Road to Emmaus and Caesarea

(Picture: Walking on the Road to Emmaus)

Today was a really fun day, and it was our last day of field trips. I leave for home late tomorrow night and arrive early Sunday morning! I'm really excited to be back and see family and friends, but I know I will miss things about Israel and this unique group of people.

The object of today was to follow Jesus' great commission to the disciples to go to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth and spread the gospel. But first we began with Jesus' post resurrection appearance on the road to Emmaus (which is in Judea). This is about a 7 mile road leading from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We walked on a portion of it and could see the remains of a Roman road from the 2nd century, which was after Jesus' lifetime, but would have preserved an earlier road like the one Jesus walked on. These remains were big round limestone and were actually pretty intact (as far as ancient ruins go!). The main thing I took away from this experience was Dr. Wright's more pastoral message: today the road is overgrown with thistles and bushes, and as we walked along they kept pricking into my feet that were in flip flops and my legs that were in shorts. We could still see where the road was, but it was challenging to walk on and even painful at points. This is like many points of our lives...our roads may have difficult periods, often times caused by things completely out of our control. Yet we continue to press on because we know the pathway is still there and we can follow it through.

After this we went to Samaria, which was such a fascinating region. We started at the church that is the traditional site for Jacob's well (and this site actually seemed to be THE site of Jacob's well, unlike some sites that are there based mostly on tradition). Jacob built this well as a way of claiming the area by tapping into the water resources, and then it is referenced in John 4 when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the same well. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Jesus is passing through Samaria, which is a bold move because there was division between Jews and Samaritans. He stops for a drink and asks a Samaritan woman to draw him some water from the well. Jesus tells her that the water she has will make people thirsty again, while he offers living water. This leads into a discussion about the correct place to worship: Samaritans believe it is on Mount Gerizim while Jews believe it is in Jerusalem. But Jesus says a time is coming when this discussion won't matter because we will worship in spirit in truth rather than a physical location.

The church and the well were amazing. The church has huge paintings all over it that are done in bright colors with images that take up almost the whole frame. They even had framed pictures on the ceilings. There were also bright colored stained glass windows. So the whole church had a fresh, inviting, colorful vibe. Then you go downstairs and there is a small room with a well in it. The well is made out of the same limestone that is all over Israel, and had a bucket that we got to drop down into it and draw water with. The well was really deep and was connected to a fresh spring. After drawing the water we got to drink it, and it tasted pure and sweet. So...if this was the well where Jesus met the Samaritan woman, I was standing where Jesus stood and drinking from the same spring he did!

After this, we stopped at Mount Gerizim and talked to a Samaritan from the priestly line! He said there are only about 700 Samaritans remaining in Israel (and therefore the world) and they are comprised of three tribes: Levi, Ephraim, and Mannasah. They do not consider themselves Jews. They believe in God, Moses, and the five books of Moses (which they consider to be different than the Jewish Torah). In the first five books Jerusalem is never mentioned, while Mt. Gerizim is: "When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings" (Deuteronomy 11:29). Therefore, they believe Mount Gerizim is the holy place of worship rather than Jerusalem, hence the Samaritan woman's question in John 4. They associate the following events with Mount Gerizim: Abraham sacrificing Isaac, Moses' tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, Joshua's twelve stones of remembrance, and Noah's ark. Today this line continues, and is extremely exclusive (even to the extent of only marrying within the Samaritan community which has caused genetic defects). They continue to do animal sacrifices, and we saw the small wells where they do this.

After this we went back to Caesarea, which is "the ends of the earth" because it is on the sea closest to Rome. We talked about Herod some more (it is between Galilee and Jerusalem so it gave him control over both areas). This is also the place where Peter meets Cornelius after receiving a vision, and in doing so extends the gospel to the Gentiles.