I recently visited Jesus’ baptism site at the River Jordan (right), where many people dressed in white were being dipped in the murky water.
The site is in the desert, surrounded by barbed wire and landmines.
The bleak and dangerous wastes show why John the Baptist’s message of repentance still applies today.
I was queuing in the gift shop when a woman shoved past me. She had just been baptised, and was still wearing a dripping white robe.
I thought to myself: ‘So much for her baptism. Her old nature is alive and kicking.’
But then God said: ‘So is yours. You’re judging her.’
My inner Pharisee is never far away!
The next day, I visited the Garden Tomb gardens and saw an umbrella that had been left on a seat.
‘Ah,’ I thought, ‘I could do with a new umbrella.’
I immediately felt ashamed. Here I was, at the site of Jesus’ resurrection, thinking about nicking someone’s brolly.
These experiences sum up my Christian experience. And maybe yours.
We have the righteousness of Christ. But we’re still a work in progress.
So, we either hide our sin with the figleaf of religion. Or we confess it to God, and start again.
I need to confess my sin several times a day. So, I can’t judge you when you shove me out the queue.
Being in Israel didn’t make me a better person.
But being in Christ gives me hope, provided I don’t turn to religion, which is another dangerous minefield in that troubled country.
God is looking for inward reality, not outward conformity.