Israel: Day in Galilee

Sea of Galilee: view from boat ride

Bill's St. Peter fish at Ein Gev Kibbutz

Israel Pilgrims at the Jordan River

Lois standing beside the Jordan River

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  --Mark 1:1

BEGINNINGS: Gospel writer Mark certainly had in mind Genesis 1 (In the beginning the Lord created the heavens and the earth.) as he opened his gospel.  Like Genesis, Mark’s gospel begins packed with action. No nativity scenes here; Mark jumps in with the prophecy of Isaiah pointing ahead to John the Baptist (1:2-4).

By verse 9, Jesus is baptized.  Verse 14: Jesus begins preaching in Galilee. The first disciples—four fishermen: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John—are quickly called and immediately follow Jesus (vs. 16-20).  Then Jesus entered the synagogue in Capernaum and healed a man with an unclean spirit.  After that Jesus went with his disciples to Simon Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law and many others.  All that and we are not even through the first chapter of Mark.

TODAY WE SAW ALL THOSE BEGINNING PLACES and more.  We dipped our hands and in water of the Jordan River, walked along the shores of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus called those first disciples, saw Simon Peter’s house where Jesus did all that healing.  Not only that, we visited the location believed to be where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and the site traditionally identified as the place Jesus miraculously fed over 5,000 with just five loaves and two fish (Mark 6:30-44).  What a beginning to our time in the Holy Land!

AN ENDING TOO: We also saw the mensa Christi (table of Christ) located where it is believed the risen Jesus fed breakfast to disciples after He guided them to haul in 153 large fish with just one drop of their fishing net.  That is my favorite fishing story in the Bible and brings to an end to the fourth gospel (John 21).  I picked up seashells and stones from the beach there to bring home to show you.

Wish you could be here with us.  Yet, you do not need to be here to know that Jesus is with us from the beginning, calls us to follow Him just as He called the first disciples, comes into our homes to bring healing, faithfully feeds us, and as our risen Lord sends us out to feed His sheep.

Shalom!