Today our group took a journey through some of the places where Jesus taught the people. Our morning stop was at the Church of the Beatitudes. This church was built in 1920 on the spot where Christians believe that Christ may have given his Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-6. A beautiful spot on a hill overlooking the lake, it is an ideal location for literally thousands to sit in the natural ampitheatre made by the hill and listen to this itinerant preacher from Nazereth. "Blessed are the pour in spirit, for thers is the kingdom of heaven," Jesus began.
A short walk down the hill led us to Tagbha, the place where a church has been built around the stone that Jesus may have used to prepare the loaves and fishes to feed the thousands. We were reminded today that no good Jewish man would have prepared the bread on the ground, as it would have rendered the bread unclean. Inside the church, ancient tile work shows the five loaves and two fish, while the presumed stone protrudes through the chancel floor just beneath the communion table. Many pligrims go to thier knees just to touch the stone.
Just down the road from Tagbha is The Primacy of Peter, a chapel that is graced by stone stairs from early centuries, marks the spot where it is believed that Jesus met the disciples after the resurrection. They had been fishing all night long, catching nothing and somehow he was on the beach with a fish breakfast already prepared. From this place Jesus asked Peter the question of his life: "Peter, do you love me?" Peter answered "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you!" Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep!"
A full day of walking and seeing and remembering...the group is growing more and more aware that our Lord not only walked this way centuries ago, he walks here still.
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