Walking where Jesus Walked

Today, we spent the day “walking where Jesus walked.”  We stayed in the area of the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee where the bulk of Jesus’ ministry occurred.  To stand on and see the actual places where Jesus spoke and walked has been the highlight of the trip so far!

Tabgha – an area right on the Sea of Galilee near the entrance of the Jordan River that could have been the site of Jesus’ miracle of multiplying the fishes and loaves to feed 5000.  To stand in one of the places where Jesus spoke and performed miracles brings the Bible to life!

Capernaum – we spent the Sabbath in the very synagogue where Jesus taught in Capernaum!  Jesus may have chosen Capernaum to announce His fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, as it is the crossroads of the 3 main travel routes through Israel.  We learned about how all Jewish children are educated through the 52 parasha (portions) of the Torah for 7 years.  To me, this was the most impactful place we went today.

We went to the Mount of Beatitudes where we spoke aloud the entire Sermon on the Mount and reflected on the significance of this place in Jesus’ ministry.

We went to a site in Magdala where they found an ancient boat that dates to the time of Jesus.  Could this have been the boat where Jesus calmed the waters or challenged Peter to walk on water himself?

We climbed Mt. Arbel to see the spot where Herod Antipas removed rebels from the cliffs, but reflected on this as also a place where Jesus may have went “away from the crowds to be alone and pray.”  From there we also saw the spot in Tiberias where we later took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.  We sang worship songs, viewed the sites we had visited during the day from a new perspective, and cut loose a little to sing and dance aboard to Hava Nagila and some other modern tunes!

Lastly, we rode back to Ein Giv kibbutz to see and sample how they used local olives in many different products besides oil.  We finished the night at the kibbutz restaurant where the specialty was Galilee tilapia – whole with head and tail!

It is hard to express how special this day has been.  The most familiar stories we know about Jesus’ ministry now have new, refreshed meaning to me and will change the way I read and hear these stories in the future.