Natalie Barkovich | Educator
Day 6 | 2022 Inside Israel: Educational Leadership Seminar
A beautiful morning dawned over the Sea of Galilee with cool breezes and bright sunshine accompanying us along our route. Avi promised a day full of spectacular scenery, spiritual sustenance, and geopolitics—all par for the course here in Israel.
We started at the Mount of Beatitudes, the site believed to be the location for the Sermon on the Mount, the fullest expression of Jesus’ message. The site immediately delivered on the spectacular scenery, nestled in the green hills with the Sea stretched out below and palm trees framing the blue sky. Always keeping in mind strategies for effective teaching, Avi reminded us to never assume knowledge in a group of students; instead, he succinctly summarized some of the basics of Jesus’ Galilean ministry: At the time, there were major differences in the haves and the have-nots, and Jesus was speaking to the weak and the marginalized in Jewish society—people like the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and the meek. Jesus’ message was one of hope, and the Beatitudes spoke directly to those people—the poor in spirit, those in mourning, the meek, those seeking righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted. Dave read to us from the Bible, delivering one powerful moment of spiritual sustenance. Other major images and ideas that Jesus communicated include the metaphors of being the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the city on a hill. I also learned that it was Paul who was reaching out to the gentile and pagan audiences, while Jesus was working with an almost exclusively Jewish population.
Next, we moved on to a Benedictine site, called Jesus in Tabgha, honoring the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Interestingly, there are five cool-water springs near this area that flow into the Sea and attract fish. The mosaic inside the church depicts the two fishes, but only includes four loaves, even though the story states that there were five—Jesus himself is considered to be the fifth loaf.
We moved on to the adjacent site, the Church of the Primacy, owned by the Franciscans. We gathered quite close to the water and listened as Kate read to us from the Gospel according to John, recounting the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after the Resurrection. The disciples were out fishing and hadn’t caught anything. When Jesus tells them to lower the nets, their nets become full, yet they do not break. A very specific detail is given—153 fish filled the nets. This specific detail connects to Pliny the Elder’s book The Natural History of the World, which stated that there were 153 known species of fish. Thinking metaphorically, Avi related that very specific detail to the idea of the universality of the Church—catching all, yet not breaking. We also were prompted to think back to our first day of the trip when we considered the shepherd as a leader, and here we have Jesus passing the leadership onto Peter—who later becomes the first Pope.
Finally, we arrived in Capernaum, where Jesus lived for three years, teaching in the synagogue and healing the sick. We stood in an ancient synagogue and peered over at the excavated remains of the town, thinking about Jesus representing monotheism facing off against paganism. And then with one phone call, we were hurled right back into the realities of 2022. But the spectacular scenery, spiritual sustenance, and interesting geopolitics continue to intrigue and delight while we sit on our balconies, thinking and reflecting and waiting, in a kibbutz in Israel while looking over the Sea of Galilee.
