As someone who has been taking teams to Israel on biblical study trips since 2008, I am often asked, “What’s your favorite place or biblical site in Israel?” This is somewhat of a difficult question to answer because new discoveries are constantly being made in Israel, and I’m in whatever specific season of life I’m in when I’m there, so I’m experiencing the Holy Land in my own story and narrative. But if I had to pick one place that means more to me and has ministered to me in deeply rich ways, it would be the Sea of Galilee. Throughout history, the Sea of Galilee has been known by a few other names: Lake Kinneret or Tiberias and Lake of Gennesaret.
The Hebrew word for sea is yam and carries the meaning of a “body of water.” When you go to the Sea of Galilee, you will immediately notice that it is a lake, much smaller than the Great Lakes here in the United States. It is approximately 12–13 miles long and 7–8 miles wide. I will never forget the first sunset I saw on the Sea of Galilee. I captured it in a photo I have framed in my home, and the image and memory is sealed in my heart forever.
I love the Sea of Galilee because it’s the context of the majority of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. Jesus was birthed in Bethlehem in the region of Judea and raised in Nazareth in the region of Galilee. Later, as a rabbi of Israel, Jesus lived in Capernaum, a coastal city located on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. In obedience to the Torah, He would have traveled to Jerusalem with His family and disciples for the feasts and festivals, but He lived the majority of His rabbinic life in Galilee — around and on the Sea of Galilee. This was His world 2,000 years ago.
One of my favorite passages of Scripture that locates so much of Jesus’ ministry around the Sea of Galilee is Matthew 4:23-25. Jesus taught in synagogues around the Sea of Galilee — places like Capernaum and Chorazin, which are mentioned in the Bible. We might also imagine Him teaching in the synagogues at Magdala and Gamla, along with others. It was here He proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, healed sickness and disease, cast out demons, and restored people to wholeness.
For me, being on or around the Sea of Galilee gives me a sense of getting to know Jesus in His first-century Jewish world. When I am there, I’m eating foods He would have eaten. I’m looking up and seeing stars and constellations He would’ve seen 2,000 years ago when He looked up into the night sky. After years and years of taking teams to Israel, I am still moved by each and every sunrise and sunset on the Sea of Galilee.
I sit looking out over the sea, and I imagine some of the biblical stories of Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. The gospel writers share stories of Jesus being in boats with His disciples on this sea. Jesus calmed a storm on this sea. Jesus walked on these waters. One time He invited Peter to walk on these waters with Him. Jesus called His first two disciples, Peter and Andrew, who were brothers and both fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus went on to call another set of fishermen brothers to join Him and follow Him: James and John, who would later be nicknamed the “sons of thunder.”
After Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, He showed Himself as the crucified victor at various times and places to His disciples. John 21 is the last chapter of the fourth and final gospel in the Bible. I love how it begins — a full-circle moment as He is back at the very place where He called His first disciples a few years before. “Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee” (John 21:1, NIV).
John 21 goes on to tell the beautiful story of Jesus preparing breakfast on the shore for His disciples and His forever meaningful conversation with Peter — restoring him after he had denied Jesus three times in Jerusalem after His arrest. It is an incredible experience to be able to visit and sit in these very places where these stories happened some 2,000 years ago. The Bible is the best and truest story ever told.
The Sea of Galilee has always been both a peaceful and a wonderfully provoking place for me. It brings me great peace to envision some of the very places where Jesus lived and ministered 2,000 years ago. It also provokes me to keep walking as a dedicated follower of Jesus in this world, in my world. We are still following and walking after Jesus, this Galilean rabbi and Savior of the world.
This article by Kristi McLelland originally appeared in the July 2024 edition of Mature Living Magazine.
The Luke in the Land Bible Study
Explore the Holy Land with Kristi McLelland as you study snapshots from the Gospel of Luke with her new 7-session Bible study Luke in the Land. Challenge the way you read the accounts of Jesus in video teaching sessions that take you to locations in Israel like Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee, Gethsemane, Jerusalem, and more. Along the way, you’ll see how Jesus, the Messiah, brought His kingdom to earth for everybody.
ABOUT KRISTI MCLELLAND
Kristi McLelland is a professor at Williamson College and the bestselling author of Rediscovering Israel, as well as Jesus & Women and The Gospel on the Ground Bible studies. Kristi teaches the Bible in its historical, cultural, geographic, and linguistic contexts. After studying in Egypt and Israel in 2007, Kristi began leading biblical study trips to Israel in 2008. Kristi’s trips, as well as her in-person and online courses and resources—including her popular Pearls podcast—position Westerners to discover the Bible within the framework in which it was written. Find Kristi at kristimclelland.com.
