Matt Johnson Reflects On His Trip To The Holy Land

In August I spent a week and half with Christians in Israel and Palestine. Whether I was in the West Bank or the Galilee region, I heard these kinds of statements:

“I am Arab, but I am not Muslim.”

“I am a citizen of Israel, but I am not Jewish.”

“I am a Christian, but I am not Orthodox or Catholic.”

“Who am I?” 

This may sound like a riddle to you, but many of our sisters and brothers in the Holy Land wrestle with these questions. 

The easy answer is that we are all Christians. Doesn’t Galatians chapter three tell us that in Christ we are all children of God? Doesn’t that same passage break down walls of ethnicity, gender, and social status? Couldn’t we also apply this to nationality and denominations? And aren’t we part of a movement that prides itself in proclaiming that we are “Christians only”? Again, the short and easy answer is, “Yes.”

But my Israeli brother can no more stop being Israeli than I can stop being an American. My Palestinian sister can no more stop being Arab than I can stop being a white man. Ethnicity and nationality do not define us, but they do influence us. And they also give us places to belong. The space for an Arab-Israeli-Christian or a Palestinian-Evangelical-Christian is very small, they are less than 1% of the population around them. 

Even worse, some of these categories are in conflict so our sisters and brothers in the Holy Land are made to feel they must choose sides. Christians in Bethlehem certainly do not celebrate the violence of Hamas, but that doesn’t mean they support the forces who reinforce settler violence in the West Bank. Christians in Galilee appreciate their Israeli citizenship but lament the structures that treat Arab and Jewish citizens unequally. 

This article is not an answer to these questions. It is a prayer request. Please pray that:

- Christians in the Holy Land will keep finding ways to cooperate across denominational lines.

- Israeli Christians will honor governing authorities while advocating for justice for their neighbors.

- Palestinian Christians will seek the peace and prosperity of the land where they live.

- The Holy Spirit will strengthen and encourage Christians in the Holy Land who are surrounded by conflict and pressured to take sides. 

And while we are at it perhaps we will be inspired to wrestle with what it means to put our own faith in front of our ethnicity, nationality, and politics. I don’t know which boxes you fit into. But I suspect that struggling with our identity is (or should be) part of the Christian condition. So let us stand with Holy Land Christians with compassion, prayer, and engagement in the common endeavor of embracing our Christian identities.