“MEET ME IN GALILEE”

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canale

 

Michael and I start this week’s blog with a story – one of the most powerful we have ever heard. Because it is a true story, it is simply profound.

 

The story is this:

 

“Iconic theologian, Karl Barth, was at Rockefeller Chapel, (really a Gothic cathedral) on the campus of the University of Chicago during his lecture tour of the U.S. in 1962. After his lecture, at the Question and Answer time, a student asked Barth if he could summarize his whole life’s work in theology in a single sentence. Barth thought for a few seconds and said, “Yes, I can.” In the words of a song, I learned at my Mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

 

After hearing these simple words from this master of every complex theological doctrine taught at the world’s most renown seminaries, there was an audible gasp from the audience of learned scholars, there to listen to a man of unrivaled intellect, one who was supremely versed in the divine. And there it was…all his study and scriptural expertise boiled down to a single phrase, learned as a child, something so uncomplicated that it stunned all within earshot of his words.

 

Today, Michael and I want to bring you a blog which operates off how, “the Bible tells us so,” how we know from Scripture that Jesus loves us. In this, we will focus specifically on one verse in all of the Bible. We could have chosen so many which illustrate this, but the leading of the Holy Spirit has sent us to Matthew 28:10.

 

First, the backdrop for this amazing verse: Jesus has just been resurrected and Mary Magdalene and “ the other Mary,” encounter him outside the tomb. After telling them not to be afraid, Jesus had only one priority. He told these women to go and,

 

“…tell my BROTHERS to go to GALILEE; there they will see me.” (emphasis added)

( Matthew 28:10) NIV

 

In The Message, it is,

 

Go tell my BROTHERS that they are to go to GALILEE, and that I’ll meet them there.” (emphasis added)

(Matthew 28:10)

 

As the title of this blog states, what Jesus told Mary Magdalene and the other Mary was urgent and clear. In so many words, “Find the guys and tell them to meet me in Galilee.” How many times have we all read this simple verse and given it little or no particular attention, immediately pushing on to the scenes that follow? And yet, in truth, there are few more important verses in the Bible.

 

What, then, is being said? And, why is it so extraordinary, so surprising? The speaker at a recent preparation for Lent retreat I attended at St. Monica’s, Father Brenden, gave us this illuminating context:

 

Prior to his crucifixion, Jesus had virtually been abandoned by The Eleven. (following Judas’ suicide). With the exception of John, not one of the others were with Jesus at the cross.

 

We can say how shocking and disappointing this was and, perhaps, make excuses for them and how any association with Jesus, at this point, placed them in great jeopardy. But then, we would be thinking in very charitable terms. In reality, was there not a pattern of failing to understand Jesus and his mission on Earth? This was no isolated lapse of judgment on their parts. Quite the contrary is true.

 

In a recent sermon at Vintage LA Church, Pastor Ger Jones described the heart of the matter, as to the general disconnect between The Twelve’s vision of their ministry and that of Jesus, himself. Pastor Ger preached,

 

“The disciples said, ‘Let’s go to Rome and take power!’ Jesus said, ‘No, to Jerusalem and a cross.”

 

As discussed in a previous blog, the disciples mostly blundered their way through the three years of Jesus’ public ministry. Michael says it so well:

 

“The disciples were raw and gritty. They needed to be polished.”

 

This is clearly demonstrated in the following scene from Scripture:

 

“While everyone was marveling at all Jesus did, he said to his disciples, ‘Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.’ But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them , so they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask.

An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.

‘Master, said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.’

‘Do not stop him, Jesus said, ‘for whoever is not against you is for you.”

(Luke 9:43-50) NIV

 

Michael, summed it up: “Their nonsense was of Biblical proportions!”

 

Honestly, we have cited the aforementioned verses in other blogs but they just bear repeating here. How confused can twelve men be! They go from one misunderstanding to the next, in rapid succession! But here’s the amazing thing – after three years of this, Jesus puts these souls as number one on his agenda after he rises from the dead. Truly, he cannot wait to be reunited with them! What a Savior! And where was this to take place? They were to meet him in Galilee!

 

What then, was Galilee to Jesus AND to his disciples? What it was was home, where Jesus had first called them to follow him, where they began their path with Jesus. This is critical to understanding why Jesus chose Galilee. How full of heart and enthusiasm they were at that point in their journey with Jesus. How excited! How like children, as Jesus just advocated!

 

Now, battle-worn, distraught that their master had been crucified, the great hope of their lives gone, these disciples, hiding out around Jerusalem, were not in a Galilee state of mind.

 

What was Galilee to Jesus. It is enough to say that he had begun there with his ministry, even being baptized in the Jordan River, which flows through the Sea of Galilee.

 

Where was Galilee and why is this significant? It was almost 90 miles from Jerusalem and the disciples were walking…over rough terrain. Yet, Galilee was that important to Jesus. As noted, Galilee was a state of mind.

 

Further, it is notable,  in Mark’s Gospel, that an angel at the tomb tells Mary Magdalene another aspect of this meeting in Galilee:

 

“He is going AHEAD OF YOU into Galilee.”

(emphasis added)

(Mark 16:7) NIV

 

Of course, Scripture tells us that this Galilee meeting took place. The format of a blog doesn’t begin to provide space to go into the entirety of the blessing that this was to each of the disciples. We know that Jesus ate with them, commissioned Peter to “feed my lambs,” (John 21:15-17) NIV and gave all of them “The Great Commission.” (Matthew 28: 16-20) NIV. It was in Galilee, during this meeting, that Jesus recommissioned these disciples who would carry his message into their time and, through their influence, into the ages.

 

Today, it is to Galilee that Jesus is beckoning each of us. Like the disciples, he is calling us back to where we began with him – back to when he first asked us to follow him. Jesus is saying, “Meet me in Galilee.” Is this a long journey of the soul? Maybe. Will he accompany us there? It’s better than that. He will “go ahead of us,” so that when we think back to our starting place, he will be waiting for us. Jesus leads and, with the better angels of our souls, we will know to follow. As Michael always says, “ It is when we let him lead that we understand that real knowledge comes from listening to Jesus, his teachings and his practice.”

 

Once we cross the border into Galilee and Jesus reminds us of our beginning with him, our own personal Galilee, he will recommission us, as he did the disciples.

 

What was Karl Barth’s Galilee experience? An erudite scholar returned in his mind’s eye to his mother’s knee and the life-changing song he heard there – How Jesus loved him and that of all that is unknowable in life, this he could know. All the libraries of theology couldn’t hold a candle to that simple song.

 

Karl Barth began with Jesus there. Where was our Galilee? Wherever we started, however far we’ve come or not come, the point of it all is that “Jesus loves me, this I know…” Right now, it is Lent in our world, our trouble-weary world in a wilderness season. But the message of Jesus in these simple words is full of clarity:

 

“Easter is coming. Make the journey and come home to a revival of your own beginnings with me…I’ll be waiting…Meet me in Galilee.”

 

Postscript 1:

This blog would not have been possible without the following articles from which we extensively quoted:

 

1) “Did Karl Barth Really Say, ‘Jesus Loves Me, This I Know…?” by Roger E. Olson

 

2) “Meet Me in Galilee,” a sermon by The Reverend Rhonda Robinson, Church of the Intercession, New York City

 

3) “Sermon Writer,” “Go to Galilee,” by Dr. Philip W. McLarty

 

Postscript 2:

 

In the Gospel of John, the record of Scripture sets forth a post-resurrection meeting of Jesus and the disciples in Jerusalem. In our view, this apparent inconsistency is easily explained by looking closely at the time frame of each.