Israel/Egypt – Megiddo and more…

Today started out a little earlier than past days – the wake up call rang my room at 5:45 – WOOF! By 7 am we were on the road heading out of Galilee and towards Nazareth. Yep, today was the day we checked out Jesus’ hometown!
As we pulled into Nazareth, our guide told us that there are two different places that the church believes are the places that the Angel approached the young Mary. The Greek Orthodox Christians believe this happened at the well of the city. The Roman Catholics believe that the event happened at her home about a mile and half away. Imagine that, the Church can’t agree on something.
Nazareth is huge – it’s sprawling all over the place and is home to about 150,000 people, which is about a 1000% increase from when the Holy family made this their home. This little town was not much more than a hitching post as people went to the more important town of Sephoris about 4-6 miles away. Sephoris was a booming metropolis that required all kinds of craftsman – including carpenters and stone masons. It was a nothing of a little town – which is why that famous line “can anything good come out of Nazareth” uttered by Nathaniel, makes sense. It wasn’t that Nazareth was infamous, it was more that it was nothing – inconsequential!
Our first stop was to the Well, which since it was Sunday was in the middle of a mass. Tell you what – the Greek Orthodox know how to engage your senses! The room had candles, beautiful pictures, singing, and a little bit of scent. We walked back to the rear of the chapel and could peer down and see the spring that Mary undoubtedly used to gather water for her family. She had been there! Yes it was built up and turned into a shrine, but there’s no questioning the place!
Then we walked from the well to Mary’s home. Unlike other holy places in this land, there is no question of the authenticity of this place. The walk was pretty remarkable – that was some hike with a jar of water! The Catholics have built an amazing cathedral, which was built over 2 other cathedrals that had been erected over the home. The house itself was a cave, as were many of the 1st century dwellings throughout Israel. A mass was going on during this visit as well – I could have sat there all morning and just absorbed my surroundings! The cave is gated, but you still have this sense of holy ground.
To be honest, it didn’t really matter which site was the one that the Angel actually appeared to Mary! Both sites left me feeling small – approximately so! But as we left the Catholic Church, the bells began to ring throughout the city. You couldn’t help but smile. On our way back to the bus we ran across a sign from a Muslim community that was less than ecumenical – let’s just say they’re the Westboro Baptist group of the Muslim community. Because of the sign, I’m convinced – I’m a loser (ask me about that some other time).
We boarded the bus and headed to the precipice that it’s believed the city leaders of Nazareth took Jesus to push him over the edge for his teaching. I thought the walk from the well to Mary’s house was long! These people had to have been turbo-mad to have pushed him all this way with the intent of tossing him over. This was easily 5 miles away but it was all up hill! The view from the top is breathtaking – it overlooks the valley of Armageddon.
Now, this valley is pretty amazing! First off it’s gigantic!!! Second, it’s the crossroads of the crossroads of east-west-north-south. All of the ancient civilizations would use this area to go back and forth in their pursuits to conquer one another. More battles have been fought over this piece of land than nearly any other place in the world. No wonder the author of Revelation believed that the final battle of good verses evil would occur in this same strategic location of control.
After driving across the plains of armageddon, we arrived at the valley’s name sake – Megiddo. This archeological site is an amazing collection of 7000 years of civilization piled on top of each other. I actually got to touch the wall that would have served as the city’s protector when Abraham entered the land. I saw altars to Baal. I saw the granary that held tons of feed for nearly 1000 horses that were stalled during Solomon’s time. The place is unreal. From this location I was able to take a panoramic pic (thanks trusty iPhone) of a small portion of Armageddon.
Our next stop was my day’s worth of nerd heaven! Caesarea-Maritime – the city that Herod the Great dug out of the Mediterranean Sea as the new capital of the region. Herod may have been absolutely mad, but he was also a design genius. He built a sea wall that stopped the fierce raging Mediterranean! His palace had a pool for himself and one that he could raise fish in! He built a circus for chariot races and hunting events. He had an auditorium that sat 5000 people. The city was the pride of the land and was recreated over and over again until the 12th century when the turks leveled it.
When Archeologists dug out the theater they found something that made me lose my nerd mind! A tablet that had an inscription of Pontus Pilate the procurator of Judea. This piece is the only archeological evidence of Pilate’s work. We have the gospels and we have Josephus, the Jewish/Roman historian. That’s it! It’s an amazing find, because Josephus tells us that it was Pilate who created an amazing aqueduct that went from Caesarea all the way to Jerusalem to help irrigate and water both the land and the people. I got to see remnants of this aqueduct and step into the Sea.
After they pried me away from the site, we began our 2 hour drive into Judea, where tonight I’m typing from Jerusalem. After dinner, one of the conference staff members and her husband took us on a walk down to the Damascus gate and into the old city. I walked by the garden tomb and almost fell out. The Damascus Gate is as imposing a site as anything I’ve seen. It just screams the message that you better not even try to take this place!
Tomorrow is another early morning, with trips to Bethlehem, the Via Delarosa, Caiaphas’ house and more. It’s gonna be a FULL day! Being in this city is more than I could have imagined. In fact it’s nothing like what I imagined and yet it just seems to fit. I saw Orthodox Jews walking and talking while fully garbed Muslims passed on the other side of the street. It’s beyond my long rambling words.
No devotional thoughts today, other than to say that as we shared our sunday time of worship, I was thinking of our churches back in the States. A bunch of school children overheard us singing a hymn and they clapped and then sang for us. It reminded me of the prayer – “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” I’m filled with that longing tonight both for Jerusalem where the signs of struggle are everywhere, but also for our church at home. May we be agents of peace and reconciliation – may we sing with all we have and then may we hear the applause of children as they sing back to us!

Shalom for now…

jim