{"id":2069,"date":"2022-10-21T06:38:20","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T10:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2069"},"modified":"2022-10-21T06:38:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T10:38:20","slug":"the-other-side-of-the-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/21\/the-other-side-of-the-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"The Other Side of the Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
\u00a0<\/em>
The Other Side of the Lake<\/strong>

Most of the accounts we have of the life of Jesus happen around the Sea of Galilee.

What ancient Jews called the Sea is actually a large freshwater lake in the middle of northern Israel.\u00a0 During the time of Jesus, the region around this lake was roughly broken into four territories.\u00a0

The northwest shore of the lake was called Galilee.\u00a0 This was home to thousands of observant, faithful Jewish families.

Many familiar stories concerning Jesus, including the feeding of the 5,000 and the Sermon on the Mount, happened here at \u201c11 o\u2019clock\u201d (if the lake were a clock) and the village of Capernaum became his adopted hometown and base of operations.

The southwestern region (\u201c8 o\u2019clock\u201d) was also called Galilee, and it was also heavily Jewish.\u00a0 But these were the Jewish families that subscribed to Netflix.\u00a0 They did business with the occupying Roman Empire.\u00a0 They had compromised with the world.\u00a0 Those in northern Galilee (think Bible Belt) would rather die than do such things.\u00a0 Many of them, in fact, did just that.\u00a0

Likewise, the northeastern region (\u201c2 o\u2019clock\u201d), also populated by secular Jewish households, was spiritually lukewarm.\u00a0 It was called Gaulanitis.\u00a0 That name is still associated with the high ridge on that side of the lake \u2013 the so-called Golan Heights \u2013 where Israelis and their Arab neighbors warily confront each other to this day.\u00a0

That leaves the southeastern quadrant, or \u201c5 o\u2019clock.\u201d\u00a0 It was known as the Decapolis or Ten Towns.\u00a0

This region was thoroughly pagan.\u00a0 No Jewish boy who valued his spiritual integrity would ever be caught dead on the southeastern side of the lake.\u00a0

Dr. Jim Martin, a Bible scholar and archeologist, points out while these areas weren\u2019t that far away in terms of actual miles, for all intents and purposes, for a Jewish young man, they were equivalent to the dark side of the moon.\u00a0

When Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son and said that he went to live in a \u201cfaraway country,\u201d all Jesus had to do was point to the opposite shore of the lake.\u00a0 Visiting the regions of Gaulanitis or the Decapolis would be like a Sunday School class dropping in on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.\u00a0

Therefore Luke 8:26 is a verse that brims with drama:\u00a0 \u201cThey [Jesus and his disciples] sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee.\u201d\u00a0 What is Jesus doing?\u00a0

Keep in mind that he is about 30 years old.\u00a0 His disciples are anywhere from 15 to 22 years old.\u00a0 This is essentially a youth group leader taking twelve kids from his high school or college fellowship into an exceedingly threatening situation.

Martin points out that it would have been reasonable for the young disciples to assume that Jesus was taking them into battle.\u00a0 They are crossing over into enemy territory.\u00a0 They are going to the other side of the lake<\/em>, where they have never been before.\u00a0 Demonic forces will be waiting for them.\u00a0 Martin wonders if the disciples even got out of the boat.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t Kansas anymore.\u00a0

Since Halloween is just a few days away, our next reflection is going to zero in on Jesus\u2019 actual confrontation with evil that happened shortly after the boat reached the far shore.\u00a0

In the meantime, what about you?\u00a0

If Jesus were to look at you and say, \u201cI want you to go across the lake with me,\u201d would you do so?\u00a0

What if that means representing the reign of God in a business meeting where all kinds of divergent priorities are about to clash? \u00a0Or standing against injustice?\u00a0 Or choosing to extend forgiveness and understanding to someone your friends are ready to abandon?\u00a0

What if that means confronting the entertainment industry?\u00a0 Or freeing women and children who are being sexually trafficked?\u00a0 Or resisting government agencies whose financial decisions seem to be perpetuating the classic cycles of poverty instead of breaking them?

We can spend all of our days playing it safe with spiritually convinced people in some local version of the Bible Belt. \u00a0

Or we can set our hearts on the other side of the lake. \u00a0

More than we can ever imagine, following Jesus is going to mean heading into uncharted territory.\u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0The Other Side of the Lake Most of the accounts we have of the life of Jesus happen around the Sea of Galilee. What ancient Jews called the Sea is actually a large freshwater lake in the middle of northern Israel.\u00a0 During the time of Jesus, the region around this lake was… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[116,140],"class_list":["post-2069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-following-jesus","tag-risk-taking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2071,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions\/2071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}