Eating Pizza or Why Travel To The Land of The Bible Should Be Seminary Core Learning

We traveled around the northern part of the country again today, visiting the Yardenit baptismal spot where the Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee, taking a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee, and exploring the wondrous archaeological site at Beit Shean.  We stopped for lunch at a Kibbutz where the brave among us ate St. Peter's fish (a tilapia looking very much like itself just staring at you from the plate) and where I had cheese pizza.  I am not brave.  Know your limits.
Towards the end of the day, our veteran guide, Jimmy, took us to a possible location for Jesus' feeding of the 4,000.  That is correct, 4,000 - not 5,000.  Two stories and two locations.  And the location may make all the difference in understanding the story - or more specifically the necessity of two stories.  This evening we had a speaker from Educational Opportunities talk about Jesus and the Galilee.  I was already and am now even more convinced of the invaluable nature of physically seeing, feeling, experiencing the land to more deeply appreciate the stories.  Becoming familiar with the geography; learning the history as it relates to the geography and scripture; discovering what it means that Jesus left Nazareth and came to Capernaum to begin his ministry.  Taking this stuff seriously is taking the incarnation seriously.  Ignoring or dismissing it is to risk ignoring or dismissing the humanity of Christ.  Jesus did not come at a random moment to a place we know nothing about.  Jesus came to a particular place and lived in this place and lived and worked and played and carried out his ministry here.
It is an amazing place.
I'm glad I got to eat pizza here.