Tuesday, June 14—Sea of Galilee

What a holy and precious morning. We started the day by going to the mouth of the Jordan River where people had the option of being baptized. We believe that one baptism is sufficient for our faith, but it is a sacrament celebrating God’s grace. Just as we take communion on a regular basis to remember Christ’s resurrection and continually commit our lives to Him, we can likewise be baptized more than once to express our faith and God’s unending grace extended to us. I felt that being baptized in the same place Jesus was, and by my dad, were unique and special reasons to do it a second time. My dad said that as you are dipped in the water you have to release all control to him so you’re not fighting him to get down or fighting him to get up, but just trusting your “life” in his hands. In the same way, baptism was a reminder to me that I am not in control of my own life but completely dependent upon Him. I won’t allow my plans to interfere with His plans for me. I think this came at a good point in my life as I’m beginning to understand God leading my life toward a form of ministry!  

We drove up to the top of a nearby mountain to the east, The Golan Heights, to get a view of all Lower Galilee, which includes the entire Sea of Galilee. We found that most of Jesus’ ministry was done on the northwest shores of the water, in Capernaum. We could see Mount Tabor where Deborah and Barak fought the Canaanites from Judges 4. We saw where the evil spirits were cast out of the man and into the herd of pigs just before they ran off the cliff in Mark 5, the feeding of the 5,000, and the calming of the storm, just to name a few. We could even see where the Babylonian army must have marched through to Jerusalem just before the exile. Seeing the whole panoramic view from above helps me understand how all these stories are connected and helps me imagine better what life was like back then.

We went a little further around the lake to Bethsaida, the home of disciples Peter, Andrew, and Philip. It is so far away from the head of the river today that they didn’t know where to look for it. They just opened it to visitors in the past 2 or 3 years. There wasn’t much to see because it’s such a new site, but we got to see some archaeologists digging, and we have a better idea of where these Bible heroes grew up.

This is the only way to eat a fish!!



As a treat for lunch we ate St. Peter’s fish right by the Sea of Galilee, which is really just a whole freshwater fish from the Sea of Galilee. It tasted like any other fish, but was still fun to imagine that this was like the meal Jesus prepared for the disciples after His resurrection in John 21.

Capernaum was the home of Peter’s mother in law. Jesus probably stayed there with Peter several times. We were able to see the house and the ruins of a synagogue similar to the one used in Jesus’ day. We read from Mark 1 while we were there to hear about some of the many times that Jesus went to Capernaum. But Jesus cursed it because of the people’s unbelief, so it has been a deserted pile of rubble for 1500 years.



And on to the Mount of Beatitudes! We first visited the beautiful church at the top of the hill. Interesting fact, Mussolini had the church built in order to get in good with the Catholics. Though it was beautiful, it was hard to imagine what it was really like. To give us a more realistic perception we took a walk down a nearby hill. It was dry and dusty, but a few shady spots and a magnificent view of the lake. Our guide found a shady spot to stop and read Matthew 5 to us just like the people heard it 2000 years ago. How incredible it would have been to have Jesus there preaching in those days!

To complete our trip around the Sea of Galilee we got to sail the sea on a fishing boat replicating those of Jesus’ time. As we floated we read the scriptures with Jesus on a boat in the Sea of Galilee. We were able to point out all the areas around the lake, and get a feel for what it must have been like for Jesus and the disciples to be out in the middle of the water as they crossed it.

It’s hard to believe that we only have 5 days left to tour the Holy Land.