St Peter’s Fish

For twenty minutes today we were on the Sea of Galilee. Our first visit this morning was to a boat that had been recovered from the mud of the lake 25 years ago. This boat is known to be from the time of Jesus. http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/galilee-boat-faq.htm




It is not in great condition so they put us on another boat to make the trip across the lake. Our boat was a bit bigger with room for each to find a place of solitude as we crossed. http://www.bibleplaces.com/seagalilee.htm




As humans our way of experiencing the reality that surrounds us is through our senses. My senses are heighted in these days as I see what Jesus would have seen view and hear sounds that would have been familiar to him. Here we are savouring the tastes that He would have known. When we were on the lake I realized that there is more of the water Jesus actually washed in in Lake Taupo that there is here! (evaporation, precipitation and all that). The Avon has more of the 'water Jesus touched' than the Jordan! But these hills are visibly unchanged and this was the skyline He saw.

The lake journey took us across to the land of the Gadarenes. We know this is where Jesus moved the evil spirits from the people to the pigs since it is the only cliff around the lake where the pigs would fall to their death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_(demon)

Then to the restaurant where we ate the fish that Jesus would have eaten. Paul I thought of you especially today! I doubt if Jesus called it “St Peter’s Fish” but that’s what we call it today. The restaurant serves the fish, or pasta or pizza. I didn’t see anyone eat anything but the fish but the waiter told us that many Italians choose pasta instead of THE fish. I heard an American at the next table asking to have her fish filleted. Each diner is presented with a whole fish. They say the eyes are a delicacy, but I am much too delicate to think of trying. But the rest of the fish was good. Not a Rakaia salmon or Nelson Creek Whitebait or Bluff Oyster, but good fish. The fish peeled away from the bone easily. Sarah had learned in India that the cheek of the fish was the best part so we all tried this part (A bit close to the eye for my liking, but it was good!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilapia

The winner in the experience was my personal appreciation of the reality of the incarnation: Yes, God did leave the heavens to take on human form. His human eyes saw these earthly hills. His human body was nourished by this particular fish...

And now, after His death and resurrection, He is closer to us than he was to his disciples in that boat. Then He was limited by human form. He could only be in one place at a time. Today, wherever we are, and whatever the messy, suffering and sinful reality of our human life, He is with us!