As my friend Kelly reminded me of
what Vern had said in class – that this is the land in which God had to provide for his people because
natural resources were scarce – I began to understand what the Hebrew people
must have encountered coming here. They also probably asked themselves: What in
the world am I doing here? Do I have what it takes? Will I make it?
Because of the physical
challenges I encountered, I felt unable to fully enter in to the magnitude of
the places I was seeing: the probable site of Jesus’ crucifixion, his burial,
and resurrection. I wonder, though, even if I had been feeling well, whether or
not I would have felt some “extraordinary” emotion as I imagined I might. The
further I walk in my journey of faith, the more I am struck with the
ordinariness of much of faith. Walking with Jesus is a journey of remaining
faithful through the ordinary day to day, not just celebrating or declaring my
faith through an experience of gathered worship on Sunday.
My experience in Jerusalem today
was an experience of the ordinary. Walking past people on their way home or to
the market; seeing the men sitting outside their shops hoping to make some
money to support their families; watching children play in the street. This is the land in which Jesus walked –
a land of the ordinary. Jesus walked past people on their way home or to the
market. He saw men sitting outside their shops trying to support their
families. He watched children play in the streets. Jesus lived his life within
the ordinary, day to day existence of first century Palestine.
Yet, into the midst of the
ordinary, Jesus ushered in the kingdom of God, sometimes in dramatic,
extraordinary ways, but most often in very ordinary ways. When Christians think
of Jesus they often remember his miracles, healings, raising of the dead –
dramatic moments. But Jesus also just walked among the people, teaching them
about the character of the Father, encouraging them to love and seek peace
rather than conflict, and breaking bread with them. Jesus was with and among
the people in the midst of the ordinary day to day.
So, I will strive to release my
expectations of extraordinary experiences while I am here in the Holy Land. I
will seek to fully enter in to the ordinary day to day. I will trust that God
is going to meet me in the challenge of making it up the next step, of talking
with people along the way, and closing my eyes in sleep at the end of a long
day.
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