Another Field Study

With ten hours on the land one’s feet begin to feel the terrain: the rocks, the soil, the incline and decline. On one hand this land is like any other. The trees shade during the middle of the day; the hilly landscape is different from every angle; the infrastructure hides the raw lay of the land. On the other hand this place is truly special. It is not only the place that God set apart for his people, Israel, but also the place where most of the Biblical stories take place. Stones, steps, walls, trees, gardens, pools, and every other aspect of the terrain become a living commentary to God’s word. The commentary is so revealing and instructive that some have called it “the fifth gospel.” The commentary on the stories of Psalm 121, Matthew 23, and John 25 bring especially beautiful images to the narrative.

Psalm 121 is rooted in the city of David. On that ridge one can understand the authors feeling of safety and danger at the same time. Nestled down between the Western Hill and the Mount of Olives one can hear the cry, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills; from whence shall my help come? A cozy feeling is matched with the danger of being surrounded by enemies coming from above. However, the Temple Mount blocks the most vulnerable part of the land. From there God truly guards the city.

The narrative of Matthew 23 could very likely have taken place on the southern entrance to the temple mount, of which part of the original stairs still exist. Reading the story on site, one can see how Jesus taught using the scenery and people around him. One can almost feel the presence of Moses’ Seat on the temple mount and see the people passing by with heavy burdens of local trade on their back. One can imagine the Scribes and Pharisees passing by while Jesus is speaking of the gold on the temple. The whitewashed tombs are visible across the Kidron valley giving a visual to Christ’s message. One can imagine the monuments of the righteous standing around and the smoke rising from the fires of Gehenna just down the valley hill. Without an understanding of these objects and scenes, one cannot assume to sympathize with the gravity or sting of Christ’s message.

The narrative of John 5 is also brought to life by a visit to the Pool of Bethesda. One can picture Christ there, approaching a lame man and opening with a question in a Rabbinical manner. This poor man has been sick for thirty-eight years and is constantly being budged in the line for these healing waters. Of course, the story would be extravagant enough if it ended with the healing of the man. Instead one reads later in the chapter that Christ found him afterward just a couple hundred yards away in the Temple – something which that man had been unable to do for thirty-eight years because of his condition.

Each day one spends in this special land is a sermon. The text is the narrative of scripture; the homily is the terrain. This sermon is not merely entering lives by way of the ears, but is entering also by the eyes, the nose, the mouth, and mostly the feet.