That must have been very spiritual for you...

The bit about the airport in Israel reminded me of the duty-free shops. I think I already wrote about them on the blog, but I will say again, they are everywhere in airports over there. Guy told me more than once to buy something at the duty-free because it is so cheap. I didn’t. By the time I was leaving Israel I was broke. Guy would say, “Israelis will fly somewhere just to shop the duty-free.” I love that.

I spent Holy Week in Israel. When I tell people this, or when I tell them that I went to Israel at all, they smile and nod and say something like this, “Oh, that must have been very spiritual for you.” If by spiritual they meant I cried on several occasions, dropped to my knees, froze in place, or felt the sudden urgency to pray to God, then it wasn’t a spiritual experience for me. The Israel trip expanded my world view, challenged my faith, and it was a great time with friends.

I walked the Via Dolorosa on Good Friday. I touched Mary’s grave. I stood in the Garden of Gethsemane. I didn’t feel Jesus’ presence there anymore than I felt his presence in London. It struck me, on occasion, that Jesus walked the same paths I did that day, or at one point, I could have been standing right where Jesus stood over 2000 years ago, but I didn’t do much more than say “cool”.

The Holy Land is dotted with a multitude of significant religious sites, but I believe Jesus is no more in Jerusalem than He is in Longmont right now. When Jesus ascended into Heaven He became omnipresent. He took a more powerful form than ever before; a form that allows us to meet Him wherever we are in the world.

I guess the reason “that must have been very spiritual for you” rubs me the wrong way is because I never knew Jesus to be the kind of dude that would deny me His presence or spiritual enlightenment until I made the pilgrimage to the homeland, and that comment implies that a trip to the Holy Land has the possibility of being more spiritual to us than going to church on Sunday. This is a gross underestimation of Jesus’ presence and ability to reach us at any moment. His spirit was not captured by a rock that touched Him. Jerusalem does not encapsulate His Holiness. No city, place, or object holds within it the God that I know.