Jerusalem Bound. Rodney Aist
you, and how will you be guided along the way?
Herod: What are possible obstacles, dangers, and fears? What could compromise your purpose, deceive you along the way, or threaten the well-being of others?
The Dreams of the Magi: Similar to the role of the star, how will God communicate with you throughout the journey to direct your thoughts and actions? What will warn and guide you? What will be the source of revelation and insight?
The Christ Child: What does it mean to search for the Christ Child in the Holy Land? How and where will you locate him, and what may surprise you when you do? How will you worship Christ on the journey?
Gifts: What does it mean to bear gifts to the Holy Land? What gifts are you taking, and how will you use them? Are there good and not-so-good gifts to offer? What are the gifts and contributions of other foreign pilgrims?
Home by Another Way: How will you return home differently? How will your Holy Land encounter change your life back home?
The magi’s journey to Bethlehem offers a surprisingly robust narrative for ordering the Holy Land experience.
Remembering Abraham
Abrahamic applications have largely escaped the attention of Holy Land pilgrims. God called Abraham to go to the land that God would show him (Gen 12:1). Abraham obeyed, leaving his country, his kindred, and his father’s house, and followed God to the land of Canaan, which was subsequently promised to Abraham’s offspring (Gen 17:8). Throughout his years in Canaan, Abraham’s faith was frequently tested, most poignantly in the divine command to sacrifice his son, Isaac, the heir of God’s promise. Abraham is often regarded as the first biblical pilgrim, and the trials of the earthly life, a popular image of pilgrimage, is exemplified in the patriarch’s story.
What makes Abraham the quintessential pilgrim, however, is his foreign identity. The Bible describes Abraham and his descendents as aliens (Gen 15:13; 17:8; 21:23). Upon the death of Sarah, Abraham told the Hittites at Hebron: “I am a stranger and an alien residing among you” (Gen 23:4), and Abraham’s descendents would remain “resident aliens in a country belonging to others” (Acts 7:6). Abraham’s foreign status is emphasized in Hebrews: “by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents” (Heb 11:8–9). To be a pilgrim in the mold of Abraham is to experience God in a foreign place.
To reiterate the point, personal trials, obeying God, and life as a journey of faith are important aspects of Abraham’s legacy. So, too, is the virtue of hospitality. We lose key applications of the story, however, if we overlook the literal nature of Abraham’s foreign status. Abrahamic pilgrimage is about being away from home, living in a place that is not our own, and following God as strangers in a foreign land.
Holy Land pilgrims identify with the Abraham story. Called beyond the familiarity of home, the Holy Land traveler experiences foreign cultures, currencies, and languages. They feel the disorientation, confusion, and anxiety of being aliens in a distant land and are dependent upon the hospitality of strangers. Holy Land pilgrims are called to follow God in a strange land, to overcome trials and challenges, and to live faithfully out of place. To be a Holy Land pilgrim is to walk in Abraham’s footsteps.15
Entering the Promised Land
Commingling confusion and rebellion with God’s guidance and protection, the Israelite wilderness experience was a journey from bondage and slavery to the brink of the promised land, which culminated in the crossing of the Jordan River. The river was a physical and symbolic boundary, a limen, or threshold, from the old to the new, from journey to arrival, from promise to attainment. Crossing the Jordan River was an act of transformation: to cross was to change. Life was different on the other side.
The narrative reminds us that we arrive in the Holy Land with a personal, social, and religious past, sometimes after years of wandering. God has been faithfully present, but we have wandered in circles. We arrive at the banks of the Jordan—or stand before the gates of Jerusalem—with mixed histories and personal baggage. To enter the Holy Land is to consider how we leave the wilderness behind in permanent, life-changing ways. What is the meaning of the promised land? How does Holy Land arrival represent a new beginning? How is the Jordan River a threshold of transformation? Where, on the journey, are the points of personal change? Engaging the metaphorical qualities of the Holy Land, Christian pilgrims are in step with the Israelite experience.
Erecting Memorials
The Old Testament records the practice of erecting monuments to remember important events. Abraham built an altar in Shechem after God pledged the land of Canaan to his offspring (Gen 12:6–7). Jacob set up a pillar at Bethel after dreaming about God’s promise of descendents, land, and blessings (Gen 28:10–22), and the Israelites created a twelve-stone memorial in Gilgal after crossing the Jordan River so their children would remember the benevolence of God (Josh 4:19–22). Holy places are expressions of religious memory, markers of our spiritual past, which continue the centuries-old practice of the Gilgal stones. The Christian Holy Land works on the same principal: an original event, like an episode in the life of Christ, the erection of a church or a commemorative marker at or near the site, and subsequent visitation to remember the event. The Christian shrines continue the biblically sanctioned practice of marking places of spiritual importance.
The Jewish Pilgrim Festivals
Appearing before God at a place of God’s choosing, the people of Israel were required to attend three annual festivals: the festival of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the festival of Weeks (Shavuot, or Pentecost), and the festival of Booths (Sukkot, or Tabernacles).16 Offering a biblical parallel to Christian pilgrimage, the Jewish festivals include elements of divine calling, sacred time, place, and people, and the reenactment of sacred stories.
Called by God
Although pilgrimage has never been a Christian mandate, God is constantly calling Christians to the Holy Land. Receiving a calling to go on pilgrimage comes with a number of obligations, including prayer and journaling, sharing the experience with others, and a renewed commitment to Christian service. What is often overlooked, however, is that a calling lowers the weight of undue expectations. Having received a calling to take a one-year, around-the-world journey, I was released from the pressures of a perfect trip. It was God’s business and that made all the difference. Bolstered by a sense of calling, I was able to make purposeful decisions, was satisfied skipping certain attractions, and remained content when I was sick or tired. Times of sadness, loneliness, and disappointment were felt with meaning, and weather simply framed the experience. Whatever happened, God was in the facts; what actually occurred was infused with divine presence.
The same holds true for the Holy Land: being called to Jerusalem reduces the pressure of a perfect journey. That is comforting because aspects of the Holy Land can be unnerving. As with any trip, there are irritants and unpleasantries. Not everything goes as planned. When the Holy Land is approached as a once-in-a-lifetime event, there is an insidious pressure to relish the experience. But pilgrimage can be a rainy-day parade. By approaching one’s appearance in the Holy Land as a divine summons, as an act of faith left in the hands of God, success is not measured by the enjoyment of the trip. When God calls you, it becomes God’s business, and that makes all the difference. A calling equips us to confront the challenges of the journey and to perceive God’s presence amidst frustrations and unexpected detours. Plans may go awry; parts of the trip may be difficult and disappointing. But that’s okay. God is imbued in the actualities of life, rain or shine. Pilgrims hope for pleasant conditions and enjoyable experiences, but their primary calling is to journey faithfully, to live holy in the Holy Land, and to carefully attend to what God reveals along the way.
A Sacred People
Just as Jerusalem pilgrimage shaped Israelite identity as a sacred people formed by God, the Holy Land experience fosters a particular expression of corporate holiness: the short-term Christian community. To be a sacred people on pilgrimage is to engage the holy as a corporate experience. Pilgrims participate in a common