Some years ago my wife and I fulfilled a long awaited dream to visit Israel. What a privilege to walk where biblical figures did and specially to walk through where Jesus did. One reads the Bible and imagines the places and cenaries it mentions, but to be there and walk through it broadens our understanding of the context where the biblical stories took place.
It is stunning to get to know the surroundings of the Galilee Sea, to visit Jerusalem or to bathe in the Dead Sea. It is like watching 3D movies, the stories gain life. It is amazing to realise that Jesus was there, there he told his parables, performed his miracles, and most of all there he died to save humanity.
However to walk through where Jesus walked, doesn’t only happens when we walk through the cities of Israel. To walk where Jesus did, means to get closer to the desperate and give them hope, to the helpless and give them support, to the vulnerable and give them protection. Certainly the streets of our towns are filled with men, women and children in need of hope, support and protection.
If as Christians we are going to follow Jesus, we must get out from the comfort zone of our temples and take a chance through the unsafety of our streets, for that is where the Master passed, there is where he was, there is where he is. In certain occasion he added that every time we would take care of the little ones, it would be like doing it to him.
Regardless of where we are, if in Israel or in our city ghetto, to walk where Jesus walked blesses us. In reality it is not the surroundings that blesses us, but the company of who we walk with. We are blessed because of walking with Jesus, and it is he who takes us to be with the dispossessed and marginalised. With him our context gains abundant life!
- Where can we see Jesus walking?
- How can we follow Jesus’ footsteps?
(Jesus’ mission, Luke 4:17-19 / Jesus’ prophecy, Matthew 25:35-36)
Commissioner Torben Eliason is the Territorial Commander of the Southern Africa Territory.