Just over a week ago, I returned from a holy pilgrimage to Israel. The trip was organised by New Wine International, my church in London, and attended by 71 people. Originally scheduled for November 2019, the tour was delayed by over two-and-a-half years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent global restrictions, including both in the UK and Israel. So, it was with great excitement and great expectation that we finally embarked on the trip on Wednesday, June 22.
Yes, great excitement and great expectation. And rightly so. After all, we were going to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We were going to see and touch those places we read about in the Bible – where Jesus was born, where He carried out His ministry and performed several miracles, where He was crucified, where He was buried and where He resurrected. We did all these, and, believe me, it was spiritually enriching!
That apart, however, I also came away with insights about the extraordinary religious and ethnic diversity and tensions in Israel and how these are delicately managed. Those insights and the lessons for Nigeria, a country steeped in deep ethnic and religious divisions, but which utterly mismanages its diversity and proneness to ethno-religious tensions, is the focus of this piece. But before that, allow me to talk about the spiritual experience.
But that’s further from the truth. Indeed, Israel, particularly Jerusalem, is hugely significant to the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – and it’s arguably the most religiously volatile country in the world
Without a doubt, it must be the wish of every practising Christian to go to Israel and connect physically and spiritually with the events and places described in both the Old and New Testaments. The Bible comes alive when you experience, first-hand, the land where Jesus walked. We were told to see the trip as a spiritual tour of the Holy Land. And so it was, with several prayer sessions and countless visits to holy sites, enhanced by great elucidations by our brilliant tour guides.
For logistical reasons, we started from Capernaum in the Galilee of northern Israel, where Jesus carried out much of His ministry, and visited the Mount of Beatitudes, where He gave His famous Sermon on the Mount – the Beatitudes or, as one of the guides described them, “the beautiful attitudes”! Then, we sailed joyfully across the Sea of Galilee, as Jesus did.
From Capernaum, we went to Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. At Nazareth Village, we ate “Biblical meal”, including tasteless lentil soup, reigniting the first-century experience in Jesus’ days. Leaving the north of Israel, we headed for Jerusalem to visit and pray at the Western Wall or, to some, “Wailing Wall”, the Jews’ holiest prayer site.
Next day, we went to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, and visited the Grotto of Nativity, in Manger Square, where Jesus was born. Then, we went to the Shepherd’s Field and was treated to a demonstration of how shepherds “kept watch over their flock” in the days of Jesus, Himself described, in John 10:11, as “the Good Shepherd.”
The most poignant moments were when we visited the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus underwent agony and was arrested before His crucifixion, and when we walked, carrying a wooden cross, through Via Dolorosa, where the 14 stations of the cross, representing the 14 episodes of the passion of Jesus, took place before He was crucified and buried in Golgotha. We visited Jesus’ empty tomb in the magnificent Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Empty, yes, because He resurrected, He rose from the dead.
Ah, what’s a holy trip to Israel without visits to River Jordan, where Jesus was baptised, and Jericho, the oldest city in the world? Each of us was baptised in River Jordan, a significant spiritual moment, and most floated – yes, you can’t swim – in the Dead Sea, a remarkable experience. Then, we headed for the Mount of Temptation in Jericho and the Garden Tomb, before ending the trip with a visit to Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. What a trip! What a spiritual experience! Utterly unforgettable!
Now, the diversity point. What I described above might suggest that Israel is only of significance to Christians and Jews. But that’s further from the truth. Indeed, Israel, particularly Jerusalem, is hugely significant to the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – and it’s arguably the most religiously volatile country in the world.
Since its origin in antiquity, Jerusalem has been occupied by Christians (the Byzantines and the Crusaders) and Muslims (the Ottoman Empire) until it came under British rule from 1917 to 1948. After the end of British rule in 1948, Israel declared its independence, making Jerusalem part of its sovereign territory. But during the Arab-Israel War in 1948, Jordan captured and annexed East Jerusalem, including the Old City, and turned East Jerusalem into exclusive Muslim haven. However, during the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel recaptured and annexed East Jerusalem and restored Jewish and Christian access to the Old City.
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The Old City, separated from the rest of East Jerusalem by a wall, is significant because it’s home to several holy sites of the three religions, namely: the Temple Mount and Western Wall for Judaism; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christianity; and the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque for Islam. Each religion regards its holy sites are key to its faith.
Inevitably, tensions abound. Muslims do not recognise the sacredness of the Western Wall, the Jews’ holiest place of prayer, which is in close proximity to the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. On the other hand, Jews claim that both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque sit wrongly on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, on which they hope, one day, to build the third Temple after the first, built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians and the second rebuilt temple was destroyed by the Romans.
Yet, despite the historical grievances and the rigid claims and counterclaims, Muslims and Jews in Israel are not killing each other over the holy sites. Why? First, there is an understanding that negotiations and political solution, not violence, are the way forward. Second, there is, at least, a grudging tolerance of one another’s religious practices.
For instance, Old Jerusalem is divided into four quarters – Muslim Quarter, Christian Quarter, Armenian Quarter and Jewish Quarter. But while these quarters seem segregated, each has holy sites belonging to other religions, such as the Pool of Bethesda and Via Dolorosa in the Muslim Quarter. Yet, the sites are not desecrated or destroyed. Why? I asked our guide. “People tolerate one another and live amicably together here,” he said.
Of course, that’s in sharp contrast to Nigeria, where Islamists are destroying churches and massacring Christians as they did when they murdered over 40 worshippers in a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State. Some American Senators recently noted, rightly: “Violence against Christians has been all too familiar in Nigeria.”
But if there’s any country where religious violence should be a daily occurrence, it’s Israel. Yet, it’s not. Why? Because the Israeli government protects the holy places and treats every religion, not just Judaism, even-handedly. Unlike Nigeria. Think about it, the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, wants to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket in next year’s presidential race. But a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket is a frontal attack on Nigerian Christians, a perverse suggestion that Christianity, an older religion, is inferior to Islam!
The Holy Land tour offered a unique opportunity to pray, and I did. Apart from personal prayers, I prayed for people and organisations that I have a relationship with, including this newspaper! And I prayed for Nigeria. But truth be told, Nigeria faces an unprecedentedly turbulent future if, in flagrant disregard for its religious diversity, Bola Tinubu becomes president on a Muslim-Muslim ticket. So, my prayer was simple: God, save and help Nigeria!
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