Photo: The springs at the base of Mount Hermon, which are the source of one of the three streams that combine to form the Jordan River. In the time of Christ this area was known as Caesarea Philippi.
When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
He pressed them, “And how about you? Who do you say I am?”
A chapel and garden still standing from the time of the Crusaders marks the traditional place in Emmaus where two of Jesus’ followers experienced one of the greatest eye-openings in history. We were welcomed by a kind smiling Benedictine monk with a warm honey-smooth tenor voice. As he sang and invited us to join him the vaults filled with praise.
Emmaus
Anyone who has had to adapt to new eyeglasses will understand what I am saying, particularly if the change is a big one, like the switch from regular glasses for myopia to bifocals or progressive lenses. New glasses may give you improved vision, but first they will give you a three-week headache.
Anyone who has had their world shaken by the unexpected, especially unexpected tragedy, knows the ambivalent feelings of not wanting to hear the story of the event again and yet feeling the need to compulsively give an account of everything that happened to anyone who shows the least bit of interest. If there is more than one witness everyone will need to say where they were and how they experienced the accident, the surprise verdict, the sudden destruction, the unexpected death. There seems to be a drive in folks to make sense of things. All sorts of floated theories birth platitudes.
I imagine this is what the two disciples leaving Jerusalem for the village of Emmaus were doing, after the news of Jesus’ crucifixion and rumours of his missing body circulated. When the stranger traveling the same direction joined them and asked what was up they immediately launched into their versions of what happened to this Jesus, this miracle-working man from the north who they hoped would free them from political oppression, and their profound disappointment in the way things turned out. No doubt the short-sightedness of the government and religious establishments received some scathing criticism -but quietly. No doubt they were also frightened about the implications for his followers. Perhaps that is why they were in a hurry to leave the city.
The stranger first asked some leading questions, then reminded them of things the prophets had written, which they had probably set aside as for another time in the future.
As I stood under the vaulted ceiling of the chapel I thought about the roller-coaster of emotion they have felt when Jesus opened their eyes and they realized who he was, I mean Who He actually was! That must have been the grandest paradigm-shifting moment of all time! They got it! God’s plan for the ages was much greater than their own hopes.
Emmaus Chapel Vault
“Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke?” they asked each other as incredulousness turned to praise. On a deep level, in their spirits, before they knew, they somehow knew.
I had a moment like that this week. I was telling someone that the Sea of Galilee or Lake Kinneret, as it is called now, reminds me so much the Okanagan in central B.C., except that it’s wider. It is also surrounded by orchards and hills. (Although I’ve never seen date or mango groves in Canada.) We talked about how most of Jesus’ outdoor classroom for his followers was within a thirteen mile stretch on the lake.
South end of Lake of Galilee
I went away thinking about Jesus calming the storm on the lake.
We had just come out of a sudden unexpected crisis when it looked like someone very dear to us was going to die, and of course we rehashed events and told everyone who would listen the story. Honestly, I’ve often thought it would be easier to be in the hospital bed myself than to see my children or grandchildren suffer. My children and their spouses and my grandchildren are the loves that I hold closest to my heart. Many times I have come to the point of handing them back to God, because even though family is such a high priority I want God to be the highest priority. Then I take them back; it’s a struggle sometimes. This time God took me up on my offer.
The Lord heard our cries and calmed the storm, but it wasn’t until this week I realized in both the disciples’ situation and ours, the real miracle wasn’t that Jesus restored peace to the waves that threatened to swamp us, (although that was absolutely marvelous!!!!) it was that God himself was in the boat with us. He so desired to communicate His love that He laid down everything and came as a human being to go through everything we do -with us. He never left us to work it out on our own.
I began to think about the place of suffering. Our son-in-love helped me understand when he spoke about his perception of his experience. Mostly he just tears up and talks about how much deeper the love of Jesus is than he ever imagined. I so admire this man who has been through hell physically, yet has absolutely no bitterness.
Waves of Galilee
Then the Lord spun my head around by reminding me of the verse I have quoted so often: Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. ( Philippians 3:8-11)
that I may know him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
He was willing to enter our suffering, and to relieve it, that we might have a glimpse of what the Father is like by calming the storm and healing our diseases. But when we are willing to lay down everything and enter into his suffering in order to know him, he pours out a level of love and grace and reveals himself in a way that is like suddenly realizing the Creator of the Universe is actually the One breaking bread at our own kitchen table.
Red Dawn on Galilee
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5: 1-5)
Hope does not disappoint. God is good. God is love.
I woke early and went down to the lake. In the spring, Israel is full of migrating birds who greet the dawn with song. Their singing is like a great chorus in a sky-domed cathedral giving glory to God as the light grows brighter.
My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away. For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come, And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth her green figs, And the vines with the tender grapes Give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away!
Sometimes the best way through the valley is through the valley.
That’s where the feast is kept.
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
All this will flow from the kind and compassionate mercy of our God. A new day is dawning: the Sunrise from the heavens will break through in our darkness, And those who huddle in night, those who sit in the shadow of death, Will be able to rise and walk in the light, guided in the pathway of peace.
(Luke 1:78, 79 The Voice)
We can’t fight darkness by focusing on darkness; it only leads to more fear. But if we walk in the Light, live in the Light, and the Light lives in us, darkness is displaced. In the Presence of the Light darkness must flee.
I kept dreaming about waterfalls. All night. Tumultuous white water splashing over boulders. Surges of deep sweeping forces drawn over precipices.
Now you need to understand that for years I had a phobia for waterfalls. Strange, I know, when there are so many other options available for things to be irrationally afraid of –spiders, heights, speaking in front of crowds, public toilets, goats, turning left…
In the dark years I had many nightmares about waterfalls and about falling in and being pulled over the edge. I knew even then that waterfalls represented feeling out of control emotionally. In real life I avoided them.
Lundbreck Falls, Winter
I met a woman who had fallen over Athabaska Falls as a child and survived. She told me how she decided to face a life-long fear of the falls and revisit them. After considerable therapy, she stood trembling near the edge. Just then a child came running by and tripped right in front of her. She lunged forward and grabbed his leg as he was about to go over the edge. What are the odds? (It was actually a very healing experience for her.)
As I regained health the phobia lessened to the point where I could go to a waterfall and take photos –usually from the bottom, but eventually from the top. So the dreams about waterfalls surprised me.
In the dream I asked, “What is this?”
The answer came back, “Peace like a river.”
I woke up.
“Oh no, no, no. Peace like a river is a calm blue sky river with no ripples but the ones stirred by my paddle,” I said.
Kootenay River
As I asked the Lord about these images I felt Him say in my spirit, “Peace is not conditional on external circumstance. There is as much of My peace available in white water rapids as in a lazy meandering river. A waterfall is still a river. A giant cascade is still peace like a river.
Could it be there is as much peace available in the midst of emotional upheaval as there is in emotional calm? Jesus was not afraid to express emotion. He experienced righteous indignation to the point of turning tables, anguish to the point of sweating blood, and elation to the point of glowing –yet He was always the Prince of Peace. He could sleep in a boat in the midst of a wild storm because He knew who He was.
I believe now that it is possible to experience peace even in the midst of whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. When Jesus Christ lives in us, and we in Him, He shows us who we really are and how to live in the Peace that passes understanding.
Charis: Subject to Change 