August 2022 Pastor’s Corner – The Fifth Gospel

 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

This picture is taken from inside the chapel of the Dominus Flevit (Latin for “The Lord wept”).  According to Luke, as Jesus came over the Mount of Olives on Palm Sunday and saw the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount before him, he wept over it.  The chapel is in the shape of a teardrop, and is one of the only catholic chapels to be oriented west-east (most are east-west).  It’s amazing how well the architecture of the place carries the emotive weight of the location.

If anything becomes clear when visiting the Holy Land, it’s how precious this particular place is to the Lord.  While “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1), God has chosen this particular portion of land on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean Sea and made it holy unto Him, and given it to the people He has chosen for Himself.  We know that God has worked purposefully and intentionally throughout history, but you see that when you visit these incredible places we’ve read so much about in our Bibles.  Faith comes alive in a visceral way.

As I mentioned in my sermon on July 17 after I returned, “What becomes abundantly clear as you tour the Promised Land is how much the land itself proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hence why it has earned the name, ‘The Fifth Gospel.’”  As another pastor friend of mine has said, after visiting the Holy Land, you’ll never read your Bible the same again.  It really is as transformative an experience as they say.

I hope to pass along as much of my experiences and the things I learned in the weeks and months to come, but mostly I want to encourage you to make plans to visit the Holy Land at least once in your life.  My friend, Cameron Smith (who took that picture) is planning a trip for February, and I’m working on putting one together for next July.  I promise you, it’s worth every penny it costs to go.  This land has a special place in God’s heart, and it should in ours as well, even as we wait eagerly for the new heavens and new earth to come down with Christ when He returns.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:1–4)

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison