Jerusalem Bound. Rodney Aist

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СКАЧАТЬ in prayer and fasting discerning his identity, purpose, and calling: confronting temptation, persevering in faith. We find the same concept in the visitation. Mary spent the first three months of her pregnancy at the home of Elizabeth, her older cousin, who was likewise pregnant with John the Baptist. They presumably spent the time focused on self-care, shared experience, and interpersonal relations. While pilgrimage as bracketed time may—or may not—include an extended physical journey, a distinct location, and the suspension of one’s regular day-to-day routine, Holy Land travel is commonly used as a time set aside for learning, prayer, discernment, and healing.

      Jesus as Wayfaring Messiah

      As an itinerant prophet with no place to lay his head, Jesus led a peripatetic life (Matt 8:19–22; Luke 9:58–62). Jesus did not have a home nor did he linger for long in any one place. The relentless urgency of Jesus’ ministry is emphasized in Mark’s Gospel, which contains the Greek word eutheos, meaning “immediately” or “straight away,” over forty times. Jesus’ ministry was marked by the imperative of the present moment and the immediacy of the kingdom of God. He told a potential disciple who wanted to bury his father to “let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:59–60). To another who wanted to say farewell to his family, Jesus replied, “no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

      Following Jesus meant leaving the past behind, traveling without bodily comforts, and never staying too long in the same place. He was a wayfaring messiah, constantly on the road, always on the go, at home in other people’s houses. Pilgrims likewise live in the urgency of the present moment, proclaiming the good news of God, called to locations where people have no place to lay their heads. Jesus’ disciples are travelers on the road, servants of the street, guests along the way.

      Holy Land pilgrimage is a whirlwind of non-stop movement. Reflecting upon the wayfaring Messiah turns privileged travel into an exercise of Christian formation, focusing our attention on the movements of Jesus’ ministry, the urgency of the present moment, and the image of the kingdom of God. Walking in the footsteps of Jesus is a peripatetic journey, which causes us to reconsider our attachments to the earthly life.

      Jesus as Jerusalem Pilgrim

      Jesus, above all, was a Jerusalem pilgrim, who followed Jewish practices and frequented the temple festivals. Forty days after his birth, Jesus was dedicated in the temple (Luke 2:23–24). As a twelve-year-old boy, Jesus attended Passover with his family (Luke 2:41–50), and the Gospel of John places him at the Jerusalem festivals throughout his ministry. Jesus was attending Passover when he overturned the tables of the money changers and discussed eternal life with Nicodemus (John 2:13–25; 3:1–21). The healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda occurred during an unnamed festival (John 5:1–18). John 7–10 concerns conversations during the autumn festival of Sukkot, while John 10:22–39 records Jesus’ presence at the festival of Dedication, or Hanukkah. All four Gospels set the final week of Jesus’ life during the Passover festival: he was a daily visitor to the temple and shared the Passover meal with his disciples. Notwithstanding Jesus’ critique of temple practice and his prediction of its impending destruction, Jerusalem pilgrimage was fundamental to Jesus’ life and ministry, and his relationship to the temple escapes easy characterization. While reflecting upon his Jewish background, Holy Land travelers assume Jesus’ identity as a Jerusalem pilgrim.

      Pilgrimage as Mission

      Having commissioned his disciples for a mission journey, Jesus sent them out to proclaim the good news of God, giving them authority over unclean spirits and power to cure disease and illness (Matt 10:1, 7–8). Pilgrimage is the proclamation of the kingdom of heaven. Pilgrims are missionaries—just as missionaries are pilgrims—actively engaged in Christian service, constantly witnessing to the love and power of God. What does it mean for pilgrims to practice the gift of healing, to possess authority over unclean spirits, and to proclaim the kingdom of God?

      It important to understand that proselytizing, or the attempt to convert someone to another religion, is illegal in Israel, with significant implications for individuals, groups, and institutions that engage in the practice. Christians used to the religious freedoms of Western societies are often troubled to learn this. The prohibition, which offers protections as well as restrictions, is imperative for peaceful co-existence. Religious identity functions very differently in the Middle East than it does in the West, where individuals are free to choose and change their religion and may claim multiple religious identities or none at all. Religious identity in the Middle East is determined by the family into which one is born and is fundamental to one’s personal, social, and legal standing. While it is legal to voluntarily convert to another religion, people seldom do so, which would likely threaten the status and security of their family. To proselytize in the Holy Land puts you, your group, and your host institution at risk.

      Instead, Holy Land churches are engaged in public ministry in the form of educational, vocational, and healthcare institutions. Given the population disparity between Muslims and Christians, church institutions predominantly serve Muslim communities, offering both jobs and services. Pilgrim groups are encouraged to make institutional visits, and volunteer opportunities can be arranged, especially for individuals. Called to imitate Christ in their service to others, Christian pilgrims learn from the missional witness of the Palestinian church.

      The Ascetic Pilgrim

      When Jesus commissioned the Twelve, he told them to “take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff” (Matt 10:9–10). Jesus told his disciples to travel light. What should pilgrims take on their journey? What supplies are needful, and which ones should be left at home? The questions raise the issues of material possessions, dependency on God, and the degree to which life in Christ is one of asceticism and self-denial. While the harsher words of Christ champion a life of self-renunciation, Jesus was ambivalent about the ascetic life, especially in contrast to John the Baptist. Jesus was criticized for not fasting like other religious leaders, and viewing his presence on earth in terms of a bridegroom at a wedding feast, Jesus said: “the wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them” but will fast “when the bridegroom is taken away from them” (Matt 9:14–15).

      The question is not whether Christians should engage in ascetic practices, such as fasting and self-denial, but when, where, and how often. Should Holy Land pilgrims view the entirety of their Jerusalem sojourn as time celebrated in the presence of Christ—as an Easter experience? Or, it is more meaningful to recognize both common and sacred time, both restraint and celebration, depending upon the liturgical season, the scriptural themes of the daily sites, and one’s situational context?

      Life as Pilgrimage

      The life-as-journey metaphor probes our life from the cradle to the grave with attention given to the temptations and struggles of our earthly existence. The Bible often views the world as a foreign landscape: Christians are in pursuit of a spiritual homeland, couched in terms of a heavenly Jerusalem. Christians are “strangers and foreigners on the earth . . . seeking a homeland . . . a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb 11:13–19). We are resident aliens who are in the world but not of the world (John 17:14–15). Holy Land pilgrimage is a metaphorical reenactment of the biblical prototype: the salvific journey to New Jerusalem. At the same time, it is a significant event in a pilgrim’s earthly life.

      Christological Images

      As previously discussed, the Bible contains standalone images that directly appeal to the pilgrim life. Replete with pilgrim language, Psalms provided the contemplative texts for my walk on the Camino de Santiago: “you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life” (Ps 56:13); “make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your path” (Ps 25:4); “for your steadfast love СКАЧАТЬ