At Caesarea Philippi

Cave at left = gates of hell.  Note alcoves cut into the rock for idols.

peaceful, parklike setting

Old man saying his prayers.

On every Holy Land trip, there is a visit to Caesarea Philippi. This is a lovely park like setting in the northern part of Israel. This is where people came to worship their Gods for centuries prior to Jesus. This is where the gaping cave is, that is referred to in the new testament as "the gates of hell."

This is also the place where Jesus had his famous discussion with the disciples about "who do you say that I am?"

Mk 8:27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
The Way of the Cross
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[b] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

In my experience, the church was very big at celebrating Peter's recognition of Jesus as the Messiah.  And we were taught that we should believe in him too.

The church I grew up in however, totally ignored the next group of teachings, which is all about Jesus' suffering, where Jesus' followers are invited to take up a cross.

In the scripture, Peter is celebrated for the Jesus as Messiah remark, but then chastised by Jesus for missing the rest of his message.  So should we modern Christians be.

It is not enough to confess Jesus as lord, if we don't follow him into a life of self denial, kindness and other centeredness.  It is not that they go together... the first, without the second, is meaningless.

It will always be better to follow than to believe.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.