When
we made a trip to the Holy Land in 1983, it was fascinating to see what Israel
had done to the Palestinians who were in the West Bank, which included part of
Jerusalem. Palestinians and Jews had
different license plates. It was easy to
tell one from another. There were
numerous check points where Israeli cars were waved through and the Palestinians
were all stopped. Israeli troops were
everywhere. In those days, in the
eighties, there was not much open fighting, not much outward turmoil; but in
the hearts of the Palestinian people, there was a great feeling of being
ostracized and left out.
Of course, the Israelis claimed all
of the West Bank as their own and were just beginning to open “settlements” in
that area, which have surged in the years since until at the present time they
occupy a great deal of the territory. In
Jerusalem itself, Israelis are occupying much of East Jerusalem, where
Palestinians have long been the chief residents. Jerusalem is not a peaceful place at all, nor
has it ever been.
Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem has long been a standard prayer in most
churches. It signifies the longing that
the world has to see peace and harmony in that place. We have been aware of the turmoil in the Middle
East for a long time. The movie Exodus with Paul Newman was an excellent
story of the beginning of the struggle.
Finding a common solution to the division that exists in what we call
the Holy Land seems to be farther and farther from what is possible. There have been a number of attempts to bridge
the gap, but they have all ultimately failed.
We need to keep Jerusalem and all of the Middle East in our prayers that
somehow God will intervene to help us to calm the chaos.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which
is now in the West Bank; lived his early life in Nazareth in Galilee and spent
his ministry helping the people in all of Israel to find healing, comfort and
peace in their lives. When finally, he
entered the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday it was on the back of a donkey
while the Roman military entered the city with horses and troops. Jesus came to Jerusalem to live the last days
of his life that ended with his betrayal and crucifixion and finally his
resurrection and eventually his ascension.
Christianity was born in Jerusalem.
His followers began small churches that spread the word of the risen
Christ throughout the known world.
Today, Jerusalem is divided into
three divisions: Christian, Jewish and
Muslim. All of these religions are
present and in places of worship. The
Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a Christian church where Roman Catholic, Greek
Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox worship. This Church is the place where the
story of the last days of Jesus’ life are told, with his sepulcher in the
middle of the church. The Western Wall
is the remains of the last Jewish temple where faithful Jews gather every day
to pray, and the old Temple Mount is the home to Al Aksa mosque and the highly
visible Dome of the Rock where supposedly Abraham offered Isaac to God and also
where Mohammed on his horse leapt into heaven.
This is a powerful city to visit and I can see little hope that one
religion will finally occupy it alone.
It also seems to me that Jerusalem
is a powerful symbol of what God has in mind for all of humanity. Living together with different religions and
different views of the world is God’s plan for all of us. If we can learn to put our differences aside
and respect one another, we will eventually find the peace that passes
understanding. That isn’t easy. Money and politics sometimes dictate our
beliefs. None of us die rich. Eventually, we all stand before God as who we
are and who we have become. Who has the
most money or the most powerful political standing doesn’t mean a thing in God’s
sight. It is only how much we have loved
and cared for those around us that matter as we stand before our God. May God bless us in this new year as we try
to look past our differences to a world of peace and harmony.
it was good
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