It’s 6am here in Jerusalem. I’m taking stock of what I’ve seen, heard, and the conversations I’ve had on this trip thus far and I am struck to the point of tears this morning at one simple reality: It is the heart that matters above all else in the affairs of man.
Yesterday we met with Jerusalem Post journalist Herb Keinon who offered an insiders view of Prime Minister Netanyahu from his years covering Israeli politics, and traveling oversees and around the country with him. Then we visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum here in Jerusalem.
The Yad Vashem experience was led by a tour guide who asked a lot of questions in order to convey her ideas and the thrust of the museum – perhaps it was just her style, but it was a good way to open up the lid a little and get people thinking about the deeper issues surrounding not only the Holocaust, but hatred and killing in general. The questions that summed it all up were: How could human beings do this to other human beings? What is it that happened inside their minds and hearts? What is the genesis of this grotesque defect? What can be done to stop it in the future?
Hold that thought…
After Yad Vashem, we had lunch with Brig. General for the IDF Reserves Nitzan Nuriel. The lunch was nothing short of fantastic. Nuriel is an amazingly candid and heroic man. His vision of survival, optimism, and hope for future Israeli generations was clearly what surfaced during our time together. He exuded strength, good naturedness, and resolve. In short, this was one of the greatest leaders I have ever met in person.
During our conversation with the General, we asked many questions. The dialogue was great – as it has been all week here in Israel. And Nuriel seemed to echo what Keinon had said earlier in the morning, namely that long term peace and long term solutions to living in peace are elusive, and frankly probably not the way to focus all one’s efforts. Living life to the fullest and best in-between conflicts is what counts, said Nuriel. What do we do with that time? In the context of why he has hope for the future, Keinon put it this way, “Israel is remarkably good at finding solutions to short term problems.”
When you approach the problems these men are describing about Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, the border with Jordan, and on and on, you come to quickly realize there is no easy solution. They are dealing with people who are not playing by the same rules. A member of Hamas has one goal in mind: exterminate the Jews. If they die trying, so much the better – they aren’t afraid to die, because of all they’ve learned about their supposed rewards in the afterlife. YET, many palestinians who live in Gaza or the West Bank simply aren’t as militant. They want a life of their own, and they are people with rights as well. Israelis, more than anyone I know, understand the fundamental gritty truth that Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs etc. are human beings with families, lives, and souls.
The rock and the hard place are coming into focus, are they not? How do you live next to people and sit across the negotiating table with people who want to kill you because you’re a Jew. They are completely unreasonable – they are terrorists. Yet, there are millions and millions of men, women, and children whose lives are at stake and if you come from a Jewish background, there’s no way you’re going to wantonly kill innocents in any battle – even to defend your own people. This is a nation of people defined by the holocaust, and that means it has been indelibly marked on them the fact that all people are human beings – just as they are. That is one of the impressions, by the way, that one learns from Yad Vashem.
Making it all Make Sense
In the evening we had the privilege of meeting with three start-up businessmen and women who were success stories here in Israel. It was a great dinner at a fun Moroccan restaurant in the Center City portion of Jerusalem. As fun as it was to meet them, I was even more moved by a meeting that occurred just prior with a Palestinian Christian Pastor. I won’t tell you his name because he’s suffered enough persecution and I’d like to protect his privacy.
This young pastor was about my age – mid 30’s – and is on the front lines of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Palestinians – Muslims. He has been beaten, had his church bombed, had his friends harassed and on and on. But he still continues to preach. What does he emphasize? Loving your enemy. Why? Because this is what Jesus taught, yes, but how is he able to do it? Because His heart has been changed radically by God.
And…his ministry is flourishing. People are coming to Christ. Interestingly enough, it is this idea of “love” and an understanding of mutual humanity that bridges gaps on an interpersonal basis even among secular Jews and Palestinians. The entrepreneurs we listened to last night confirmed that as well. But the difference between common decency and the radical nature of Jesus’ love is that one promotes harmony until the other party wrongs us, while the other – the love of Jesus – helps us love people while they wrong us.
Why did men mass murder other men and women? Why do members of Hamas blindly hate and target Jews – sacrificing their own citizens in order to do this? These questions are deep, but not as deep as the answers to how these problems are solved. If we acknowledge the depth of our sin and fallenness as humans, that is the starting point. That is the obvious answer to Yad Vashem. But what is the answer to the second question? How is this nature overcome? How is hatred and ignorance overcome? By the love of Jesus Christ.
This is a supernatural love, an alien love, a love not found naturally in the corrupt hearts of man. It is also a gracious love, a love which God has shed abroad in the hearts of men and women who share a faith in Christ. For those who are Christians, we need to understand that the ultimate answers to the difficult questions of our time both here and at home, begin not at the military, political, or diplomatic level, but in the hearts of mankind.
Pictures from Day 3 below:
PJ Wenzel 