Israel 2022 - Reflection #10 - Magdala Part 2

 

The video is of the 1st-century synagogue uncovered as they were building a resort community along the sea of Galilee. This synagogue would have been a place where Jesus taught as he toured Galilee. 

Magdala is a wonderful archaeological site between Tiberias and Capernaum. It is understood to be Mary Magdalene's hometown. The grounds of this wonderful place are a mixture of the old and the new. The first-century synagogue and the local town with its ritual baths, marketplace, and storehouses are surrounded by a wonderful hotel and worship center. 

This site was an unexpected gem. I shared the video of the painting, but the entire worship center was a great reminder of Jesus' women disciples. Recently, I have been reading many of Jesus' interactions with women. My curiosity peaked when I read the book, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes.[1] Looking at the way Jesus elevated the prominence of women in a culture that treated women as servants, is so powerful. I love this verse:

'Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and
villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the
Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along
with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and
diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he
had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s
business manager; Susanna; and many others who were
contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his
disciples. ' Luke 8:1-3https://my.bible.com/bible/116/LUK.8.1-3

Just before these verses, Jesus is in the home of Simon the

Pharisee and graciously praises the actions of a woman who

washed the dust off his feet with her tears and wiped them with

her hair. (Luke 7:136-50)

I praise God for the strong women of faith in my life. The chief of those is my wife, Stephanie. She is not a bold brash, in-your-face Christian. She is a hands-on, loving, caring woman who, like Jesus, is attracted to the outcasts of society. She is constantly searching God's Word for insight and then looking at ways to apply what has been revealed. 

As I walked through Magdala, thought about Mary Magdalene, heard the presentation on the painting, and reflected on the women of the Bible, I could not help but praise God for the beauty he created in the women of my life. Thank you Lord!

[1] Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 186.

In the small town, uncovered through this dig site, there were many ritual baths. They are fed from an underground spring. If you look on the mountainside of the picture below the bath, you will see a line of trees in an otherwise stark hillside. The water follows that line of trees to feed these baths. It was a part of the first-century surroundings also.

A complete small town discovered here at Magdala would certainly have been a place where Jesus walked and taught. 

Israel 2022 - Reflection #9 - Magdala Painting

 

Our visit to Magdala was a highlight of the trip. I will share more about this amazing site in my next blog. The story surrounding this wonderful painting is definitely worth watching.  Please enjoy!

'Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side

of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the

shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was

Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading

fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please

come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”

Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding

around him. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years

with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many

doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had

to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had

gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up

behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she

thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” I

mmediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body

that she had been healed of her terrible condition. Jesus realized

at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned

around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” His

disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you.

How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” Then the frightened

woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her,

came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she

had done. But he kept on looking around to see who had done it.

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go

in peace. Your suffering is over.” ' Mark 5:21-34 https://my.bible.com/bible/116/MRK.5.21-34

Israel 2022 - Reflection #8 - Capernaum

 

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to enter Capernaum. Our tour guide was from Nazareth and he jokingly talked about the "battle" between Capernaum and Nazareth to claim Jesus. His reasoning for Nazareth is that Jesus spent 30 years of his life in and around Nazareth, yet the approximately 3 years he spent in and around Capernaum gets all the headlines!  HAHAHAHA! YES, BUT, what an amazing three years.

I love Jesus! I want everyone to be clear about that. He is my Lord and Savior. But, as I read the New Testament, the one person I relate to the most is Peter and Capernaum is Peter's domain! 

So why do I relate to Peter?  I see a lot of myself in Peter, especially the Peter before the day of Pentecost. I don't know what your opinion of Peter is. Catholics consider him the first Pope. But, I consider him a "dumb fisherman" (no disrespect to Peter). In Acts 4:13, after Peter had just brilliantly proclaimed Jesus as the one and only way to receive salvation, "The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus." (emphasis added)

I'm not sure how you read this. I read this as saying here was Peter, a dumb fisherman, with no schooling, speaking with boldness, like he had an MDIV from Indiana Wesleyan! Before this, Peter was an ordinary man (Insert me), spoke without thinking (insert me), acted in boldness he couldn't back up (insert me), and rejected the Savior of the World on his way to die a death he didn't deserve (insert me). Yep, that's me. Jesus completely transformed Peter from this dumb fisherman into one of the world's greatest evangelists. I can only dream of being a man with Peter's gift of speaking and sharing the Gospel. Please, Jesus, transform me like you did Peter!

So, when I walked through the gates of Capernaum and saw the house where Jesus and Peter hung out, the synagogue near their home, the place of so much of Jesus' ministry, I really felt a powerful movement in my heart. This room (pictured below) is the place Jesus, probably with Peter by his side, healed a paralytic man. This is the place, Jesus, God in flesh, laid his head down at night when he wasn't traveling the region sharing the Good news, and Peter, my dumb fisherman, was there to see it all! 

This is a wall of the Synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus preached. See the difference in the color of the stone? The stone on the bottom is from the first century, the stone on top was a rebuilt Synagogue built on the same sight. 

This is the synagogue. JESUS PREACHED HERE!

 Why did Jesus come to Capernaum and not somewhere else?  This small town was located on the Via Maris, a major road in the middle east connecting travelers from the east with the rest of the Roman world. The stone here is a "mile marker" on this major thoroughfare. The other symbols are stones found from the first-century Synagogue. 

Israel 2022 - Reflections - Sea of Galilee Part 2

 

I took this trip with 36 fantastic people. 

The diversity of this group and how we worked together is an amazing wonder in a world that only sees division and strife. We grew together as a group and it is not a stretch to say I miss hanging out with them, all of them. 

My wife knows I am not a dancer in any stretch of the imagination, but I had so much fun watching and taking video of this event on the Galilean Boat Ride. 

Day and Night I have been working on my final paper for the seminary class associated with this trip. I have been studying deeply the verses Mark 2:1 - 3:6. Yesterday, I was studying and writing about  Mark 2:18 - 22. I received a new revelation about this scripture:

'And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him,
Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus
said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come, when
the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. No man
also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh
away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles:
else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred:
but new wine must be put into new bottles. 'Mark 2:18-22

So, my question is, "What was Jesus' answer?"

For years, I really never thought to much about this. Fasting in the first century and in the Old

Testament was about mourning. It was about mourning sin on the Day of Atonement. The nation

mourned the destruction of the Temple, so they fasted. They fasted over death and loss. The Pharisees

fasted in order to mourn the Messiah had not yet returned.

If you were hanging out with Jesus, WHY WOULD YOU MOURN? Jesus, our SALVATION, being rescued

from our sin is a cause to celebrate. Jesus provides so much joy. Can you imagine the joy you would

feel being in the presence of Jesus as he walked this earth, taking boat trips across the Sea of Galilee,

eating meals, laughing, singing, dancing!

I praise God for the JOY that he has brought to my life. Even in times of mourning, HE provides light!

I am so thankful to expand my Kingdom brothers and sisters through this trip. We had so much fun

and the JOY OF OUR SALVATION was present every day.

 The view as we crossed the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. 

As we traveled we viewed the hill Jesus spoke the wonderful Sermon on the Mount!

I could imagine Jesus walking across these waters, Peter trying to do the same!

Israel 2022 - Reflections - The Sea of Galilee Part 1

 

On the trip we had the great opportunity to see an ancient Galilean boat discovered by two fishermen in the small town of Genessaret.  Here is a short video that talks about the boat found in 1986.

Below is a picture of the "Jesus Boat."  There is absolutely no indication or way of knowing if this was a boat used by Jesus. However, it is so easy for your mind to wonder if Jesus could have been on board this small vessel!

This is a small model of a first-century boat typically found on the Sea of Galilee. 

I was fascinated that this twelve-mile long, seven-mile wide fresh water lake had such fierce storms. But, it is located more than 600 feet below sea level and the geography of the area makes it prone to violent storms as the wind comes over the mountains on to the lake. Below is a picture taken in May 2021 in the town of Tiberias. The boardwalk area was devastated by a storm on the Sea of Galilee.

As I was touring the ancient boat and pondering Jesus' life on this lake, my mind instantly wandered to Mark 4:35-41.

'As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the

other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started

out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed).

But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into

the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the

back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke

him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to

drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to

the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and

there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you

afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were absolutely

terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the

wind and waves obey him!”' Mark 4:35-41 https://my.bible.com/bible/116/MRK.4.35-41

As I looked out over the calm, almost glassy, Sea of Galilee, it was hard for me to imagine a storm. We are so grateful when Jesus calms the storms of our life. Everyone faces those storms, loss of loved ones, broken relationships, financial turmoil, and sickness. But, Jesus always brings us through it!

I don't want to discount the intensity of the storms of life. I have been through some "hurricane" type storms. But, is it fair for us to just look at the storms in life in order to praise Jesus?  

In my life, I can count 5 major storms faced by my family. We had a child born with special needs, miraculously she survived after having had major surgery. We suffered serious financial ruin and a teen pregnancy. Finally, we faced a career crisis that led to our retirement. We were only able to survive these storms because of Jesus. Jesus calmed these storms. 

But, out of the sixty-two years, I have walked this earth, most of my life has been as calm and tranquil as the Sea of Galilee the day we visited. I could focus on the storms. I could dwell on the past, but instead, I praise God, from whom all blessings flow, that 99% of my life is calm, filled with blue-sky, light winds, and a peace that surpasses all understanding. 

I am extremely thankful for Jesus calming the storms, but I am equally thankful for the joy of my life between the storms, looking out over stilled waters. Thank you, Jesus!