The Eagle Magazine
"Walking in Capernaum"
The illustration above is how the house would have looked in Jesus' day.
January 11, 2020, Helen and I walked the streets of the city of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. We were just two days into our ten-day tour of the Holy Land. In the back of my mind, I was so looking forward to Jerusalem, we had all been told that we would spend our last three days there and I couldn't dream of a better way to end our trip. The Mount of Olives, the Temple Mount, Calvary and the Garden Tomb, just the thought that soon I would be right there caused me to feel a rush of adrenaline. It would be amazing, I would weep like a child at the Western Wall, I would shout for joy at the empty tomb and I would stand in awe looking across the way to Golgotha's hill.
On this third day of the trip, we boarded a boat and crossed the Sea of Galilee and not long after we stepped onto the shore of Capernaum, the home of Peter, James and John, who made their living fishing off this coast. I was looking forward to the day but not really expecting it to be a highlight of the tour. I was in for a surprise. As we walked up from the shore, I saw an unusual building that seemed to be built on stilts.
To say I was amazed and intrigued would be an understatement. I thought, is this some kind of strange gift shop erected right in the middle of the ruins of this town? It isn't, I learned that it was built over the house of Peter, the home of Jesus during his three and half years of his ministry. It was built over the house to protect it from the elements and it has a glass floor so you can look right down into the rooms of the house.
I walked up to it and looked underneath to see the stones that have rested on that ground for over two thousand years.
After a few minutes, I walked up the steps and into the building covering the very rooms where my Saviour lived. I was truly overwhelmed, as I stared down in near disbelief, I began to see the broken walls and packed floor in a different light. I could see a dwelling place. I pointed down and said, this room is where they had their meals, this was a bedroom, I exclaimed. The feeling of being in the house with Jesus was as real as sitting down to my dining table at home. This was the house where Peter, James and John would sit in a circle with Jesus and ask what this parable meant, what was this story about and tell us again about healing the blind man.
If you read from Mark 2:1, "And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house." You get a real sense of what it must have been like to live in Capernaum during that time. Jesus and his disciples had just returned from a busy time of ministry, now they're home again and excitement fills the streets as they all begin to say, Jesus is in the house!
Wow, I almost felt the same joy as I thought, he was here, right here in this place!
Of course, I never saw the house as it's pictured above, that picture was made long before the building was erected above it but looking at the shot now, I can imagine those who excavated the structure. I'm sure every turn of the soil revealing more of the house was a moment of exuberance. Still today, I can look at the pictures and let my mind take me back to the day I walked in Capernaum.
