THE FULL STORY

Have you ever walked up on a conversation and heard a remark that startled you? Amused or confused you? Since you didn’t hear previous comments or know the context, is it possible (maybe even likely) that you might come to a wrong conclusion about what was really said or intended?

Likewise I wonder how often we misunderstand a situation since we don’t know the full story. Sometimes we don’t have enough information or maybe we just have partial knowledge and thus cannot fully know.  Partial knowledge or the absence of context can lead to errors of judgment and faulty opinions.

Recently in preparation for a trip we bought a new piece of luggage that was “on sale.” We made the purchase because it was marked down more than 50% of the original price. What a bargain. NOT! After getting home I checked a major online retailer and discovered that the exact piece of luggage was available for $22 less than the “marked down” item at a local department store. If we had known the full story before making the purchase, we probably would have made a different decision.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a news story about violence in the West Bank. Since I have been to Israel many times I clicked on the link (https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/10/20/bethlehem-palestinian-israel-mideast-backstory-wedeman.cnn). What I found was Ben Wederman, CNN Senior International Correspondent, explaining how they cover the situation in Bethlehem, West Bank. He explained that he had been covering the situation at the same spot for over 20 years. Every Friday afternoon about 3:00, youth gather and throw stones and other objects at the Israeli soldiers stationed nearby at the wall that separates the Palestinians from Israel. The soldiers respond with rubber bullets and tear gas.

I have watched this orchestrated protest demonstration from my Jacir Palace Hotel room which can be seen in the background. The conflict in Israel and the West Bank is real and I do not intend to minimize its significance. If you watch television news for very long you will likely see scenes of violence in that region of the world. It is not unlikely that you will view the happenings described by this journalist. If you don’t know the full (back) story, it can appear that the entire city of Bethlehem is in an uproar when in actuality just blocks away it is business as usual in the beautiful bustling West Bank city.

When faced with difficult situations where people of faith are compelled to respond, Christians will often ask WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? That is a legitimate question and offers guidance on appropriate behavior but it is all too easy to pull one incident out of the Bible and make it the standard for conduct in all situations. The danger of this “cookie cutter” approach to the Scripture is you often don’t get the full story.

Mr. Sheffield Thompson was a self-taught man with a photographic memory. Although he lacked a lot of formal higher education, he was a genuine intellectual. He told me many times, “We do not know the historical Jesus. We only know the cultural Jesus we have created.” I think he was saying that we looked only at the aspects of Jesus that confirmed our already held beliefs. We failed to see Jesus in full character and used our limited understanding to sometime justify our misunderstanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

God help us to know the full story and pattern our lives accordingly.

Jamie Jenkins

You Must Be Crazy

You must be crazy. You are going to get yourself killed. That or some similar comment is what I have heard every time I am preparing to visit Israel. And I have been there more than two dozen times over the past four decades.

My first trip to the region (known as Israel, Palestine, West Bank) was in 1981. At that time I spoke with an elderly man who had traveled to the Holy Land every year starting in 1966. He told me that he always was confronted by people who believed he was putting himself in danger and could not believe why he would do something so foolish. Thirty-seven years later I face the same situation.

There is no question that there is conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. There is even conflict within those two groups. There is no denying that there are incidents of violence as a result of the differences of opinion about ownership of the land. To suggest that there is no tension and no abuse of human rights would be foolish. Nevertheless, I have never felt unsafe or at risk as I have traveled throughout the region. And I know hundreds, probably thousands, of persons who have experiences similar to mine.

During the time when Manuel Noriega was the de facto ruler of Panama a group form my church went to Panama on a work mission. Noriega had strong political ties to the United States but he was not very popular with many of the Panamanian people. In a conversation with the church leader with whom the team was working the question was raised, “What do the people of Panama think about us Americans?” The reply was, “They love you. They just don’t like your government.”

Over the years of traveling to the Middle East I have found the Israelis and Palestinians to be warm and friendly people. Their opinions about their government and ours does not prevent them from being welcoming and kind. Tourism is one of Israel’s major sources of income and benefits all of the people in the land. One report indicates that 3.6 million tourists arrived in Israel/Palestine in 2017. While the ideological and political struggles are ongoing, people from all over the world are welcomed.

Israel offers a plethora of historical and religious sites, beach resorts, archaeological tourism, heritage tourism, and ecotourism. One source suggests that Israel has the highest number of museums per capita in the world. A large percentage of the tourists come to visit sites of significant to three of the major religions of the world- Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

Many people are afraid to go to Israel because of the frequent news reports of violence. We hear daily of random acts of violence in schools, churches, shopping malls, and on the streets of cities and small communities all over the United States. But we don’t stop sending our children to school. We don’t quit shopping at the mall or attending sporting events and concerts. We don’t stop going to our places of worship.

We live in a dangerous and violent world. I realize there is a real possibility of encountering violence in Israel but I do not believe it is more likely than in Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Newtown (Connecticut), or Sutherland Springs (Texas).That is our reality but we cannot allow this “new reality” to sap us of our enthusiasm for life or the adventure and education of travel.

Jamie Jenkins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOVE FROM THE LOWEST POINT ON EARTH

Last week I was at the lowest point on earth. The Dead Sea is 1300 feet below sea level making it the lowest body of water in the world. The lake, about 50 miles long and 11 miles wide, is bordered by Israel and the West Bank to the west and Jordan to the east.

The Dead Sea is one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water. It is almost 10 times saltier than the ocean which prevents the existence of any life forms in it. It is fed by the Jordan River from the north and is over 1200 feet deep. However there is no outlet and more water evaporates from it than flows into it creating valuable minerals and salts.

The Dead Sea has attracted visitors for thousands of years. In the Bible, it is a place of refuge for King David. It was one of the world’s first health resorts (for King Herod the Great). It has been the supplier of a wide variety of products, from asphalt for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also use the salt and the minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics and herbal sachets.

Just north of the Dead Sea is the town of Jericho, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and the city with the oldest known protective wall in the world. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 20 successive settlements in Jericho, the first of which dates back 11,000 years. The city’s site provides evidence of the first development of permanent settlements and thus of the first steps toward civilization.

According to the biblical book of Joshua, Jericho was captured from the Canaanites by Joshua but archaeologists have not found evidence of the town of Joshua. Ruins identified as such in the 1930s were later identified as older. A nearby site has revealed a Hellenistic fortress and the palace of Herod from approximately 14 BC. Stories of Jesus’ ministry in Jericho include the healing of blind Bartimaeus and his encounter with the “wee little” man, Zacchaeus. Nearby is where Jesus was tempted immediately after his baptism in the Jordan River.

Last week I and a group of folks from Atlanta ate lunch at the Temptation Restaurant. It is located near the entrance to the excavations of the biblical city of Jericho.

Over the years of visiting the Holy Land we have watched the restaurant owner’s son grow from childhood to become a young adult. As we prepared to leave after a delicious meal (and a little shopping) this young man presented my wife and other women with a bouquet of roses.

Upon returning to our hotel in Jerusalem my granddaughter inserted one of those roses into a plastic bag and sent it back to Atlanta in a note to one of our friends. Four days letter  after returning home to Atlanta, the rose was still alive and our friend passed it on to one of her friends with serious health issues.

Love shared from the lowest geographical point to a very low physical and emotional point in one person’s life. “  And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (I Cor. 13:13). Love knows no boundaries.

Jamie Jenkins