Our pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine had several purposes.   We went to meet the peoples of this land.  We went to better understand the reality and complexity of the contemporary Holy Land.  We went to walk where Jesus walked.  Most importantly, we went to learn how to live like Jesus lived, so we can be his presence now in the world.

The trip was what we thought it would be–mind blowing, heart expanding, gut wrenching, awe inspiring, and life changing.   Of course it’s powerful to walk where Jesus walked.  The Bible comes alive, the reality of the Incarnation settles more deeply in.   Being in Bethlehem and Nazareth and on the Sea of Galilee and then Jerusalem never ceases to drive home the fact that Jesus was real, was human, and was here in time and space on our earth.   God became flesh and dwelt among us, yes, but right here!

And on this trip, it’s even more powerful to meet people who are trying to walk as Jesus walked right now and trying as best they can to follow his command to “love your enemies”.  We met many people like this, those who are trying to be peacemakers in a land and region where peace is hard to find.

Those we met who were most inspiring were those who had gone to great lengths to overcome immense obstacles and pain to love “the other”.   Those in this camp included both Israelis and Palestinians as well as those who were Jewish, Muslim, and Christian.   What they shared had some strikingly similar themes:

• Every human being, as an individual, has immense dignity and is of infinity value.  The person across from you, even your enemy, is an image bearer of God.
• Forgiveness is hard, and is a process.
• Love matters more than anything.   In the words of one Palestinian evangelical Christian, “Love is the worldview”.  And Love is very hard work.  Sometimes we simply choose it and do it.
• What we want for our own children is what we must want for another’s children, and more specifically, the other’s children.
• It is imperative not to pick sides with regards to this conflict.  You must be both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian or else you simply add to the seeming intractability of the conflict.
• There are ways to find peace in this conflict if there is the will and courage to pursue it.  And the lack of finding peace in it’s own land is the most pressing threat to the state of Israel.
• Making peace is very hard work.  But there is no other viable option that will lead to the flourishing of all in this land, or any.

Time and time again on this trip, when hearing from these folks, I felt like I was in the presence of greatness, that I was privileged simply to be in their presence, and that they had tapped into and were living out the Deep Truth that I aspire to know and to follow.   Simply put, being on this pilgrimage left me again wanting to be a better man, and more committed to peace and reconciliation in the contexts where God has me, as well as rekindling my prayers for the ‘peace of Jerusalem’ and also for the work of Todd Deatherage and the Telos Group.

At the conclusion of our trip, as an epic sandstorm raged outside in Tel Aviv, Todd led us through an authentic Christian response to what we had seen, and he shared an insight from Henri Nouwen: “It is possible for men and women and obligatory for Christians to offer an open and hospitable space where strangers can cast off their strangeness and become our fellow human beings….That is our vocation: to convert the hostis into a hospes, to convert the enemy into a guest and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.”   May there be more like this in the Holy Land, and may we be such people wherever we are.