Once a Holy Site...
After 8 days in the holy land, the one thing that continues to reverberate in my mind and heart is the phrase our tour guide said nearly everywhere we went: “Once a holy site, always a holy site.” Seeing sites such as the birthplace (actual spot, not just the city of Bethlehem) of Jesus’ birth, Mt. Carmel, where Elijah called down fire from the Lord to defeat the prophets of Ba’al, to the supposed locations of the giving of the Sermon on the Mount and the multiplication of the loaves and fish, culminating in seeing the Temple Mount and the probable location of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, I reflect a lot on what “holy” means, specifically as I think through these locations. What ultimately makes them holy or sacred?
One specific location that continually “haunts” me is the birthplace of Jesus, the actual location of his birth and the manger he was laid in. As we approach Christmas, this story is front of mind, and yet the time in this spot was less than sacred. The spot is memorialized by a silver star on the floor, incense burning everywhere, and a hoard of people waiting hours to gaze on this spot. Also, keep in mind that this location is covered by a church housing Catholic, Orthodox, and Armenian congregations, each of which claims this spot as their own. So as I gazed, through pushing crowds, hymns being sung, people weeping and shaking, and police with semi-automatic weapons, I couldn’t help but think of what holy truly means and how we have come to such a situation.
Have we as believers or as the Church come to worship the locations because something great happened there? It reminds me of the iconoclastic controversies. Is it the worship of the image (location) over the Savior behind it? Why are these locations so ornamentalized? In our group, the “bedazzling” of these locations actually led to significant disappointment and distraction from the worship and praise of the story behind the spot.
And so I think back to what is holy. As I have had time to reflect on my time there, the things I’ve seen and the things I’ve learned, I’ve come to worship the holiness of God, not because of the actual space, but because of what happened in the story of redemption in those locations. Holy sites are really sites of remembrance, and we must remember that the location itself is not to be praised, but the God who worked in those spaces. And this is true with any space where God has worked and spoken into our lives. Sometimes the holiest of places to each of us have no significance to anyone else, but it is where God met us, spoke to us, worked in the world, and/or advanced his kingdom.
May we continue to place stones of remembrance that drive us to worship the God of creation and redemption, instead of worshiping the stones themselves. May we continue to fight through the distractions of life, the shiny things that can redirect our attention away from the Lord. And may we find our own holy places, the places where God has worked in our lives and those around us to further his kingdom.
Adam Dalton
Adam is the managing editor for Doctrine and Devotion, and is the retail sales manager for Moody Publishers. He lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife Allison and three kids: Abigail, Nathan, and Hannah.