Study tour blog #1: Hope for those without hope.
Mars Hill with the acropolis in the background
Angus Gibb is travelling around Greece and Turkey in April 2023, on a study tour of ancient Biblical sites.
It has been an incredible start to my journey around Greece and Turkey. I have been struck at the beauty and mystery that surrounds so much of this rich culture. Walking up through the entrance of the acropolis, your eyes are lifted to the ancient pillars that mark the gateway to this wonderful sanctuary. Standing on Mars Hill you could imagine Paul giving his famous speech to the Areopagus. Walking around the tent maker’s quarter in Corinth you get a sense of the daily life that he spent living amongst these people, proclaiming the gospel. Giving hope to those who were without any.
What made this scene so poignant was that we were in the museum in Easter Saturday. The day that Jesus remained dead in the grave. It was the day that Jesus’s followers were filled with hopeless grief.
This struck me deeply during a visit to The National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Among the statues and poetry are a collections of funeral stones. One of these showed this sense of hopelessness in a new way. On a large vase that would have been placed on top of a grave depicts a young woman. She is holding hands with Hermes, who in Greek mythology would transport people to the underworld. But they cannot go because Hermes is being held back by the young woman’s father and mother. They could not come to terms with their loss. She was being taken from them too soon. What made this scene so poignant was that we were in the museum in Easter Saturday. The day that Jesus remained dead in the grave. It was the day that Jesus’s followers were filled with hopeless grief.
None of us can escape death.
Death can come suddenly and unexpectedly. When we lose loved ones, we don’t want to let them go. But we have a living hope in the gospel. A resurrection hope. A hope of life because on Easter Sunday, our saviour walked out of the grave, defeating death. Paul wrote of this truth in 1 Corinthians 15:20 where he said: ‘But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.’ In the gospel we have true comfort in the face of death. We have true hope in the midst of loss. In Jesus we have eternal life.
The entrance to the acropolis
The tent maker’s quarter in Corinth where Paul would have most likely worked
Greek funeral vase at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Hermes is in the centre, with the young woman to his right and her family to his left.
Athens today
More Reflections.
Often, we build something up so much in our minds, that the experience we want becomes almost unattainable. We romanticise what we think it will be like and we think “If I can just do this one thing or tick this one experience off my bucket list, then I will be able to feel a sense of fulfilment that I wouldn’t necessarily have had otherwise”.