Israel, the promised land, the country where Jesus walked, the place where God revealed so much of His character to us through the Israeli nation. Visiting this special place is an experience that can hardly be captured or described in mere words or pictures. It is seeing a piece of living history, a walk through the gospels. From Bethlehem where Jesus was born to Capernaum next to the sea of Galilea where Jesus ministered to Jerusalem, the city that Jesus loved. How strange and heartbreaking to see the same historic events being viewed so differently through the glasses of different worldviews and religions and how these differences are used as a platform for blind hatred.
In the middle of our stay in Israel we lodged in old city Jerusalem. The old city is divided into four contradictory and conflicting quarters, yet they seem united in some deep search for something more. In the Jewish quarter one finds many orthodox Jews with verses from the Torah strapped in a box to their foreheads. The people are desperately trying to keep the law. In the Arab qaurter the call to prayer is shouted from the mosques five times a day like clockwork. The people are diligently trying to please God with their works. In the Christian and Armenian quarters golden ornaments of Jesus on the cross can be seen on every corner. The people are looking for the comfort they need in rituals and religion.
Our teams received a challenge to complete which took us through many of the historic Biblical sites in Jerusalem including the Via Dolorassa, the prison of Jesus and the Holy Sepulchre church which is one of the suspected sites of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. We went sight seeing at the garden of Gethsemane and visited the place on the Mount of Olives where Jesus looked over Jerusalem and wept for the city.
All of these sights seemed like they should be very significant because of what happened there. Jesus physically walked there, He shaped history there, yet I struggled to find anything there that resonated with my spirit - anything that reminded me of the Jesus that I know and love.
It felt a bit like the experience that Elija had as described in 1 Kings 19 when he knew that God was about to visit him. There was a mighty wind that rushed by, but God was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake that shook the mountains, but God was not in the earthquake. Then came a consuming fire, but God was not in the fire either. I saw all these significant historical landmarks, but for me, Jesus was nowhere to be found in those things...
Fortunately that is not where the story ends. After the wind and the earthquake and the fire Elija heard a still small wisper and God was right there with him. Maybe it was not where one would expect God to be, but He was right there, ever present.
I found my still small wisper too. I first heard it when we visited the garden tomb which is another possible location where Jesus might have been buried. My spirit rejoiced with the unconditional warm welcome that everyone received upon arrival regardless of who you are, where you come from, what you look like or what you believe. In that place there was light, life and love!:) We were shown significant evidence to prove that this could have been the historical sight of Golgotha, but the message that was brought across just as strongly was the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus for our lives today. Not only did they proclaim the gospel by explaining that Jesus lay down His life so that we may stand blameless before God and live free lives, but the peace, joy and love that radiated from their very being told a silent testimony that was beyond refute!
The still small whisper was there again when I read the plaque on the entrance to the grave site:
"He is not here for He is risen!"
What a beautiful paradox...He is NOT here anymore, but because He is not here in body and we believe it His Holy Spirit is here!
I found Jesus in Jerusalem...a remnant of His true life, a glimps of hope. He can be found everywhere, there is no part of this world where we will not find Him. He might not be where we expect Him to be. Even when He walked as a man on earth one would rarely find Him where one would expect. But He is alive in the lives of His children and we, as His children, have the privilege to BE that light, that hope, that love, to a desperately seeking world. Let's live like children of the light!
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