What Galilee Has Taught Me
These last few days I've been in the Galilee, in the north of Israel, and it is the particularity of the place that's made the biggest impression on me: it was on this beach that Jesus called to Peter and the others when they'd been fishing all night and caught nothing; it was on this lake where Jesus calmed the storms; it was this hillside on which Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount; it was in this synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus taught from the Torah; it was this cliff outside of Nazareth from which the neighbors of Jesus tried to throw him, etc. Of course, there is no way to know that it was this exact spot on this beach, or this exact spot on this hillside, or this exact spot on this cliff, but that's not the point. The point is that these things actually happened, and they happened somewhere right here--if not this exact location, then it was another nearby. The reason this has hit me so hard is that history can be difficult to believe in: I can know intellectually that the Battle of Gettysburg happened, but it's still hard to feel that it happened. Being here has made me feel what I already believed intellectually: Jesus really lived.
From my first few days in Israel, that's been my biggest lesson: Jesus was actually here. And if he was, that changes everything.
Being here has made me feel what I already believed intellectually: Jesus was actually here. And if he was, that changes everything.
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Sea of Galilee at Dawn. -
Excavations at Capernaum. -
Somewhere here Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. -
They've excavated the synagogue in which Jesus taught! -
Was it this beach from which Jesus called to Peter? -
Remembering baptisms in the Jordan River. -
Behind me, the Jezreel valley, site of so many battles. -
From the cliffs outside Nazareth. -
Did Jesus withdraw here to pray? -
Sharing a brief devotion outside of Nazareth. -
Sea of Galilee. -
Sea of Galilee. -
Modern Tiberias overlooks the Sea of Galilee. -
Armageddon. -
The ruins of Herod's magnificent city, Caesarea. -
"Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea...." -
The ruins of the Roman theater in Caesarea. -
Overlooking Nazareth. -
In a water tunnel built by King Ahab under Megiddo. -
10 mile aqueduct built by King Herod over 2,000 years ago.
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"I'm Basically a Good Person"
People say that all the time: "I'm basically a good person." What I think they mean is that they are basically?moral. They don't lie or steal or cheat or murder. But, when you read the Sermon on the Mount, you see how inadequate that idea of goodness is. For Jesus, goodness is not primarily moral, but spiritual--it's about being like God, who is even kind toward those who are evil: "For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).It is possible to be perfectly moral and at the same time remain selfish, contemptuous, and resentful. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is explaining that true goodness is active love toward others--it's not refraining from doing evil--it's actively doing good, even towards those who are doing evil.I've read the Sermon on the Mount many times, but each time I read it I am reminded that there is nothing else like it in all of human history.