Our first encounter with the River Jordan didn't impress us. Our tour bus stopped by a narrow stream within a foliaged river bed.
In modern times, 70 to 90% of the water in the River Jordan is siphoned off for agricultural and other human uses.
The nearby Golan Heights, captured from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967 seemed more intriguing because of what lies just beyond.
Later in our cruise, we would see refugees from Syria in small boats fleeing to Europe by sea.
However, Israel understands the value of religious tourism, so they have preserved the first three kilometers near the Sea of Galilee. My sister-in-law, Pastor Cheryl, mentioned that Calvary Chapel of Orange County, California, donated money to Israel to build baptismal sites for Christian pilgrims on the River Jordan, which a Los Angeles Times article from 1990 confirms.
A friend of mine from high school mentioned she was baptized there by Pastor Chuck Smith, but you can also buy a baptismal kit for $20 on site.
I didn't buy the kit, but I did bring my swim trunks.
If you look closely, that's me in the River Jordan.
While our tour bus was air conditioned, every stop left us in 95 degree heat, so by the time we reached the River Jordan baptismal spot, a refreshing dip in the green water sounded great.
It's not the kind of place where you splash around, but being in the water where John baptized Jesus is awesome. Having grown up attending the Brethren Church in Seal Beach, I was taught that we each can develop a personal relationship with God that requires no intermediary clergy, so I took the opportunity to baptize myself, pushing my own forehead back to submerge my head in the water a couple of times while praying.
The baptism of Jesus, where His ministry initiated, has great significance in Christianity, so great that the second book of the Bible, the Gospel of Mark, skips past the Christmas story altogether.
Mark boldly begins by declaring Jesus to be the Son of God and Messiah, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, and then talks about John the Baptist.
As primitive as the cave homes of Nazareth may have been, they apparently represented far too lavish a life style for John the Baptist, a wild man who wore camel hair clothes and ate locusts with wild honey.
He preached "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins," and something about this troglodyte brought the masses from all over Judea, as far away as Jerusalem, to confess their sins and be baptized in the Jordan River.
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
Matthew Chapter 3, Verses 11, 13 to 15, Holy Bible New International Version
Wes in River Jordan left of center,
and girl in baptismal clothes in foreground on right
The Book of Luke kicks off with a narrative about John the Baptist's parents, who were well beyond the age when couples have children. They received the good news of their soon-to-be-son from the angel Gabriel six months before Elizabeth's cousin Mary learned about Jesus in a similar manner, which was fitting since John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord.
The River Jordan made a wonderful last stop on our 11 1/2 hour day of touring, but actually I skipped over our time in Capharnaum and the Mount of Beatitudes in order to follow the time line of Jesus, so I will still be writing at least one more post about Israel.
In thinking back to memories of our sojourn to the Holy Lands, I realized that in two weeks I literally have enough memories to fill a book.
I decided to link them all in one place, because I know I'll want to return again and again.
If you have some time to read over the next few days, link this page on your smart phone or tablet, and escape with me into a fascinating region of the world.
And if you decide you want to take advantage of truly incredible values in Europe this summer or fall,
e-mail Wes@CruisePlanners1.com.
You can choose any topic you find of particular interest and follow embedded hotlinks to more details. Also note that clicking on photos will make them larger.
For the past twenty years or so, Julie and I have walked rather than drive whenever feasible, and since she retired, we make a point of a dedicated 2 to 4 mile walk every day, which on a cool morning on the beach can be exhausting. As such, after riding long distances on an air-conditioned tour bus through rugged desert terrain, we're quite impressed to think of these distances being covered on foot by Jesus and His contemporaries.
The Sea of Galilee
In the years before He walked 40 miles to the Sea of Galilee region to begin His ministry, Jesus and His family, like all Jews, were required to make several pilgrimages each year from Nazareth to Jerusalem for specific holidays and ceremonies to make sacrifices in the Temple.
According to Killing Jesus, which I read prior to this cruise, the direct route would have been too dangerous, so they had to take a somewhat circuitous route to get there, making the trek even longer.
Old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives
When Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for purification, as required under the Law of Moses, an old holy man, Simeon, declared upon seeing young Jesus, that he could die in peace, because he had seen "salvation." An old prophet, Anna, upon seeing Jesus declared He would be the "redemption of Jerusalem."
Jesus was obviously no ordinary boy.
Ancient Coins at Bergama Museum near Izmir, Turkey
Joseph and Mary sacrificed “a pair of doves or two young pigeons” as required under the law, but because it would have been close to a hundred mile trip from Nazareth, they would've had to buy them at the Temple from a vendor selling sacrificial animals.
To further complicate matters, only Jewish shekels could be used in the Temple to buy the doves, but the official currency of the Roman Empire used in everyday life were Roman denarius.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
It was on these coins that Emperor Caesar August was declared "son of god," promoting the fact that he was the adopted son of Julius Caesar, who had been deified after his assassination.
The justification for the money changing in the Temple was that most coinage bore "graven images," the profiles of monarchs who saw it as a way to increase their prestige, much as current politicians use junk mail trumpeting their greatness using government funds.
The West Wall, all that remains of the Temple of Jerusalem
The money changers took a large fee for their services, and then the sacrificial animal merchants also took sizable profit margins on their wares. In addition, the impoverished Jews also had to tithe to the Temple using shekels purchased with denarius.
Nonetheless, young Jesus loved the religious philosophizing at the Temple, and when He returned with His parents for Passover at the age of twelve, He amazed the religious scholars with His brilliant insights and deep understanding of the scriptures.
Alley Cat in Jerusalem
Being almost an adult, Jesus was allowed to wander around the big city on His own, and when it came time for their caravan to head back to Nazareth, Joseph and Mary assumed He had gone ahead. Not seeing Him anywhere in the among their friends heading to Nazareth, they eventually panicked and doubled back to Jerusalem. After a frantic search, they finally found the preteen boy in the Temple and, like any good parent, asked Jesus how He could treat them like that.
"Why were you searching for me?" He asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
For the first thirty or so years of His life, Jesus lived in Nazareth, apprenticing with His father and eventually becoming a carpenter, with that daily life punctuated by a day of worship on Sabbaths and long journeys to the Temple in Jerusalem for religious celebrations.
Murals Within Church of All Nations in Jerusalem
Over the years of His youth, Jesus became outraged by the commerce within the Temple, which bled what little money Jewish peasants had left for subsistence after Roman taxes. He saw high priests, Sadducees, living large under the guise of religiosity, while the average Jew struggled to get by. He understood those wealthy priests took cuts of the money changing and merchandise sales in God's Temple as well as being supported by the mandatory tithes (10% of everything earned) paid to the Temple.
Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Just to be clear, we didn't actually return to Jerusalem after visiting Nazareth, but this seemed too long for a preamble to a post about the River Jordan. While here, let's jump ahead and tie up the story line of Jesus in Jerusalem.
Years later, after He had been baptized by John the Baptist and embarked on His ministry, Jesus returned to the Temple for Passover and the outrage at what He saw boiled over, motivating Him to overturn the tables of money changers, scattering stacks of coins all across the ground, and open the cages to release the sacrificial animals.
At the Church of the Holy Sepuchre
"My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."
The next verse after that in Matthew states, "And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple; and He healed them." No doubt He was shaking up the status quo.
Of course, eventually Jesus would enter Jerusalem on a young donkey, share the Last Supper with His disciples, be betrayed by Judas, and endure a moment of doubt in the Garden of Gethsemane, after which He would be tried, tormented and crucified.
Upon arising from death, Jesus would become known throughout the world.
The last few days in January were downright warm once we had donned ski clothing layers, although we had a cold snap in the middle of the month when nighttime temperatures dropped to 38 below zero.
Big Sky Resort continued valiant efforts with their snow-making and trail maintenance, but by February 2, thin coverage forced closing some runs to focus on a few favored slopes.
A larger-than-usual crowd on that Friday made it seem more like the public ski mountain that it truly is than the private ski playground that it sometimes feels to be.
I love spring skiing's warmer temperatures, even if snow isn't as good as on frigid winter days, so Julie and I make the best of it.
When Julie joins me two or three days a week, we pick and choose the runs we take. We ski down Mr. K the most because of its consistently good snow coverage. Our second top choice is Tippy's Tumble.
By the end of the day, we've had a lot of great skiing, even if avoiding other skiers is the biggest difference in each time down.
We now both take the shuttle bus from Town Center rather than driving, and we have a pretty good routine down. When I go alone, Julie drops me at the bus stop and later picks me up, saving me the plodding walk in ski boots.
On solo days, I try to add variety, searching for hidden gems.
Yesterday, with the big crowd forced onto fewer runs --- compounded by the popular Hangman run being used for a ski race which limited choices further --- there were actually five to fifteen minute waits for lifts, even in the Single line, but I got in some fun runs.
Most of the time we ski down and either get on immediately or wait a couple of minutes.
When we aren't skiing, we take hikes, and the views just walking by the snow-covered golf course in town are pretty awesome.
On Wednesday evenings, Julie and I have been heading to the nearby Wilson Hotel lobby to enjoy live music with a spectacular view of Lone Peak as a scenic backdrop.
For our Wedding Anniversary, we headed to Tips Up to split a huge double cheese burger.
Yes, we're quite the big spenders when it comes to dining out on our anniversary, though in our defense, I will say that double burger now costs $28 and does easily feed both of us.
We've also gone to our favorite restaurant, River House Grill, a couple of times for our favorite, fried chicken dinner. The recipe seems very similar to the one used by my mom and grandmother, so of course we love it.
With three pieces of chicken each, plus side dishes and a supplemental order of onion rings, we have not only dinner but leftovers for lunch the next day.
Mostly we have our meals at home, cycling through dishes we cook no matter where we may call home.
People we encounter in Big Sky tend to be on vacation, so it is somewhat like living on a cruise ship constantly.
We meet lots of interesting people from around the country who offer a wide spectrum of viewpoints.
Now that Darlene, Brooks and BG3 spend less time in Big Sky in the winter, Julie and Igo through a bit of withdrawal from being away from family after just a week or so.
We've skied two to four times each week, and just being out of the house keeps us from over-consuming food and media.
In the afternoon, I stand in our bedroom looking out the window to play my guitar and sing a combination of songs memorized fifty years ago along with a few new ones over the course of an hour or so. It helps with my left hand flexibility, which before I started playing again was slowly succumbing to numbness.
I can't find the exact quote, but I read that Dick Van Dyke said essentially that in his thirties, he exercised to look good. In his fifties, he exercised to stay fit. In his seventies, he exercised to stay ambulatory. In his nineties, he exercises as an act of defiance. I seem to be on that same track, albeit with a heavier build than that nimble star of a TV show my sister and I watched regularly when we were kids.
I will mention a movie I watched this week free on Amazon Prime. Air is the Ben Affleck-Matt Damon collaboration about the birth of Nike's Air Jordan phenomenon. It's a fun look back to the mid-1980's, a wonderful time to be alive, and see the "high tech" of that day.
I've never worn Nike's, having gone from New Balance to Adidas Rod Lavers to my now favorite Skechers, so perhaps that made me reluctant to watch the movie, but like other movies by these guys that I've watched beginning with Good Will Hunting, I found it well done.
Brooks worked many years in product licensing at Ocean Pacific, so I'm sure he would find a lot in Air's milieu relatable.
I've seen Damon in Big Sky skiing --- or actually having lunch at a yurt where we also stop while skiing --- quite a few times in recent years. If I happen to see him this year, I can mention I enjoyed this new flick, though usually we just exchange glances which I project acknowledges recognition from past years.
I don't bother celebrities I see, including Ben Affleck's ex-wife Jennifer Garner, who also skis in Big Sky. They're entitled to live wonderful American lives too.
Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel, site where
the archangel Gabriel appeared to inform Mary that she would
be blessed to give birth to the Son of God, Jesus.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a country more steeped in religion than Israel, where three of the world's great religions began.
As we learned in Sunday School, Moses led his people on an Exodus out of slavery in Egypt, parting the Red Sea en route to the Promised Land. Moses never saw the Land of Israel, because he could not follow directions.
No, he wasn't ignoring his wife and refusing to stop at a gas station to ask for help.
Old Testament Stories Depicted on
Door at Basilica of the Annunciation
Moses failed to follow God's commands exactly and took credit himself for God's miracle of bringing forth drinking water from a rock.
Interesting that water, the rights for which was the basis for the creation of cities and subsequent civilizations, can often be found at the heart of religions.
Anyway, Moses wandered in the desert for forty years, and in fact, everyone in his generation died before seeing their destination that is now called Israel.
God gave the Jews many amazing military victories in their prime, and those stories for me as a child were as vivid as The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter for today's youth, thanks to engaging lessons from my great Sunday School teachers, Mr. Ball and Dave Willett, augmented by Charlton Heston movies.
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine (Israel),
site of the manger where Jesus was born to Mary.
Unfortunately, the Israelites didn't stay faithful to God, and subsequently the Promised Land was overtaken by other kingdoms like the Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans, with Jews strewn throughout the world, often initially enslaved, then cyclically they earned freedom, built wealth, suffered persecution for being successful and eventually would be stripped of their wealth and livelihoods, at which point the process would start from scratch again.
Jesus's Childhood Home in Nazareth is thought to be a grotto.
As unlikely as it seems, they continued to practice their religion, which served as a reason to keep their language alive in foreign lands.
Over 2500 years later, Israel was re-established as a Jewish homeland in the aftermath of World War II.
Millions of Jews had been used as laboratory rats and slaughtered in the Holocaust, and some enlightened world leaders determined the best chance for ending the cycle would be to return the Israelites to the land promised to them by God.
Bustling Port of Haifa, Israel
Jews had already begun re-settling in their homeland from the late 1800's with the Zionist movement. Prior to that, the land in what is now Israel had devolved over the centuries into mostly desolate wasteland under the neglectful care of nomadic wanderers, as you can easily read about in Mark Twain's reflections on the region during the 19th century, The Innocents Abroad.
Japan's Take On Madonna and
Jesus, Part of International Series
of Paintings in Nazareth at the
Church of the Annunciation.
In the interim between Israelites being scattered throughout the earth and the resurrection of Israel, the Jew Jesus of Nazareth rose to become the most famous person to have ever walked the earth. His followers spread the word far and wide, establishing another great religion, Christianity.
Recently, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, visited the United States to great fanfare.
The Catholic Church, of course, is headquartered in the Vatican, an independent nation located within Rome.
Catholicism was founded by a disciple of Jesus, the fisherman Simon whom Jesus said he would call Petros (Peter), which means "rock."
Some have speculated the name to be a small bit of black humor based on Jesus foreseeing Peter would deny Him three times before the cock crowed along the way to Jesus's crucifixion, but most believe it was because Jesus knew Peter's heart was always true.
Statue of Simon Peter in his hometown
of Capharnaum by the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus said he would build his church on this Petros, and it is said that Peter's bones are buried beneath St. Peter's Basilica, the incredible Catholic Church at the Vatican.
However, because these lands of Israel are where Jesus grew up, preached, died for our sins and resurrected, it has been considered the Holy Land by Christians for centuries.
Against all odds, Christianity spread to be the dominant religion throughout Europe thanks to Emperor Constantine, a Christian himself who issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD that de-criminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire.
In 325 AD, Constantine's First Council of Nicaea brought together diverse Christian sects (and actually some pagan rituals) into one orthodoxy. About that same time, Constantine prohibited construction of new pagan temples, and by the end of his reign he was destroying them.
Mount of Beatitudes overlooking the Sea of Galilee,
where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.
During our trip, we would visit many remarkable sites said to be the exact places where major events in the life of our Savior unfolded, but most were designated as such in 326 to 328 AD, when Constantine's 80 year-old mother Helena came to the Holy Lands to locate and consecrate them.
It is a matter of faith as to whether you believe she nailed them all exactly based on oral traditions passed down from the time shortly after Jesus returned from death (at which point His followers by all reports had been chased out of town or killed) or if she was duped by con artists seeking royal coin, but it is nonetheless moving to be in the right general areas.
Palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of St. John
in Rhodes, Greece
You may recall that about 800 years later, Europeans became outraged by Muslim persecution of Christians in Jerusalem and began the Crusades to re-claim the Holy Lands.
That, of course, brings up the third great religion of the region, Islam, which accepts most tenets of the Old Testament and the New Testament, except the resurrection of Jesus and the belief that He was the fulfillment of the prophecies.
Gateway to Old Jerusalem
Muslims believe Mohammed followed Jesus as the next great messenger from God, and in something of a repeat of history, Mohammed led his chosen people to nationhood in the Middle East.
In 570 AD, Mohammed was born in Mecca, which is the holiest city for Muslims. Islam is linked to Israel because the foundations of his religion are in those earlier religions. Plus, the Muslim version of manifest destiny calls for them to control all of the Holy Lands, including Israel.
"I was brought by al-Burg who is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place his hoof at a distance equal to the range of vision. I mounted it and came to the Temple (Bait-ul Maqdis in Jerusalem), then tethered it to the ring used by the prophets."
Jerusalem, Israel
The Dome of the Rock Mosque on the Temple Mount in Old Jerusalem marks the spot of the ascension to heaven.
The mosque's location creates a major problem for Jews, because it blocks them from re-building the Jewish Temple on the site of the first one built by King Solomon in the tenth century BC.
Mural at Elvis Gas Station Near Jerusalem selling Elvis
postcard that read, "I saw the King in Jerusalem."
Because Israel is a free nation that respects property rights and allows people to worship in any way they want, there is nothing the Jews can do about it.
Let me stress here that there are many things about Islam to be admired, including the fact that followers pray five times each day.
River Jordan Baptismal Area Tiles
Muslims are required to make themselves clean before prayer, which encouraged good hygiene before anyone knew what germs were, similar to "religious" rules from the Old Testament, like the admonishment to never eat pork, which was literally an unclean meat that could make diners quite ill back in those ancient times
A religion that encourages you to think about God throughout your day and to follow hygienic rules can't be bad, right?
Certainly, some great heroes from my youth like Lew Alcindor (who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Cat Stevens still seem to be nice guys following their conversions to Islam, but unfortunately there are also some leaders who preach hatred.
Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives,
where Judas betrayed Jesus.
As peace loving Muslims, Kareem and Cat probably optimistically support the new nuclear agreement with Iran which is being touted to America as a peace agreement by President Obama's administration.
We are a secular country that respects all religions, but founded on Judeo-Christian principles. Nonetheless, the USA is called "the Great Satan" by many Muslim leaders.
In presenting the same nuclear agreement to his people, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led the crowds in cheers of "Death to America" and promised Israel would not exist in 25 years.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre on
the site where Jesus was crucified.
Tiny Israel has been threatened with annihilation by its neighbors since its re-birth but somehow has managed to hold its own and even win, much like the story of David and Goliath.
I personally think Naziism rather than Islam is to blame for the hatred of the USA and Israel spread by Khamenei and his ilk, but some followers take it on faith when their Imam or Supreme Leader tells them they will be blessed and rewarded in heaven if they strap a bomb on their chests or fly planes into buildings to kill civilians, "because it is the will of Allah."
Yes, these three great religions often find themselves at war with each other, whether both sides actually seek to destroy the other or not.
Getting back to history, as the decades unfolded following the birth of Islam, the Christian Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, which had ruled the Holy Lands for centuries, gradually receded.
St. George statue at
Church of St. Catherine, built
on the site of a Crusader Church
which had been built on the site
of a 4th Century Monastery in Bethlehem.
Over the last 50 years or so, movies, novels and even textbooks have re-framed the Crusades as a reckless encroachment by Christians on Muslims.
The power of Hollywood in particular to influence popular opinion should never be underestimated, and while I won't deny there being multiple sides to every story, I think perhaps Crusaders have been overly vilified of late.
To put it in perspective, consider the middle three letters in JerUSAlem happen to be USA.
If the USA was overrun by people taking away our Constitutional freedoms, would we not want to re-claim our country?
As you probably know, Muslims conquered most of the region, and eventually the great Ottoman Empire arose as one of the richest and most powerful kingdoms ever.
Hagia Sophia (means "Holy Wisdom") was the
greatest church in the Byzantine Empire from 537 AD to 1453. In 1453 it was
converted into a mosque. In 1935, Turkey
re-opened this Istanbul highlight as a museum.
The name of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire's former capital, Constantinople (named after the Christian Roman Emperor Constantine), became Istanbul.
Constantinople's most spectacular church, Hagia Sophia, was converted to serve as a mosque.
As we all know, even within these great religions, there are differences.
Protestants and Catholics fought many wars over whose version of Christian religion was closer to what God would want, but not lately.
Other newer spin-offs of Christianity that feature latter-day prophets of a sort include Mormonism, Christian Science, and Religious Science, but they generally haven't killed each other as a matter of principle.
The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
While Ultra-orthodox and Orthodox Jews may not fully approve of Liberal Jews like our guides, who work or even ride in buses on the Sabbath, they aren't trying to kill them.
With the new millennium, we have grown accustomed to seeing hatred within Islam between Shia, Sunni and Kurds, as played out in Iraq, continuing as it has for centuries.
Baha'i World Center and Gardens in Haifa, Israel
A spin-off from Sunni Islam is Baha'i, which is now headquartered in Haifa, Israel.
Baha'i expands on the basics of Islam, including its foundations in Judaism and Christianity, while adding the lessons of Buddha, Krishna and essentially anyone else who has some positive words of enlightenment.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
in Jerusalem Where Jesus Was Buried and Resurrected.
In the 1800s, their new prophet, Bahá’u’lláh, proclaimed there is only one God, worshiped by different religions in their own rituals, and that there is a spiritual unity of all of mankind.
So, of course, he was forced into exile. Early Baha'is were slaughtered, and present day followers continue to be persecuted in Muslim counties, including present-day Iran where the religion started.
I don't present this as an attempt to imply any status of absolute truth to Baha'i or to convert anyone.
Rather, I think it is a good modern day example of the challenges Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and their followers overcame spreading a gospel of love in an age long before the existence of mass communication that encircles the world in an instant.
Wes in Big Comfy Couch on Azamara Journey
Yes, this is a long-winded opening to the Holy Lands we explored on Azamara Journey, but if you think about it, compared to all the chapters of history that have unfolded during that time, this wouldn't even qualify as a Cliffs Notes version.
By the way, you can click on any of the photos to enlarge them to make them easier to see, and the hotlinks take you to pages I selected to share for anyone who wants to know more on that topic.
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
