Scene of taxes, healings, demons, and hanging out with the guys...
We visited an ancient ruin
of a city on the far north shore of Lake Kineret (what we know as the Sea of Galilee.)
Capernaum is about the size of two football fields, all held within the dark volcanic rocks stacked into city walls. The foundations, and what is left of the walls are still very clearly laid out in small shops and homes that look a bit like a maze from one city wall to the other.
This little town
is where Jesus spent most of the last 3 years of his life. And within about 3 miles of this small collection of stone homes, he preached the sermon on the mount, healed a leper, walked on water, fed the 5,000, healed Peter's mother-in-law, and called his disciples out of their comfortable lives into fellowship with himself.
The beach just below the city limits is also covered with rounded, dark rocks that vary from the size of grapefruit to basketballs. I have no idea how they launched and landed boats from that shore. (They say that the level of the lake was twenty feet higher back then, so perhaps it was a sandier, friendlier beach back then.)
This city is the site of Jesus’ home for most of the last three years of His life! So it, and the hills and small towns around, are the places where He did many of His healings.
One of the ruins from 2000 years ago
lies beneath a synagogue that was built over the older synagogue of Jesus time, and is in pretty good condition. It's walls are whiter, because it was built from rock that came from another synagogue about 1600 years ago, hauled from a location whose rocks were limestone, rather than volcanic.
The other buildings in the town have walls that are now only two to three feet high. The rooms are small – perhaps 10x10.
One interesting ruin is a round home, said to be Peter’s home. It is where Jesus would have healed Peter’s mom, and it became a gathering place as the word of His teaching and miracles spread. You can see where they added on to the original home in order to accommodate the crowds that would gather over the next three years.
Capernaum itself, is located at the base of a long, high hill – about 3 miles from the place where Jesus fed 5000 people by handing out supernaturally-multiplying chunks of fish and bread. (We ate fish for lunch that day in Tiberius, by the way.)
There was no delivery of 2500 pizzas from Dominos, but He made a way to meet people’s needs. Then, on his way back to the town, after teaching the people about 12 life rules that God governs by, He saw, approached, touched, and healed an ‘invisible’, isolated, untouchable, incurable leper.
But that was not the end of it.
He knew, by the revelation of His Spirit, that there was another man living in desperate straits about 8 miles away across the lake. Not even a deep and stormy sea could stop Him from going to save this man, so right there off shore from where we stood, He walked right across the blowing waves, and fixed the problem by casting out the multiple demons, clothing the man, and giving him a life purpose. The lengths He goes to for a solitary, lost and despairing soul. Oh, the compassion this Son of God has for hurting people!
Our concert that evening,
on the opposite shore of the lake, stirred our hearts, and the quietly observing heart of our guide. He heard. He saw that this group was I the hand of One who moves beyond politics, beyond the history of nations, and beyond mere psychology to shape nations and people.
He saw that the human heart is deeper than just emotions – there is a spiritual reality upon which are built thoughts and emotions.