Traveling the Unexpected Rhodes

After taking a small plane from Crete across the Aegean Sea, we ended up in Rhodes, a beautiful island that is actually closer to Turkey than the mainland of Greece. Rhodes is like an island paradise with castle walls and hand laid stone roads. The waters here are a blue-green color and some of the beaches here look like they should be featured on the Travel Channel. Below you can see a view of the sea right next to the Acropolis of Lindos, which we went on to ascended in all of its glory.

View of the bright blue sea.

 

Some of the locals offered donkey rides to the top of the hill for only 6 euros, which would have certainly been an interesting experience. As we passed, the men were very persistently shouting out, “taxi please! please, taxi!” As convincing as these brilliant entrepreneurs were, we still chose to take the journey on foot.

 

Taxi to the top of the hill

Once we reached the top and bought our tickets to enter the site, our tour guide, Dora, showed us all the Ancient engravings and destroyed temples built upon by many different cultures. One of these temples that remains somewhat in tact is the temple of Athena Lindia, which was the main attration at the top of the hill.

View of the top of the Acropolis (featuring Jess ducking out of Julia’s photo).

 

The temple of Athena Lindia.

Although the view from this acropolis was beautiful, it was not our favorite acropolis thus far. We had the most fun climbing the Acrocorinth (the acropolis of ancient Corinth). Once we were dropped off at the base of the site, we were all set free to frolic to the top of this massive hill and explore the ancient ruins.

As you might know, Corinth was one of the cities that Paul the Apostle visited because he had heard about their many idols and lack of morality. At the top of this Acrocorinth was where the ancient Corinthians worshiped their gods Helios and Aphrodite nearly 2000 years ago! Making a Biblical connection to what I was seeing made the experience all the more majestic. I even took my Bible up to the top and read aloud some of first and second Corinthians. Although Paul wrote those two letters to the church, and possibly a third letter that makes up part of the second, he never read them aloud at the top of their place of worship, so doing this made me feel more connected to Paul’s ministry. -Austin

Another thing that really connected me to Paul’s ministry was our experience on Mars Hill in Athens. Mars Hill is the location where Paul preached to the Athenians about their idols and presented the gospel to them (Acts 17). I was really excited to visit this significant Biblical location, and it just so happens that, during the first day of exploring Athens, I discovered Mars Hill without even realizing it. I knew there was something special about this place I had encountered, even though I hadn’t been there before and I didn’t know what I was standing upon. When I got to the top, I took photos and enjoyed the views of both the ancient acropolis and the modern city of Athens. The next day, we took a tour and stopped at Mars Hill. When I found out I had already been there, I was astonished! And I got to enjoy it for a second time. That was when the really excitement hit me. While we were at the top, the male Dr. Putt read from Acts and talked to us about what Paul said to the Athenians and how they responded.

Dr. Putt reading Acts 17 aloud to the class on top of Mars Hill.

The most significant thing that I took away from that lesson was how crucial it is to relate to your audience when you are preaching. Dr. Putt spoke about how Paul knew of the “unknown god” that the Athenians worshiped, and this is the avenue that Paul to describe to them the Christian God. He spoke about how his God was the “unknown god” that they were searching for; the Creator of heaven and the earth, and all that’s within it. I loved how Paul creatively used something from their culture that the Athenians understood, to make the gospel message more effective and relatable.

Paul eventually told them about God’s son, Jesus, who died for us… but as soon as he mentioned the resurrection, the Athenians stopped listening. This is because the Greeks believed that, in death, the soul leaves the body and is free to reach its full potential. The body to them is like a prison that holds back the mind and the spirit, so it seemed foolish for any God to want to return to that prison and resurrect the body from the dead. Even though Paul wasn’t entirely successful in the end, he was prepared by having a point of connection (their “unknown god”), which is something I can seek out when preparing my future sermons. -Austin

Last night, we had a lecture about the icons of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which was particularly interesting for me (Jessica). On our third day in Athens some of us had the opportunity to go to the Byzantium Museum where we saw many of these frescoes on display. At the time, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. They started to all look the same after a while, and I can’t say that it was really my taste in art. After our lecture last night, though, I learned there is much more to these icons. The colors and poses of each figure symbolize something specific, like bright red for humanity, and gold for divinity. It’s too bad that we weren’t able to have our lecture before the museum, since it would have helped me understand the frescoes. My church background also doesn’t use icons, so I grew up believing that these frescoes were worshiped. I learned, however, that these images were created to assist in worship. The figures were painted unrealistically to avoid worship of the figure, and direct one’s attention to the reality of what the figure represents. This was one of the most interesting discoveries for me on our trip thus far, and I’m sure we all look forward to seeing more icons on our next museum trip! -Jess

Both of us have taken some unexpected roads to discover more about our faith and how we see God, but tomorrow we will have some time to rest and enjoy the beauty that Rhodes has to offer.

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