9/20/23
I grew up on Bible movies. When VHS came out, we bought them on video tape. When DVDs came out, we bought them again. And we owned them all. All of them. From the 1927 silent version of the King of Kings up through the widescreen blockbusters of the 1950s and 1960s and the various made for TV movies like the 6 ½ hour miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth. We owned them all!
Now that I’ve actually visited the lands where the events of the Bible happened, I can’t watch them!
Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments are still among my very favorite movies, but I have problems watching the rest of them. Part of it is the liberties they take with the Bible stories. Another part is that, having been there, I know that’s not what the terrain looks like. The villages are far too spacious, with domed roofs (and that’s my biggest pet peeve . . . whenever I see domed roofs on the houses of Bethlehem or Jerusalem, I go a little crazy, because domed roofs were introduced by the Muslims in the 600’s. The cities in New Testament times looked more like a crowded together conglomeration of flat roofed concrete garages. And then there’s the food baskets with pre-Columbian tomatoes. . . I could go on, but I won’t).
Visiting these lands really changes the way you read the scriptures because they give you a visual and historical context for what you read. I got back late Saturday night (did I mention I had jet lag Sunday?) from a wonderful trip to Turkey and Greece. Well, mostly wonderful . . . we have some bugs to work out before we offer it again.
But I do want to offer it to our congregation. It really and truly changes your perspective on the scriptures when you visit the actual locations where everything happened.
For example, we visited Corinth, a congregation that was really messed up, sinful, immature and divided! One of the issues causing division within the church was whether or not believers could eat meat offered to idols.
We visited Corinth and stood on a hill looking over the agora (the marketplace) and above the marketplace stood the temple of Apollo. Animals would be slaughtered in that temple, the fat burned creating smoke (and a mouth-watering aroma through the marketplace), the choicest cuts were eaten by the priests, and the leftovers were either eaten by wealthy people at feasts in the temple or sold in the marketplace below. Some believers didn’t have any issues eating the meat offered to Apollo, while others couldn’t do it. Here’s a picture of the temple standing over the ruins of the meat market:
We visited Athens, where Paul walked among the idols and saw one dedicated to “the unknown God.” He was brought before the city leaders at Mars Hill to explain himself. Now, I’ve always seen pictures of Paul standing on a gentle, sloping hill, with statues in the background, presenting his gospel to the philosophers. That image couldn’t be further from the truth! Mars Hill is a big old rock with steps carved into it that led to the top where the city leaders sat in judgment. It was on Mars Hill that Socrates was on trial for “corrupting youth and introducing foreign gods.” Forgetting the “corrupting youth” part of it, “introducing foreign gods” was exactly what Paul was accused of . . . and so he was more than arguing for his “philosophy,” he was probably on trial for his life! It was amazing to stand at the foot of those stone steps Paul climbed to tell the Athenian believers of the God in whom “we live, move and have our being.”
We also visited Philippi, where Paul and Silas sang songs at midnight in this Philippians jail:
It was a wonderful trip, warts and all, and we’ll talk more soon about a possible trip in the next couple of years.
But I missed you all! I hate being gone on a Sunday and will do whatever I can to avoid it. But, when I do have to miss, I never have to worry about the actual Sunday services themselves, because I know I leave everything in capable hands. But I miss you all when I’m gone.
And I especially hate it when ministry needs crop up, and I’m thousands of miles away.
I was on the 11 ½ flight home, looking out the window of the plane when it all sort of sank in. It was kind of weird thinking about it; I was 7 miles up in the air, looking out on the perfectly white and smooth blanket of clouds as far as the eye could see, and 2072 miles away my young friend with liver issues was fighting for his life and my old friend, Pat, was slowly giving his up – in fact, he passed away just about then, while I was 7 miles up and 2072 miles away.
But the Lord was with them, and that’s what matters.
A land is only holy because of God’s presence now, not because of God’s presence in the past. Going to see the places where God has worked in the past is one thing; it’s edifying, educational, inspiring – all that and more. But, being a part of a land where we can see God’s hand at work now is quite another.
I’ll take this holy land anytime.