Jesus the Builder

Shalom friends and family from the shore of the Galilee. Today our fearless leader/tour guide Ronan took us to Golan heights to immerse us into the first century culture and then later on to learn about some modern Israeli history and current Israeli concerns.

We started our day in town called "Qasrin". Is Qasrin a biblical town? No, but it is a town that very much resembles the what the first century life would be like! We were greeted and welcomed into the town by Rabbi Baboo, who gave us some appropriate garments to be wearing in a first century village. We made our way through the village and experienced what it would be like in a Bet Ahbahd (house of the the pole or an olive pressing room), we got to make some of our own pita Bread, and we learned lessons from a rebuilt first century stone house. In Greek someone who builds a house is called a tekton and someone who builds many house is an archetekton. This was then translated into Hebrew and then into English and we get the misnomer of carpenter. Hmmm, our good friend Jesus was a carpenter. Interesting! We got to play around with the idea of Jesus as a house builder and all of a sudden some of Jesus's analogies of houses with many rooms started to come to life. This is just one example of some things that we are getting to see here and experience here that shed some light on how earthy and relevant Jesus's teachings were. In a big way this has re-stirred up, in my mind, the question of who was/is this Jesus guy. Every place that we visit and experience where Jesus walked and lived brings out new understanding and new questions of Jesus' ministry in the land of Israel.

Another place which we had the opportunity to visit was Caesarea Philippi. Our good friend David finished teaching on the narrative within the Gospel of Mark exploring the life and ministry of Jesus. In the iconic place where Jesus asked his disciples, "who do you say I am", David challenged all of us with the way that we view Jesus. Is Jesus the king that we allow and fit into our life or is Jesus the Messiah, the savior, to whom we surrender everything to his will. David brought questions forth in a beautiful way, and its impact was compounded sitting in the place that Jesus originally asked the disciples to ponder his identity. I again found myself with a new appreciation and a revitalized curiosity into the question of who is Jesus.

Taking a step away from the ancient history of Israel we entered the modern world of the land on top of a mountain overlooking the Syrian border. Ronan took us down into an Israeli bunker to give us some insight into the conflict between Israel and Syria. He shared with us the history of the Golan Heights and the strategic importance of Israel's control over it. Then Ronan put the politics aside and shared with us his heart on the issues happening in Syria. He told us that even though the civil war happening in Syria is keeping their focus off of Israel he wants nothing more than it to stop. We are all human beings and the political issues do not make up for the fact that there are great numbers of people dying in the civil war just outside the border. We need to keep Syria in our prayers as there is a lot of injustice happening and we cannot sit and ignore it.

The final site that we visited today was Tel Dan.
Dan is the land of the Danite people, however that land was not ever supposed to be in the area of the Golan heights where we were. But through a series of compromises, the Danite people ended up in a comfy little spot where little did they know every invading nation headed for Israel would rip right through on their way to the mainland. We enjoyed a message given by our friend Randy while sitting in front of the City Gates which are the oldest gates found in Israel. About a quarter of the way through Randy's message an Israeli woman joined in to hear what he had to say and at the end she stood up and thanked Randy for the wonderful things he had to say about Israel. She was overjoyed to see such unity between Christian and Jewish people and she thanked all of us for coming to Israel. It was such a testimony to hear the joy that she received from a message pertaining to Jesus even though she is a proclaimed follower of the Jewish faith. Hearing her was quite the way to end the day.

Today was another amazing day in Israel. The land really does bring up just as many questions as it answers in the best way possible. Every minute here there is an opportunity to grow closer to the text and gain a new desire to read and learn from it. I am so thankful for this amazing experience.

Hazak hazak,
Christian Fern