In her blog Andrea joked about the Jerusalem trip as “running where Jesus walked.” Although an apt description of much touring by Christian pilgrims, there’s no question that a visit to Israel/Palestine permanently alters the way one hears the Scriptures. After riding DOWN the road from Jerusalem to Jericho (a drop of 3500 feet in less than 25 miles), I can’t help but picture that “down-ness” when I hear the start of parable of the Good Samaritan: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho . . .” This morning in church during the reading of the Gospel I heard some other familiar words with fresh ears:
“After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. . . . The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy . . .’” Luke 10:1, 17–19
Last summer for the first time in my life I saw a scorpion up close. It was a scary sight—bigger than I imagined and a bold creature that posed for the camera. It was frightening enough to see it up close while wearing boots and long pants. I would have felt much more vulnerable had I been in a long skirt and sandals, standard dress in first-century Palestine, where everyone was familiar with these stinging creatures. I imagine first-century mothers always worried that their curious young children playing outside might encounter one under a rock. How meaningful Jesus’ words would have been to his first-century audience: He proclaims to them that the power of the kingdom of God is greater than that of the demons who possessed people’s minds, greater than the fear people had of these fierce-looking creatures encountered daily that could cause pain to the body. In three years, when this Gospel reading appears again in the lectionary, I’ll still have this vivid picture in my mind’s eye:
Photo by Glenn Borchers, 2006
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