Why the Sea of Galilee is a Must-Visit for Christian Travelers by Kristi McLelland

As someone who has been taking teams to Israel on biblical study trips since 2008, I am often asked, “What’s your favorite place or biblical site in Israel?”

This is somewhat of a difficult question to answer because discoveries are constantly being made in Israel, and the specific season of life I’m in when I’m there impacts how I experience the Holy Land in my own story and narrative. If I had to pick one place that means more to me and has ministered to me in deeply rich ways, it would be the Sea of Galilee.

Throughout history, the Sea of Galilee has been known by a few other names—Lake Kinneret, Sea of Tiberias, Lake Ginosar and Gennesaret.

The Hebrew word for sea is “yam” and means a “body of water.” When you go to the Sea of Galilee, you will immediately notice that it is a lake, much smaller than the Great Lakes in the United States. It is approximately 12-13 miles long and 7-8 miles wide. I will never forget the first sunset I saw on the Sea of Galilee. I captured it in a photo and framed it in my home; the image and memory are sealed in my heart forever.

Image

I love the Sea of Galilee because it’s the context of most of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the Judea region and raised in Nazareth in the Galilee region. Later, as a sage and rabbi of Israel, Jesus lived in Capernaum, a coastal city on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. This was His world. In obedience to the Torah, He would have traveled to Jerusalem with his family and disciples for the feasts and festivals. Still, He lived most of his rabbinic life in Galilee—around and on the Sea of Galilee. This was the landscape of His world 2,000 years ago.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture that locates so much of Jesus’ ministry around the Sea of Galilee is Matthew 4:23-25. Jesus taught in synagogues around the Sea of Galilee in places like Capernaum and Chorazin, which are mentioned in the Bible.

We might also imagine Him teaching in the synagogues at Magdala, Gamla and others. Here, He proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, healed sickness and disease, cast out demons, and restored people to wholeness.

Being on or around the Sea of Galilee gives me a sense of getting to know Jesus in His first-century Jewish world. When I am there, I eat foods He would have eaten. I look up and see stars and constellations He would’ve seen 2,000 years ago when He looked up into the night sky. After years and years of taking teams to Israel, I am still moved by each and every sunrise and sunset on the Sea of Galilee.

Image

I look over the sea and imagine some of Jesus’ biblical stories ON the Sea of Galilee. The gospels capture many of these life-changing moments:

• Jesus sailed in boats with his disciples.
• Jesus taught and healed multiple people.
• Jesus calmed a storm.
• Jesus walked on these waters.
• Jesus invited Peter to walk on water with Him.
• Jesus called his first two disciples, Peter and Andrew, brothers and fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.
• Later, Jesus called another set of fishermen brothers to join him and follow him—James and John, who would later be nicknamed the “sons of thunder.”

After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, He showed Himself as the crucified victor to his disciples at various times and places. John 21 is the last chapter of the fourth and final Gospel in the Bible. I love how it begins—a full-circle moment as He is back at the very place where He called His first disciples a few years before.

“Afterward, Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee” (John 21:1).

John 21 tells the beautiful story of Jesus preparing breakfast on the shore for His disciples and His forever meaningful conversation with Peter—restoring him after Peter denied Jesus three times in Jerusalem. It is an incredible experience to visit and sit in these very places where these stories happened some 2,000 years ago. The Bible is the best and truest story ever told.

The Sea of Galilee has always been a peaceful and wonderfully provoking place for me. It brings me great peace to embody some places where Jesus lived and ministered 2,000 years ago. It also provokes me to keep walking as a dedicated follower of Jesus in this world, in my world. We are still following and walking after Jesus, this Galilean rabbi and our Savior.