Feet firmly planted on the narrow road

An obvious theme for a trip to the Holy Land would be discipleship, and that theme has certainly resonated throughout our time here walking the path of the Bible and of Jesus.  Today the meaning of discipleship hit us square in the face as we spent some time on two different roads. Do you remember Jesus talking about two roads at all?  One of the roads we encountered in a place called Beth She'an.  The ruins of this large city south of the Sea of Galilee has been breath-takingly preserved.  This city was built by the Greeks and exuded a Hellenistic world view from the large theatre to the public baths.  But most striking was the road through the city. A wide road bisected the city offering to all the lures of the world. It was a wide road laid in beautiful marble stones that throughout its life many, many, no doubt walked on.  The second road, was really an ancient path through the mountains that went from Jericho to Jerusalem.

This was the same path used by Mary and Joseph heading to Bethlehem, as well as Jesus when he left Galilee and turned his face resolutely toward Jerusalem.  This was a narrow, rock covered, hot road through the mountains.  So we walked these two roads.  Jesus told us that, "wide is the road that leads to death and many are on it, but narrow is the road that leads to life and a few find it."  These two roads present a choice to all of us.  Which road will we choose to travel on?  The one Jesus calls us to - which might be a bit tough at times, but it leads to life - or the one the world is pointing us toward - which may seem fun and pleasure-filled, but leads to death?  The good news is that many of us had an opportunity to define our road for ourselves today as we stood on the banks of the river Jordan.  Many of us stepped into the living water, the flowed down from Mt Hebron, and made a bold declaration that we would come out of the waters with our feet firmly planted on the narrow road.