The Jesus Trail er ei rute for vandring i Jesu fotspor i Galilea. ChristianityToday har nyleg (mai 2010) ein artikkel om kva ein kan oppleva langs denne løypa som går frå Nasaret til Kapernaum.
Oppdatering 2020: Dette notatet blei skrive før eg sjølv første gong gjekk The Jesus Trail i 2012. Det er mange nyare notat om denne turløypa her på bloggen, sjå kategorien Jesus Trail.
Det interessante med artikkelen, er at forfattaren (Gerald McDermott) er mest opptatt av kva han lærte av menneska han møtte. Han skriv ut frå vinklinga: «What we learned from Jews, Muslims, and Arab Christians as we traced the footsteps of Christ in Galilee.»
The land around Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, was remarkably beautiful one October morning last fall. Green vineyards and silvery olive groves added patches of color to the brown hills. But my blistered feet were aching for a rest, so I was glad when I saw a man picking dates from a tree in front of his spacious house. Marwan, a 41-year-old lawyer, invited us to join him and his wife and brother for coffee.
Gerald McDermott er amerikansk professor i religion. Han vandra langs The Jesus Trail saman med sonen Ross McDermott, som er multimedia-journalist. Artikkelen fortel om mange ulike menneske dei møtte undervegs og me får eit inntrykk av korleis folk snakka om Jesus, om forholda for dei kristne arabarane i Galilea i dag og om ulike jødiske haldningar til den kristne trua.
Dei to traff også ein messiansk jøde på vandringa si:
Yet more Jews in Israel are receiving Jesus as Messiah. Yossi Ovadia, a Messianic Jewish pastor in Karmiel, told us there are now between 10,000 and 15,000 Jewish believers in Israel. He told us that he grew up the son of a synagogue cantor in Israel, but at age 16 decided that his Jewish faith was no longer relevant. «So I put my kippah (skullcap) in my back pocket.» A short time later, while walking by the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he met a Christian girl from England who told him that God loves Jews and lived inside her.
Yossi was stunned that anyone loved Jews, since he thought the world hated his people. He was also surprised that God could be so real to someone. When he met this girl’s friends months later and discovered that they had the same intimacy with God, he became envious. «Just as Paul predicted in Romans 11:11,» Yossi laughed, «Gentile Christians would provoke Jews to envy.»
Yossi’s father refused to speak to him for years after he became a Christian, even hanging up on Yossi when he called from Lebanon while fighting in the first war. Thankfully, the two were reconciled three days before his father died.
Mange av dei som blir omtalt i artikkelen, strevar med å sjå håp for framtida i det konfliktfylte Israel. Men nettopp i møte med den messianske Yossi, såg artikkelforfattaren «a glimmer of hope»:
Yet we found a glimmer of hope. Yossi told us that for some years now, Arab Christians have been meeting with Messianic Jews for a weekend of prayer and worship. The 2008 gathering drew 1,200. At the end of the weekend, the Messianic and Arab pastors joined hands at the front and repeated in both Hebrew and Arabic, «We are one in Christ. God can break the wall of partition between us.»
Les heile artikkelen i ChristianityToday her.
(Oppdatert 16.05.2010)
Arne Berge 
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