This Is The Place . . . Or Not.

One of our family’s favorite stories is about the Beatles Walking Tour we took in London in 2007. The five of us joined about 10 other tourists and an entrepreneurial Londoner who led us through the neighborhoods where the Beatles and their friends once lived. It was very entertaining. Near a flat John once rented was a bus stop and our tour guide offered that “This is the place John and his mates could have caught the bus.” Or not. We stood outside Jane Asher’s townhouse and our tour guide noted that “This is the place where Paul might have entertained his friends.”

As HH and I finish our pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I’ve thought about that Beatles Tour and how entrepreneurship even impacts our religious sites (although many would consider a Beatles pilgrimage to be holy.) Overheard by tour guides and seen on road signs:

• “This is the actual Jerusalem Thorn bush used to create Jesus’ crown of thorns.” (Note: most of these bushes do not live for 2000+ years and it was not our guide who said this.)
• “This is the place where Jesus body was prepared for burial.” (In The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.)
• “This is the place where Jesus body was prepared for burial.” (In The Garden Tomb.)

My favorite discovery this trip was the road sign that pointed to “The Good Samaritan.” Keep in mind that The Good Samaritan was not an historical person and there was no historic “inn” where the G.S. took the man robbed on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Jesus made up parables to explain what God is like (much like Aesop wrote his fables to teach life lessons.) It’s one thing to venture a guess where Jesus was buried based on scripture and tradition and science/archaeology. It’s another thing to point to a place where an imaginary person spent time. Imagine seeing a roadsign in Kansas pointing to “Dorothy’s house” or a German map marking where Rumpelstiltskin lived.

Our guide said that there’s an inn off the Good Samaritan exit that tells about the life of Samaritans (who were real people) and posits what it might have been like if someone had been mugged on the highway and needed an inn.

Jesus – the rabbi – told shocking stories about prodigal sons and lost sheep and unforgiving servants as a literary device to explain theological truths. There was no literal Good Samaritan and yet the story is true theologically. Some believe that the Hebrew story of Jonah is also a parable explaining the lengths God will go to get us to obey our calling.

As our wise leader of this pilgrimage said the other day, it doesn’t really matter where it happened. It matters that it happened. Amen to that. God is bigger than our human tendencies to want to control and own God’s story.

We worship and revere God is different ways and those varieties of practices are in moving display throughout the Holy Land. Some of us wear a hijab or long skirt. Some men wear skull caps and/or side curls. Some of us build magnificent mosaics with thousands of tiny tiles. Some of us tend to simple gardens. Some of us sing 19th Century hymns. It’s all beautiful and holy and good.

The difference between a vacation and a pilgrimage is that one is intentional about seeking God’s direction. And yet vacations can also include moments when our hearts are full and our minds are curious about holy things. This is the true place – our hearts, our minds, our bodies – where God shows up.