The Sermon On the Mount

"Keep out!" "No entry!" "Keep off grass!" "Private!"

Jeez. More like a palace than a church. Apparently I liked the Church of the Sermon on the Mount so little that I didn't take any pictures, although I thought I did. oops!

It's up another one of those steep Galilean roads with drivers that whiz this way and that, frightening me into saucer eyes and wailing prayers. I paid at a gate, which was much more keep-out-ish than most Israeli sites, hiked to the top of the hill, and waited for a nun to open that gate for me. She didn't speak English, but I remember the look on her face was very compassionate, and somewhat amused, when she saw my bafflement. The whole experience was very official, formal and unenjoyable, but if I go back I will try to get some pictures. And a tour! I get frustrated trying to figure everything out from a guidebook.

A typical Galilean hillside. Picture a road zigzagging up the hill and drivers whizzing past you. The yellow flowers are omnipresent in March and April.

The church itself is very small - too small to hold a service of any reasonable size in - and it seemed more like a shrine than a church. It was particularly uninspiring with tour groups trekking in and out. The octagonal shape corresponds with the idea that octagonal churches are often built on sites where celebrated religious events allegedly occurred.

Lilies of the Field: The Scripture
Matthew 6:28-34: "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

It's hard to see what's so special about them here, but you get an idea of what they look like.

Lilies and Us
"...for not even Solomon is dressed like one of these. And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry...”

My rather unsophisticated journal has relevance to this excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount: "Well, I gotta say, lilies wilt pretty fast when detached from their source of life!" Meaning, I picked one in the field and took it in the taxi - the taxi driver gave me a really strange look - but by the time we got ten minutes down the road it was a limp and lifeless disaster sitting in my lap. I left it in the taxi by mistake - just as well, I suppose. We can't separate from our source of life - God - and not wilt.

They are long-stemmed flowers with a bright red hue and a green and black center. Their five petals have an iridescent sheen to them, and, as I wrote in my journal, "they shine extra-pretty." A childs crayon could replicate the color of a daisy, but there's an unearthly beauty to these fragile anemones.

Solomon was a tenth-century B.C. king renowned for his wisdom and wealth, and Jesus made essentially the same statement I just did when he said "Not even Solomon in all his splendor is dressed like one of these."

In other words, if Solomon's money couldn't buy it, nobody's could. But God can provide it for free.

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Travelogue
You really attract the most perplexing attention when you travel by yourself. I was walking around the grounds, trying to find a route down the hill that didn't say 'Keep Out!', when this woman walked up to me: "Hi, how are you?..."Where are you from?"...."Where are you staying?"..."Are you traveling by yourself?"..."How much longer are you staying at this church?" etc. etc., until I was really perplexed as to why she would even care.

It turned out she was traveling alone and had been praying for a way back to the bus station - a taxi, anything. She had seen me sitting in the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes earlier that day, thought I might be traveling by myself and asked for a ride. We walked around for awhile - it was nice to have someone to talk to - but never did find a way to get much of anywhere around the property. "Keep out!" the walkways all said, and we were both a little disgruntled. I mean, it was just a walkway! It's not like we were going to trample down pansies or something.

Anyway, we left and headed back to Tiberias - her to the bus station, and thence to the Tel Aviv airport, and me to the hotel to get some paperwork-stuff done. I wanted to get on the plane with her! Israel's wonderful, and I recommend it to any and all pilgrims traveling with a tour, but I miss America.

I also saw alleged field where Jesus fed 5,000 people today.

Last Updated October 3, 2008