Upon arrival we will travel by bus to Tiberias, which sits on the Sea of Galilee, known in modern Israel as Lake Kinneret. Saturday we will go out on a boat on the water. Maybe once I see it some thoughts or notions will form about the experience. Right now, my mind is still pretty lost in the magnitude of the idea, I guess. So for now, my thoughts are on Jesus' experiences with the Sea on land.
First disclaimer, I am not a biblical scholar. I do read the Book though. And from what I've read in Matthew it seems Jesus speaks mostly in parables when around the Galilean Sea.
Second disclaimer, I am not traveling with an exhaustive concordance, and so, readers, you must patiently bear with my interpretations - at least until I have wifi access again and can google things. Mid flight, this is what we're left with.
Along the shores, Jesus told some of his greatest parables: the sower, the wheat and the weeds, the grain of mustard seed, the yeast, the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl and the net cast into the sea.
(Our group will be arriving, thanks to flight delays and cancelations, among 11 flights over a 30 hour time span. I will resist, in deference to the scattered groups and in respect of the Bible, the urge to jump to the sower parable.)
One of the parables I have personally enjoyed is the parable of yeast. Matthew 13:33, "He told them still another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.'" (NIV) I love the idea that just a little bit of heaven can get mixed into our life and with a little work can become so incorporated that it can't be separated back out.
I have a feeling this trip will be a bit like that. Once we begin to experience just a bit of the history, the religious significance, of the Holy Land I think it will become ingrained in us and hopefully become a permanent part of us. A part of us that will grow, multiply and spread like a proof through out our lives and the lives of those we meet.
Posted from Vienna, Austria in route.
