Flourishing Life

View from the Mt. of Beatitudes

What a day! We started early. Hannah, our guide, likes to get an early start so we were on the bus by 7:30 a.m. I was misinformed yesterday, instead of beginning with the Galilee boat ride, we started at the Mount of Beatitudes. We were out of the bus and on the side of the hill by 8:00 a.m. Dr. Kaylor led a brief devotional on Matthew 5 and gave us some time to reflect. This was a nice beginning to our pilgrimage because Hannah took us to an undeveloped area right next to the church complex, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. This gave us a picture of how the surroundings appeared around the time of Jesus. Then we visited the modern Franciscan Church and it’s beautiful grounds, and, of course, a gift shop (every pilgrimage site has a gift shop).

Lydia at the Primacy of Peter

We then made our way to the Church of the Primacy of Peter. This church and grounds is also Franciscan and is built right at the shore of the Sea of Galilee to commemorated the events of John 21 when Jesus restored Peter with his threefold question: “Do you love me?” Our own Ellen Kessler read the scripture and Bob (Dr. Kaylor) spoke about Jesus and Peter. We stood by the shore on a stone beach and imagined what it would have been like to have breakfast with Jesus and his disciples during their time of confusion following the resurrection.

Lebanon Pilgrims at the Capernaum Synagogue

From from there we took a short ride to Capernaum, or has Hannah called it, “Kfar Nahum,” the home base of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. This is a large archaeological treasure trove, including the ruins of a third century synagogue which was built on top of the first century one where Jesus and his new missionary extended family prayed and read the Scripture. We also saw the ruins of an early church that was built on top of Peter’s mother-in-law’s house, where Jesus took up residence after leaving Nazareth. This is one of the most significant sites from a New Testament perspective. It’s amazing to stand in Jesus’ adopted home town. Bob spoke about Mark 3:31f and this new oikos (extended family) that Jesus was building that included Peter, his family, and the disciples of Jesus.

A fishing boat which dates from the time of Jesus was discovered several years ago in the mud near the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was miticulously excavated and preserved and is now housed in a museum dedicated to it next to the sea. This is an amazing discovery and offers insight into the kind of boats Peter, James, and John owned and Jesus sailed in from time to time. A dock outside the building served as our departure point on a more modern boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.

I’ve been to the Sea of Galilee twice and a boat ride is always part of the pilgrimage, but this year was even better because we sailed for an extended time. We went north to view a few of the sites we had just visited from a unique perspective, the water. We paused out on the sea, which is more like a lake than a sea, and one of Bob’s church members read the Scripture. It was very peaceful out there, and even on a calm day, the wind was blowing quite briskly. I can’t imagine what it would be like to weather a storm.

The boat journey resumed and we landed at a restaurant for a bit of a late lunch. We ate “St. Peter’s Fish.” This species of fish gets its name from the fact that they are abundant in the Sea of Galilee and it is assumed Peter and the disciples would have fished for them. It is known to us as “Talapia,” a common farmed fish. The lunch on a whole was quite good, however, I’m not sure it lived up to its price:)

Following lunch we visited a new site to pilgrims in the Holy Land, Magdala. Magdala is a town that was definitely visited by Jesus and the home of Mary Magdalene (hence her name). Construction crews were breaking ground several years ago and discovered ancient ruins. Archaeologists were called and they excavated the site extensively, which is an ongoing work. The town was abandoned around A.D. 66 and was never rebuilt, so the ruins weren’t covered with layer upon layer of buildings, generation after generation, like many sites.

Tabgah was a parcel of land that had been an Arab village during the Ottoman Empire. In the 18th century it was purchased by a German Catholic group for the purpose of building a hotel for pilgrims. Digging to begin construction, ruins of an ancient church were uncovered. These ruins turned out to be of a church that was built in the fourth century and contained beautiful mosaic floors commemorating the multiplication of the bread and fish. A modern Benedictine church incorporates these original and restored mosaics called the Church of the Multiplication occupies the site today. In the courtyard of this church we read about this miracle and were able to go inside to view the mosaics and spend time in silent reflection.

Me, teaching about Baptism in the Jordan River

Our longest bus ride of the day took us to Yardenit, which is a developed site along the Jordan River, just south of the Sea of Galilee where pilgrims come to renew their baptismal vows. Mark 1:9-11 was read by one of the pilgrims and I shared a devotional teaching about Jesus’ baptism and our baptism. Bob and I then led them in renewing and remembering their baptism. It was the highlight of a long and fruitful day.