A Whirlwind Tour Through the Middle East – The Water of Life for Me

The last stop before Jordan River was St. Peter’s home, and we also saw the ruins of a synagogue adjacent to it.  The statue of Apostle Peter holds a key and a live fish swims at his feet.  The key symbolizes St. Peter’s office as the leader of the Christian church (Matthew 16:19).  I must have misread the Bible.  I had this idea that St. Peter was the one guarding the gate to Heavens.  “I thought the key was the actual key to the gate of heavens?”  My father discredited my view.  There was no Biblical basis for that.

The baptism at Yardenit was one of the most anticipated events in this trip for me.  For this occasion I prepared a special set of clothes with slippers.  I remembered Mount Hermon’s frigidity that morning, and wondered if the water would be unbearably cold.

My father explained the meaning of baptism to the group, as eight of us in total would be baptized at Jordan River that day.  It was, first and foremost, a public declaration of one’s faith and to become one with Christ.  We sang a hymn to prepare ourselves spiritually.

One by one, my father blessed each of us with the water of Jordan River, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  I was the last one, and I requested that my father spoke in English.  “By the power of the Lord, that we may overcome the forces of Satan—” there I went, completely submerged into the river.

The water was very cold although I was under it for only a second.  There was this sweet silence in my ears, for there was not even the sound of my own breathing.  My thoughts stopped running. The only words that I said to myself was, “it’s very cold.”  Then my father raised me from the water and I walked into a chorus celebrating my rebirth.  Since I was not Jesus, heavens did not open with the flying dove and God did not speak (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 and John 1).  Yet my father on earth was with me in my spiritual birth and it was very special to me.

At the gift store I bought a pendant to commemorate my baptism.  It showed the Jerusalem cross, with the heraldic cross in the middle and four smaller crosslets in the four quadrants.  The Jerusalem cross was not commonly seen outside of Israel, but due to its significance as the emblem and coat of arms for the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the 1200s,[1] the spirit that it represented was well alive in Israel.

There are three interpretations of the five crosses.  The first says that the five crosses represent the five wounds of Jesus Christ at his crucifixion.  Secondly, it was the coat of arms for the Christian crusades.  Finally, the crosslets represented the four Gospels with Christ’s salvation in the middle.

In early evening we boarded the Jesus’ boat for a tour of the Galilee.  It was supposed to be the same type of boat as those in the New Testament.  As touristy as it was, I enjoyed every moment of the ride.  The boat flew the Israeli flag, alongside there was a PRC flag.  The first music that played was the Chinese National Anthem too.  I thought the operator made quite an effort to please the tourists.  Those who just baptized at the Jordan River shared testimonies as the newly-christened.

Looking backward onto the shore at Tiberia, I felt all the more in love with this town.  Its nightlights glimmered, absorbed into this land and this lake as dusk befell.  Meanwhile, the Galilee seemed assured of its role in religion and history.  Its serenity was second to none.

[1] See Wikipedia entry on the Jerusalem Cross.