Israel – Day Three

It’s only when you’re small, that you can be big.Jesus taught that. And it was a theme in the things we saw today.We started off visiting the Ein Harod springs, where Gideon thinned his army from 10,000 fighting men to a mere 300, before miraculously defeating the Midianites. You remember the story of how God told Gideon to have the men drink from the stream of water, and only those who drank from their cupped hands would be chosen? It happened right here.From there we traveled through the Valley of Jezreal, or better known as Armageddon, to Nazareth. We viewed the mountain that most believe Jesus was transfigured upon (Mount Tabor).When we arrived at Nazareth, I was struck by how the town was situated on a fairly high mountain. Jesus grew up in a town that overlooked the Valley of Armageddon (see the title picture), where John later prophesied that Jesus would descend upon when he returns. While there are no ancient ruins in the modern city, it was an amazing thought to know we were walking where Jesus grew up as a boy.From Nazareth we travelled to Caesarea, which was a beautiful Roman city on the Mediterranean Sea. The ruins here were remarkably preserved because when the city was abandoned after Rome withdrew during its waning days, the surrounding sand dunes quickly covered the city where it laid buried for another thousand years until it was discovered in the early 60s. A medieval crusade outpost was also built here in 1099, complete with a castle and moat. It was also preserved very well by the sand dunes.We ran across some extra interesting things here. There was a stone marker identifying the one time occupant, Pontius Pilate, as being in power when the marker was carved. Critics used to claim he was a made-up figure until this discovery. In the giant 3,500 seat theatre, there was a room designated as the “vomitorium” used for Roman feasts so that they would not have to stop eating. And everyone had a good laugh having their picture taken while sitting on the ancient stone outdoor toilets that were out in the middle of a busy walkway. Evidently, privacy for that purpose was not a value in the ancient world.It was here in Caesarea where Peter was the first to reach out to a Gentile with the Gospel, and the first non-Jew became a follower of Jesus (Cornelius). And it was here where Paul shared his salvation story to Felix and Agrippa, and where he appealed his trial to Caesar in Rome.The day ended as we ascended into Jerusalem while the sun was setting. In the evening, our guide brought us to an overlook of the city and welcomed us to his homeland with traditional bread and wine. (Well, he forgot the bread and the wine was grape juice, but the thought was meaningful.) While this was not communion, as Christians, we were struck with how the early believers must’ve used this tradition, combined with Jesus' last passover meal, to institute our own practice of communion.But let me tell you a lesson I received from Jesus. Yes, from Jesus. Do you remember his analogy of the mustard seed? He talked about it a couple of times. Once, he said that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you could move a mountain.Mustard trees are common here. As we were walking back to our bus in Nazareth, where Jesus spent his boyhood playing and climbing, as any boy would have, we came across one that was growing wild. I pulled a pod off and opened it up. I could not believe how tiny a single seed is. Think…smaller than a grain of sand. See it here in this picture. Jesus said that it is those who have faith that small who will move mountains.Then I remembered the brook that morning where I lapped up water the way Gideon’s 300 did. God didn’t want to do his work with a big army. He wanted it to be small. Even Gideon described himself as the least of his brothers from a tribe that was the least in Israel.A tiny mustard seed. A very small army. A little man.Maybe if we want to see how big God is, we have to stop trying to be big ourselves. And start admitting we are really very small.