very well-preserved Roman-era city that gives a great deal of insight into the kind of life that Jesus’ early disciples would have lived in, and the kind of temptations that they would have faced when called to follow him. The Romans may not have had TV and smartphones, but they did not lack for luxury.

It’s getting rather cold here at my perch on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and I’ve been running a bit long, so I’m going to wrap this up. It’s been an incredible journey thus far, and I’m glad that I’m able to take you along for just a little bit of it through this post.

Dylan Kern