Sitting above the northern shores of the sea of Galilee, a peaceful, tranquil location unspoilt by tourism, and mostly still in its natural beauty is the Mount of Beatitudes. It's a small hillside which nestles itself into the northen Galilean hills as they stretch upwards towards Lebonan. Today a church sits on the spot where it is believed that Jesus spoke his famous words about everything to do with life, death, God, the law, the world, spiritual battles, the every day and the eternal.
The sermon on the Mount is probably the most famous of all of Jesus' teachings, and the hillside it was made on, they say, is shaped like a natural ampitheatre so that everyone would have heard this important message. Today we often forget the significance of this teaching and it's a teaching that could transform this troubled land of Israel.
Probably one of its hardest teachings is about loving our enemies. How easy it is to love those that are nice to us and whom we like. Jesus says, 'you have heard it said, "love your neighbour and hate your enemy," but I tell you, love your enenmies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.' Mathew 5:43.
Since we have been in Israel I have witnessed different peoples responses to 'love' or the lack of it. It has challenged me that, as a Christian, we have a high calling in this department as people who should be known for our love.
We were sat on some roof tops one evening watching the sunset and its light effects on the famous golden dome of the rock. My husband had wandered off somewhere and I was taking some photographs thinking to myself 'what an amazing city we are in.' I started to hear shouting and looked up in time to see 2 Arab children pick up small rocks and hurl them at a group of ultra orthodox Jewish children, shouting and running into the dense maze of buildings below which make up the old city of Jerusalem. Later, drawn by the fact that my husband had a video camera, the Jewish boys came over, huddled around us and wanted to know who we were, why we were there and what we were filming. We soon got onto the subject of the earlier fighting, of land, of Arabs and Jews, who belonged here and who didn't. It was a shock to hear children as young as seven or eight spew hate from their mouths about their neighbours. I was genuinely saddened at their determination not to listen to anything we said in an attempt to pacify their outlook. The roots of bitterness go deep and I was reminded that even children can hate when it is so deeply sown in their hearts.
Yesterday we drove to the kibbutz where we had worked seven years previously. Its borders run along the most northern road which runs alongside Lebanon. We used to hitch hike around the area and it reminded me of all the strange cars we got in, the variety of people met, from roofless jeeps to the back of post office vans! Yesterday we picked up various people at various places, hitching still being in vogue here it seems. We travelled with a soldier on weekend leave, (gun intact), two American kibbutz volunteers and then later an ultra orthodox young Jewish man with an equally young Arab man. Both had been waiting patiently at a bus stop, thumbs stuck out into the flow of traffic, both some distance apart until they sat on the back seat of our hire car. After sitting silently for the entire journey we arrived at a destination. The Jewish man, in all the garb (white shirt, thick black jacket, trousers and hat despite it being 35 degrees) broke the silence and offered to plan the route for the Arab man. Taking our map he spent some time working this out, suddenly conversing in the animated Hebrew dialouge until we, and our Arab hitch hiker, knew where we were all going. There were shalom shabats all round (the Israeli way to greet and say goodbye) and we all went on with our journeys.
It struck me that Shalom means peace. As we continued through the hillsides littered with their lush green pines it occured to me that there were, in the car that afternoon, three people groups: the religious Jew, an Israeli Arab, and us, Gentile believers grafted into the tree and privileged to know the true Messiah. Of course the Israeli Arab may have been a Christian too and the religious jew, a secret believer! We may find out one day!
It is the love and peace of Jesus which causes us to change and be able to love and not hate. We have been able to worship with Jewish believers here in Israel and speak to them about their experiences and struggles. We were sat only yesterday evening on the waterfront of the sea of Galilee enjoying a quiet drink. Being shabbat (the start of sabbath) there were only a few people aimlessly wandering around. Like an avalanche of blue descending upon us, a group of mostly western faces appeared and began to set up a sound system. I noticed that each blue T-shirt contained a psalm, boldly printed on the back. Knowing that it is quite risky to evangelise in Israel, I was suprised to hear a sudden burst of gospel music pounding the night sky and a group of dancers started doing their thing. The music of the disco boats and stalls seemed to quiet down and the group suddenly had a crowd as people flocked to see this spectacle.. at last some entertainment on a boring shabbat evening when most businesses were closed.
We went over and approached a lady with a small baby pinned to her back. She offered us a tract. It brought a real joy to my heart. They were from a local fellowship, of mostly messianic Jews, believers in Jesus as Messiah and raring to tell everyone. They had brought young people over from Germany in order to do this outreach. They were totally on fire for Jesus, desiring that in this place where Jesus once lived, his name would once more be known. The group sang, they danced and they brought a joyful noise into the dark night. They knew it was risky. They told us of the hardships suffered because they refused to 'not' evangelise. They spoke about their persecution because they were Jewish and yet believers in Jesus and they showed again how much hatred there is in this world, and in a place where the early church were persecuted 2000 years before.
Yet here they were with Yeshua's love being offered to this broken, unbelieving place where battle after battle exists in the big and the small conflict of neighbours. Here they were ready to love anyone who turned up on their doorstep, whatever religion, ethnic group or background. Deep rooted in their hearts and living in its truth was Jesus' message from his sermon on the mount: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. It was a wonderful reminder that we can all love with the help of God. And if these believers could do so in a place so threatening and hostile then we surely can as well, in whatever way we know we must.
