A Lenten Geography - an invitation

Although it has become a message for every age, Jesus’ ministry happened in a specific place and time. As I walked the streets of Jerusalem, sailed on the Sea of Galilee and traveled the winding road down to the Jordan or through the hill country, I kept remembering that Jesus walked the same dusty roads and climbed the same dry hills I was walking each day—the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea—the land that the Romans called Judaea and later renamed Palestine. Today we call it Palestine or Israel or sometimes even Israel/Palestine, revealing our own confusion and ambivalence about this disputed territory.

In the time of Jesus, the land which was the Roman province of Iudaea or Judaea was the scene of war and violence, bloodshed, torture and displacement. The Roman occupation meant onerous taxes for the Judean peasants; when they objected, their protests were often put down violently, with all the protesters killed or crucified and entire towns burned to the ground. Finally the Roman Emperor Hadrian defeated the Jews for the last time in the third Jewish rebellion in 135 CE; by renaming the land Syria Palaestina (and renaming Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina) he hoped to wipe out all trace of the Jewish people and put an end to the Jewish rebellions. The Jews were even banished from Jerusalem and the surrounding area and Rome brought foreigners in to colonize the area.

When Jesus walked these roads, the land was under occupation—the Roman Emperor and his army, his governors and procurators controlled the land and the lives of everyone who lived on the land. The Judeans disputed Rome's control of their lives and their land. Today ownership of the land is once again disputed and the part of the land deemed Palestinian is again under armed occupation.

Beginning with the story of his birth, the gospel writers make us acutely aware of the role of the Roman Empire in the lives of even the most ordinary people in first century Palestine. In Luke’s account, the story of Jesus’ birth opens as Mary and Joseph make their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the mandatory counting—required by the Empire for all of the occupied people. The Empire wants to determine the value of that which it possesses. Matthew’s account, too, is specific about Jesus’ birthplace: “in Bethlehem of Judea,” and about the time: “In the time of King Herod” (Matt 2.1).

Even the preparation for Jesus’ birth was rooted in the land. Gabriel comes “to a city of Galillee named Nazareth” (Lk 1.26) to tell Mary of the impending birth. Mary travels the hills of Palestine, from Nazareth to “a city of Judah” (which places it near Jerusalem). So we are reminded that Jesus was born, not only in a specific place, but in a specific time, with a specific relationship to what was going on in the world. And so it is today. The land of Palestine/Israel is a specific geography and the story of the passion, of God coming to live among us, of God’s work in the world to bring about a new way of life for God’s creation, is ongoing.

Where do we meet God today?

Where is God at work among the people of Palestine and Judea today?

The stories of the “living stones,” the people of this holy land, tell us much about God’s work. Each time I visit the Holy Land, the people I meet beg me to tell their stories, with confidence that if the world knew what was happening in the land today, their lives would change and the occupation, the 60-year Nakba (catastrophe), would end. There is a growing movement among Jews within Israel that would end the occupation because of the way the system of checkpoints and walls and permits for Palestinians has damaged the humanity of the Jews themselves. Hear some of the stories as we reflect on the texts for the Sundays in Lent—stories of the “living stones” of the land of Palestine today—people working for justice and peace in this much-ravaged land today.
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