Ascent to Jerusalem
   for churches and homeschool groups

For many Christians, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land would fulfill a dream. We want to walk where Jesus walked, recite Bible stories on location, worship in the Holy City where, as they say, prayer is a local call. We are drawn to the place where heaven touched earth. 

 

But it is not just sacred places. The peoples of the Middle East summon us as well. The Bible comes alive when the people we meet become characters in the drama. That weathered bedouin holding his goat is Abraham. The hoary rabbi tutoring students is Nicodemus. The expectant maiden wending through the throng is Mary. We return home tied by threads—of time, place, and people—to a biblical world that we had previously only imagined. 

 

As for the tensions and clashes that make today’s news—they give us pause. Which media voices should we trust? Did the Bible see it all coming? How might Christians from abroad, like us, have a constructive role to play? Does God want us to pick a side? Shall we embrace the Chosen Ones and celebrate the Jews’ safe return to the Promised Land? Shall we stand with Palestinians—Christian and Muslim—whose parents have lost homes and whose children have lost hope? Or should we step back, say a simple prayer, and wait for Jesus to sort it out on his return? 

 

Is the Holy Land, for us, primarily a portal to the sacred past? Perhaps a bleak reminder of humanity’s brokenness? Ground Zero for today’s culture wars? Center stage for tomorrow’s End Times theater? Or . . . should we train our gaze upon the peoples of the Land, and humbly extend to them Jesus’ love of neighbor and of enemy?