Day 04 - West Central Turkey: Laodicea, Colossae, Hierapolis

"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water".' Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." John 7:37-39

Water was THE BIG THEME of the day. It was long, 11 hours between departing from and returning to the Doga Thermal Health & Spa. Yup, sweet digs! On the go we were from 4:30 a.m. heading to hot air balloon rides followed by a visit to THREE archeological sites in “98 degrees-in-the-shade” heat. Pass the water, please. Glad to be “home” for a dip in the pool!

The Lesson? Revelation 3:14-22, the letter to the Church in Laodicea.* 

The Joy? Eve spoke this lesson from memory in what has been determined to be the Christian house church at the site of ancient Laodicea.

The Point? Laodicea had a huge problem when it came to Jesus and Jesus promised to spit them out of his mouth (Rev. 3:16b) if they didn’t listen!

Pastor Kent recalled being taught that in the Bible nothing is random. Everything is intentional. Here’s a prosperous city—banking center, known for its black wool, known for a healing eye salve. They felt quite self-sufficient, but a big challenge was water. They had no direct source. Unlike neighboring Colossae, with a spring providing fresh cold water, and Hierapolis, with springs of hot calcium-laden water,** Laodicea had to move water up to its city on a hill. This was no small feat and used the pressure of water pools to force water through pipes to a next level, then repeating this pool and pipe solution all the way up. Their city’s water was tepid by that time, lukewarm, and Jesus said that’s how they were in relationship with him—useless! 

What did Jesus want from them? Buy from him refined-by-fire gold, he said, and white garments to wear and salve for their eyes! They believed they could handle everything needed without any help, even Jesus’, and here’s intentional specific teaching to get a church that had gotten ho-hum about Jesus get back on track.

Colossae was a site barely begun (unexcavated), but there Pastor Kent brought to life the radical work of Jesus in the lives of Philemon and Onesimus, slave owner and his runaway slave. Philemon lived in Colossae and Paul sent Onesimus back with the letter we have (Philemon), in which Paul appeals for them to live into being brothers in Christ, despite their master/slave connection. 

And in our visit to Hierapolis, Pastor Kent presented a compelling argument for why John’s gospel, and only John’s, has intentionally much about the disciple Philip. We viewed Philip’s grave site over which, later, a church was built and then, later still, a martyrium was constructed nearby. With an apparent love for Philip by Christians here, John simply knew the Spirit instructed him to talk of this disciple as part of John’s own Good News about Jesus. Nothing is random in Scripture, indeed!

Paul

*Want to pronounce this city’s name as spoken in Turkey? Imagine you hear your dentist describe your cavities like this: Loud decay! Now say it quickly, adding an “ah” at the end.

You’ve got it!

**We believe these same springs provide water for our hotel’s spa. Very near Hierapolis are stunning bright-white terraces of travertine. Named “Pamukkale” or “cotton castle” in Turkish, water from the hot springs deposits calcium carbonate, which solidifies.