Guest Blog: Mary Margaret Gibson - Back from Israel – Full of History

Every Christian should go to Israel, have a good guide, and be amazed! I just completed my first trip to Israel and I’ve got thoughts to process for many years to come. Someone asked me at lunch today what I have learned, and I know that I’ve learned more than I can explain, but I’ll try to give you a little overview.

Even tiny, tiny interventions of God go out into the centuries. I learned that the history that the archaeologists uncover under almost every foot of the ground relates to the truth of Scripture somehow, even if we don’t understand yet how God has planted each little thing for us to find. An example of this was the little plaque in a big Canaanite dig in Dan that said on it, “the House of David.” Buried for thousands of years, this little signpost was the first “find” that named the House of David and verified the existence of the King David of Scripture for those who had contended that he was a figment of the Biblical writers’ imaginations! It was a tiny love letter to the faithful who believe without seeing and confirmation for those who must see to believe.

I read the Bible with a different eye now because I’ve seen those places. Capernaum, excavated black basalt rock, was a little town back then, right up against the Sea of Galilee. It was so intimate that “finding” Jesus there was a matter of walking to the synagogue and opening one’s eyes! Everyone was right there in the neighborhood, since the entire town was much smaller than a Walmart parking lot.

I see how a group of 5,000 men plus various family members gathered in one spot to hear the man from Galilee would be an immense crowd in that day. How alarming it must have been – Jesus was like a rock star! People tagged him, trying to get power from the decoration on his robe, and superstition became faith when his personality and power hurled sickness away and quietly revived someone’s little girl who had died. He was a walking miracle; a stunning invasion of the status quo; a marvel; a fearful threat to those who had invested their lives in claiming power over others.

I thought about the guys who had to take their blind friend, with Jesus-mud on his eyes, down to Siloam to wash. What happened to those guys? Imagine what they thought when their friend saw, really saw them! Did they just leave him there and run home – amazed and full of their story? How full of wonder Jesus was!

And when they killed him, they just did it the Roman way, by the road so people couldn’t miss the spectacle and get the message – if you want to fight the powers-that-be you’ll come to certain ruin, a wreck of a man, disfigured beyond recognition. Dead. They took his body to a place that might have been the place we saw, but then again, maybe not. Anyhow, he was truly dead. They put his body in a rock cave meant for someone else, and left him until the 3rd day when everyone was checked for dead-ness back then…no heart monitors…go put more spice on him, see if he’s dead. But he was gone – where? Where? What happened to all those soldiers? What? So, so, so the women said someone told them he was risen – not dead – alive. Has the Kingdom come?

You see what I mean? In the Garden of Gethsemane there are olive trees that are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the trees that lived when Jesus lived. They are old and gnarled and in the way of all creation they are witnesses. The Bible says it, and it can be easily seen…Jerusalem was, and will be, the City of God. Go and see.

Guest Blog by: Mary Margaret Gibson

Read more from Mary Margaret on her blog: The Gospel @ Work