Drinking Living Water

One of the ongoing conversations we have is if the site we are seeing is traditional or authentic. For example, the traditional site might evoke a sense of a place described in the biblical account while an authentic place has some sort of archeological evidence that validates the claim that "Jesus was here."  

So when we made our way into West Bank, we found ourselves having lunch outside of the ruins of King Ahab and Jezebel's palace. The Bible tells us this was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the ruins mark the spot. Largely unexcavated, we could see more of the remains of the Roman period.  

Not to be outdone, we made our way to the Church of Phontina, on the outskirts of Nablus (the home of the Samaritans), where Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman. Jacob's Well has been functioning for thousands and thousands of years. Since you can't move a spring, this is an authentic spot where Jesus changed the life of an ostracized woman and welcomed his religious "enemies" into the fold.

A beautiful church has been constructed over the Well, built and appointed with spectacular icons by Father Justinius. Everywhere you looked, you saw his love for God poured out in the architecture and artwork.  

We made our way down the steps to a dank, dark  chapel. Our guide, Iyad, took a cup of water and poured it into the well. We counted 1, 2, 3 . . . 11, 12 until we heard the splash. That is how deep the well is! After the reading, we drank from the same well where Jesus promised living water.  

Many of us were captivated by the icons and inspired by this faithful Greek Orthodox priest as we lingered in the church.

Next, we were off to quench a different kind of thirst. We made our way through the West Bank to the small Christian village of Taybeh. We pulled up to the only brewery in Palestine and heard about all the challenges of making "occupation" beer. Some of our group became devoted fans of Taybeh Beer!

A harrowing descent into the Jordanian wilderness landed us at the Mount of Temptation and the 10,000+ year old city of Jericho, an oasis built on a spring.



On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, summer and in winter.  Zechariah 14:8








Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 5, 2022 at 9:23 PM

    I remember that day. One of my favorites

    ReplyDelete

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