Let's jump back to Sunday (6/7) and our trip up here:
Today dawned especially early for our 7am bus ride up to the north for our 4 day Galilee and Golan Heights study trip. The general mood I think is that we've only just started recovering from our previous 3-day trip down to the furnaces of the southern wildernesses, so we'd like some more time to recuperate and process what we're learning. BUT there's just so much to do and see in this rich land, and trying to do enough in just 3 weeks to really start to _understand_ this land instead of being a religious tourist requires a schedule that is more demanding than that of a regular tourist. And besides, we're Wheaties! So we soldier on. :-)
As we headed out of the Judean hill country toward the coastal plain, we could see the marked differences in landscape as we went. We finally emerged onto the coast at the very famous and important site of Caesarea Maritima. I was particularly excited to visit it, since this is the first place we've gone to that is a fully Greco-Roman city! It was built up by Herod the (sort of) Great, and it soon became the provincial capital from which Rome exerted its might over the land. We sat down right on some ruins overlooking the water and heard from Dr. Wright that the building we were sitting in was in all likelihood the very place Paul was held while awaiting his trip to Rome. What a classroom! Maybe we'll call it "Wheaton East"?
We were given a chance to explore the massive site for a bit (oh, but not nearly long enough for a Classicist like myself!), and most of the students enjoyed splashing around in the nearby remains of Herod's seaside palace before heading off to the other sights of the city--such as the massive Hippodrome!
This arena for chariot races and other large community spectacles sat right on the seashore (just off pic to the left) and would have been a great place to take in an exciting race! Next we headed a little ways north to the wonderfully preserved remains of an ancient Roman aquaduct that brought fresh water to the city from distant highlands to the north. Aquaducts are just plain cool -- especially ones that are beachfront property!
The technology is simply amazing to think about, that they could build artificial highways and underground canals to funnel fresh water from springs and mountain streams upwards of 60+ miles so that city dwellers could have water for drinking and bathing. For a bumpkin from the hills--where water is always hard to come by--coming for the first time to a place like Caesarea, the realization that Rome had such power to create rivers of stone out of thin air must have blown them away.
As we headed north after that, we slowly made our way up into the Mt. Carmel range. But lo and behold! Right off the highway we were driving we suddenly came across a genuine 1st-century hill-cut tomb, complete with the original round stone that would have been rolled in front of the opening! When they built the modern highway, they uncovered it and now it's just here by the side of the road with no fanfare at all. To quote one of Dr. Wright's favorite phrases: "Can you believe it guys?"
We eventually came to a ridge of Mt. Carmel where an aptly-named Carmelite order Monastery (Catholic) looks out over the expansive plains of the Jezreel Valley. We found seats for ourselves on the rocky hillside hundreds of feet above the plain and looked for the first time out towards so many places of Biblical significance: Mt. Tabor, where King Saul is said to have died, the famous ancient tell of Megiddo, and especially the Nazareth ridge, just behind the lip of which is where Jesus grew up. Wow.
Jesus himself surely looked out across the same valley many times. He knew his scriptures very well, and everywhere he looked he couldn't help but think of all these stories associated with the places he saw. It's very refreshing and interesting to think about Jesus as a real person in this way, walking the land like I am, except as a native to this soil and in a tradition that stretched back a thousand years. He was the one to fulfil the covenant, the memories of which were embedded in the landscape itself!
Once we descended into the Jezreel Valley, we headed to the ancient and significant site of Megiddo. It was a major city in ancient times, given that almost all the major international highways anywhere in three-continent region went through the Jezreel Valley, and Megiddo had the best location in the south-center of the valley. It also has the reputation for being the future site of "Armegeddon" (the final battle of history, not the movie :-). That moniker is very likely symbolic, since many major and decisive ancient battles were fought here, but it's still interesting to think about. Much of the ancient city site has been excavated, as you can see:
And Megiddo also boasts a very clever underground tunnel system that connects the city up on the hilltop with a source of water lower down. When we all found out we were going through underground tunnels to check them out, our reaction was one of speechless amazement.
:-)
We continued eastward and finally crested the lower Galilee ridge to find ourselves looking down for the very first time onto what will be our home for the next 3 nights: the Sea of Galilee!!
Like the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is below sea level, but not nearly as far. It was an impressive sight -- this is where Jesus lived, and walked -- and walked on water! We were blessed with a very clear day. Our destination was the Kibbutz resort of Ein Gev, on the eastern side just south of the midpoint of the lake.
Once we descended into the Jezreel Valley, we headed to the ancient and significant site of Megiddo. It was a major city in ancient times, given that almost all the major international highways anywhere in three-continent region went through the Jezreel Valley, and Megiddo had the best location in the south-center of the valley. It also has the reputation for being the future site of "Armegeddon" (the final battle of history, not the movie :-). That moniker is very likely symbolic, since many major and decisive ancient battles were fought here, but it's still interesting to think about. Much of the ancient city site has been excavated, as you can see:
And Megiddo also boasts a very clever underground tunnel system that connects the city up on the hilltop with a source of water lower down. When we all found out we were going through underground tunnels to check them out, our reaction was one of speechless amazement.
:-)
We continued eastward and finally crested the lower Galilee ridge to find ourselves looking down for the very first time onto what will be our home for the next 3 nights: the Sea of Galilee!!
Like the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is below sea level, but not nearly as far. It was an impressive sight -- this is where Jesus lived, and walked -- and walked on water! We were blessed with a very clear day. Our destination was the Kibbutz resort of Ein Gev, on the eastern side just south of the midpoint of the lake.
People, it's a resort! After our previous accomodations, which have admittedly been decent but otherwise not glamorous, for the next 3 nights we are going to be living in comparative luxury! All you can eat buffet dinners, sunsets over the Sea of Galilee, swimming at the beach just a few hundred feet away from our cabin rooms, each and every night. Wow. (A-style!) Naturally, as soon as we found our rooms most of us jumped into the lake for a swim, and what a venue. The sun majestically sinking lower and lower behind the western hills, frisbee flying back and forth over the gentle waves, people on the seashore journaling or reading their Bibles or just letting the reality and presence of it all sink in. And as I stood there in the waters of that lake, that's when it hit me.
Jesus was real. He saw these same hills. Looked at the same sea. Fished and sailed these same waters. This is no abstract Sunday School Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth lived here. And I'm here too. Wow. It's a subtle, almost imperceptible, but absolutely real shift -- Jesus is really real to me now. I get that sense much more powerfully up here than I did down in Jerusalem. Down there in the Old City you see the crowded streets of what is essentially a medieval city, and the ancient places, if preserved at all, are preserved in medieval or later churches and other shrines. But up here it's different -- this lake isn't much different than when Jesus and Peter and John and Bartholemew and all the others walked these hills and sailed these shores. The place is hardly developed at all. I've not seen a single recreational boat on the whole lake since we got here. No jet-skiing or pleasure boating that I've found yet (maybe on Friday or Saturday?) You really get the sense of being sent back in time somehow. What a special feeling. Jesus is real to me now in a way he simply had never been before...maybe couldn't be before.
I guess this is precisely why you come on a trip like this.
Parting shot, to make you wish you were here. :-)
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