The One Who Calms The Storm

Upon leaving Carmel our group ventured down the valley to Megiddo.  This is perhaps the most amazing example of an archeological "tel" one will ever see.  Situated strategically along the mountain passes that empty into the Jezreel valley, Megiddo had great military and economic significance for ancient empires that emerged along the fertile cresent.  It had military significance because the valley was an excellent site for a battleground where all the various world powers merged.  It had economic significance as it served as a gateway into the valley through the mountain pass that connected Africa, Asia and Europe.  So great was the strategic significance of this ancient city that archeologists have uncovered 25 layers of civilizations one on top of the other that has today resulted in what looks like a small mountain overlooking the valley below.  This was a major city during the time of King Solomon and looking out among the ruins of his horse stables gives you a good idea of his wealth and power.

From here we traveled across the valley and up into Nazareth.  And when I say up I mean way up.   Anyone who thinks of Jesus as being a desert dweller in his youth only has to spend a day in Nazareth, his boyhood hometown, to see that he would have been more at home in the hills of eastern Oklahma than he would have been in the more arid western part of the state. Our group had a touching worship service in the ancient synagogue which is the traditional site of where Jesus preached his first message after beginning his public ministry.   It was here that Jesus read from Isaiah 61 and proclaimed that the words of the prophet have now been fulfilled:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me because the Lord has annointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor"

The crowd did not readily accept the message of Jesus and tried to kill him by throwing him over a cliff.  Our group traveled up to a cliff drop off to get an idea of what that might have looked like.  As I look over the cliff I think of the extent to which people go to reject Christ.  Truly the prophecy of Simeon in Luke 2 was fulfilled here,  "The child will cause the rising and falling of many in Israel"

From the beginning Jesus has caused division, controversy and struggle both relationally and interpersonally.  It's really not that shocking to think that people would respond this way to his teaching- the claims of Jesus are not minor claims.  "The one thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important" C.S. Lewis has famously said.  The fact that people wanted to kill him is the most compelling evidence we have that he did not see himself as simply a reigous teacher but as God Himself.  Jesus' claims about himself were audacious and "in your face".  Before he is the Prince of Peace he is the "one who pierces your soul". 

On Thursday morning January 3 we woke up to another beautiful morning in our hotel overlooking the Sea of Galilee.  I told our group we call it a "sea' because that's what King James called it, but it would be a large lake in Oklahoma.  As many times as I've been to Israel I never get over the beauty of this body of water nestled within Galillean hills.  The centuries have changed many kingdoms and cultures, but these hills and this body of water look the same.  God blessed us with calm waters and sunny skies as we shared a devotion in the middle of the "sea."  We spent time in worship and prayer  and read the passage in Matthew 8 where Jesus calmed the storm.  Many in our group have been through some intense storms recently and this was a time of many tears and great rejoicing that He is the One Who Calms The Storm. 

The rest of the day we enjoyed touring around the lake to biblical sites like Capernaum and Caesaria Phillipi.  We saw an excellent example of a first century synaguague near the remains of the house of Peter in Capernaum and up in Phillipi we saw the ruins of the temple to the pagan god Pan.  This was the place that Jesus asked the disciples "Who do you say that I am?"  He taught them his strongest lessons about the meaning of His deity and the purposes of His church in this place.  You don't realize until you stand here near these pagan ruins that Jesus was actually putting that religous site into a context.  The importance of having clarity of the nature of Christ is as significant today as it was back in that pagan society.  

We ended our day with baptism on the Jordan river and a trip to the site of the Mount of the Beattitudes.  In case you are wondering if the Jordan was cold for the baptism I would just make the point that the river is runoff from snowmelt flowing from Mount Hermon and this is January.  This was not a baptism for whimps.  He calms the sea and turns water into wine but doesn't promise to turn frigid Jordan water into luke warm baptismal water.  Surely it is easier to identify with his death this way!

Prayer from Capernium:

Lord God, we thank you that you are the God Who Calms The Storm.  We know that although it might seem to us that you are sleeping in the boat, that you have numbered our days and that nothing in this life passes your notice.  We know that in heaven there are no questions, only solutions.  We trust you even when we don't understand you.  Even the knowledge of your soverignty calms our storm.  We ask for your peace.  But even as we acknowledge that you are the Prince of Peace we also know that you are the one who has  caused many to rise and fall.  We not only accept the easy truth, but embrace the hard truth of who you are and the often difficult path we often follow as we walk in your ways.  Like the disicples in Philippi we confess that you and the Father are One, that you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. The One Who Calms The Storm.