Late last evening a storm front blew into Israel which did away with our beautifully sunny days and our warm weather. Despite the cold rain, we headed out early this morning for the Jordan River where myself and a handful of others were baptized to reaffirm our faith. The actually place where the baptisms took place, just south of the Sea of Galilee, is nowhere near where John the Baptist did his ministry and where Jesus was baptized. Because the Jordan serves as the border between Israel and the nation of Jordan, there are very few places where tourists like us can access the river. That said, it’s the same river and that’s close enough for me! The baptism itself was very nice, if cold.
From the baptism site, we travelled to the ancient city of Bet Shean/Scytopolis. Bet Shean was a city in Old Testament times, and like so many other cities we’ve visited, was built on the ruins of twenty-come previous cities so it is atop a high hill, or tel. After the Philistines killed King Saul and three of his sons on Mt. Gilboa, they hung his body from Bet Shean. The arrival of the Roman Legion in Israel made the hill-top fortified cities like Bet Shean obsolete. The Romans built a new city, Scytopolis at the base of the tel. Scytopolis was a thriving city in Jesus’ time, but we have no record that he ever visited. It moved from Roman to Byzantine and then Islamic rule before being destroyed by an earthquake in the 700s. The remains of Bet Shean are largely unexcavated, but Scytopolis has been. Archaeologists have uncovered a theater, amphitheater, public gymnasium and bath, temples, and even a red light district. On one of the mains streets they have left things exactly where they found them so visitors can get an idea of what the city looked like after the earthquake.
Today we began our move South, so from Bet Shean we followed the Jordan Valley out of the lush green of Galilee and into the barren Judean Wilderness. We visited the ruins of Jericho, where excavations have uncovered a Neolithic watch-tower which may be 8,000 years old. Jericho claims to be both the oldest and lowest city on earth. The latter claim is confirmed. On a clear day the Dead Sea is in view of the city. Today was not clear. As we arrived in the city the coming rain whipped up a small dust storm which was followed by a real storm. Jericho is also one of the cities under Palestinian control, and there was a marked economic difference from what we have seen in the purely Israeli towns.
We ended the day heading up to Jerusalem where we will stay for the next five nights. It takes about 30 minutes to make the drive, but you ascend nearly 4,000 feet. The storm was in full force when we arrived, so we haven’t seen much of the city yet.
As I reflect on where I have seen the Spirit at work on this trip, I keep getting drawn back to an image I saw a few days ago in Nazareth. As I told you, the Catholic Church of the Annunciation is the largest basilica in the Middle East and it is everything you would expect from such a structure. However, it sits in sort of a low point of Nazareth, and on a hill overlooking the church is a large mosque. Our guide Raed, who is an Arab Christian, keeps reminding us that Christians are disappearing in Israel. “Dissolving like salt,” is how he describes it. The image of the mosque overlooking the church seems relevant, and I can’t help but think that this is the work the Spirit is doing in the world today. Jesus wasn’t born into a basilica, but to a humble family from a hill-billy region of a backwater Roman province. This is where our faith found its identity, and maybe the Spirit is calling us back to humility. Let others have the glamour of big buildings, let’s just focus on the man who grew up in that dirty town in Galilee.
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