Daily Devotion for June 27, 2006

Please note:
Over the Next three weeks, Tim will be over in the Middle East.  He is leading a Biblical Study Journey and is taking a film crew to capture some of the sites in the Land of the Bible to be used with his Word Among Us Bible Study program.  The devotions while he is gone will focus on the Land of the Bible.  We hope in some small way you can share in the Journey and be enriched with your walk with Jesus.

 

Day 2

 

A Special Journey – A Pilgrimage!

 

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.  Psalm 84:5

 

Throughout the history of Christianity the most popular place of pilgrimage has been the Holy Land and the sites made sacred by their association with Jesus and his first disciples.  Indeed, the Holy Land has been close to the heart of our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters as well.  There has always been a persistent desire to visit Jerusalem and the other holy places of pilgrimage.

 

Pilgrims to the Holy Land today, by their encounter with other visitors from around the world, have an opportunity to experience a much larger community of faith than they may have experienced before.  Knowing that millions of Christians have visited these places during the past two millennia helps us to experience a strong bond with the Church of the past and its diverse traditions – and they are diverse.

 

We will visit “holy places” not primarily to capture them for memory with camera shots from various angles, or to gawk with the curiosity of someone seeing an exotic place for the first time, or to go on an expensive shopping spree in a foreign land.  A pilgrimage is a spiritual journey.  We go on this journey to draw closer to the Lord, to become more deeply aware of what it means to be his disciples.  Pilgrimages, in other words, are special times of prayer and reflection. 

 

Story is piled upon story and century upon century in the Holy Land.  For it is an ancient land, this bit of semi-tropical coastal plain which would compare, in size, with New Hampshire.  Its ten thousand square miles include barren hills and desert, mountains and fertile valleys.  The land was a convenient bridge between Asia and Africa.  If not exactly a “land flowing with milk and honey” it was, as the followers of Moses found, certainly more attractive than the wilderness of Sinai and the grim mountains of Moab.

 

However, we do not come to Israel to see the citrus groves or visit a kibbutz.  Colorado has better mountains and Egypt and Greece have more impressive ruins.  France and Italy have more glorious churches and Mexico and China offer more varied and artistic handicrafts.  We come to visit the land where Jesus lived.  By following in his earthly footsteps, we hope to follow him more closely in faith and love.

 

The Gospel message takes on a new immediacy and stronger color when one walks in the places where Jesus spoke and sees the landscapes that Jesus saw.  In fact, the geography and local customs so influence some pages of the Bible that it is difficult to understand them without having seen this land.

 

Of course much has changed and much is changing in the Holy Land.  Cars and buses are replacing donkeys and camels.  Plush hotels take the place of pilgrim hostels and ancient caravansaries, inns where caravans stayed.  Floodlights play on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem today.  Airlines bring in many more Christian pilgrims than could ever have arrived on 19th century ships.

 

But some things do not change.  The harsh hills of Judea.  Sunrise over the Mount of Olives.  The serene beauty of the Lake of Galilee.  We are influenced by the climate, the topography, the trees and flowers, the customs and monuments.  And Jesus was surely influenced by this.  It is good for us to walk under the same sort of cloud formations and see olive and fig trees like he saw.  We can look out over the same wonderful lake he knew.  It is possible to follow the same path he took from Bethany, over the Mount of Olives, down into the valley of Kidron and up to the gate of the Holy City.

 

We have come with humility and hope to draw closer to our dear Brother and Savior.  We seek to hear his words with a new freshness and be confronted more directly with the challenge of his life, death and resurrection.

 

We are happy and honored to spend some days here in the very land where Jesus lived.  We are here to learn, to pray and to experience the presence of one who is both Son of Man and Son of God.

 

And then, God willing, we will be ready to return to our homes with a new zeal and burning faith.  For now, Our Lord’s mission is surely our own.

 

Prayer
Jesus, give me eyes to see and ears to hear you in this land you walked.  Take me beyond the land to see more fully your eternal Kingdom.  In your precious name, Amen

 

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While in the Middle East for a Biblical Study Journey with fellow Word Among Us Students, a 5-person crew is filming and taking pictures of the various sites. This vibrant photographic material will be incorporated into next year's Word Among Us classes.

Want to learn more about the Bible Jesus used – The Old Testament – and the Bible Jesus taught?  Enroll today in Word Among Us – Cover to Cover study of the Bible starting in Genesis and going through Revelation including the inter - testamental period, using history and archeology and Biblical culture to make the text alive - taught by Tim Hetzner.
Class sites are across the USA. Click here for more information.

Tim Hetzner - President - Lutheran Church Charities
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