Between Gerizim and Ebal: Streams of Living Water

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On this trip having visited Geneva and Rome I have struggled with the merits of both Protestantism and Catholicism. The question that is developing in my mind is, if I am not one does that mean I have to be the other? Can I not identify myself as Protestant without becoming Catholic? Our recent visit to Nablus helped me toward resolving this dilemma.

In Deut 11 God gives His people the choice to obey or disobey his commands. To obey brings about the blessing while disobedience brings on the curse. The two mountain peaks of Gerizim and Ebal represent the fundamental consequence of fallen human nature; the struggle between what we should do and what we should not do. 

Nablus, which is the site of ancient Shechem, lies in the valley between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal. These two peaks represent our moral dilemmas. God commanded Joshua upon taking possession of the Promised Land to set the blessing on Mt. Gerizim and the curse on Mt. Ebal  (Dt. 11:29). It is thus puzzling that after conquering Ai Joshua built an altar on Mt. Ebal; the mountain of the curse (Josh 8:30). But what does Mt. Ebal represent? It represents our disobedience. Obedience to the commands of the Lord, then, is to give up our disobedience; for it is the disobedient heart that brings on the curse.  Obedience is really the nature with which God has created us. This is our true state and thus what we truly desire. True spiritual healing is not so much to cultivate a life of striving to follow God’s commands but to put to death our disobedient nature. Jesus preached repentance not morality:

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matt 4:17"

Thus to repent – to turn from disobedience – is to come naturally into obedience. It is to build an altar of sacrifice on Mt. Ebal.

Altar stone at ancient Shechem

At Shechem in the valley between the two mountains Joshua brought the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the Presence of the Lord Himself. Here also after the conquest of Canaan Joshua took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord (Josh 24:24). While the altar on Mt. Ebal represented a sacrifice - a relinquishing - of their disobedience, the altar at Shechem was a witness to their obedience to the commands of the Lord. 

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Truth itself lies on neither mountain but in the valley between. Here flow the living waters of Jacobs well. It is one of the holy sites that we know for sure is the actual site. Our guide, an orthodox priest, demonstrated the depth of this well by having one of our group let down a bucket which required a huge length of rope to reach the water. Then he poured a bit of water into the well which took several seconds to splash into the water below. It is about 130 feet deep: 

The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? John 4:11-12

The springs of spiritual truth lie deep within us, not on the “high grounds” of morality. Truth lies not so much in our religious orientation as in the Living Water of Christ. Our orthodox guide emphasized this point more than once:

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father (John 4:21-22).

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24-25)." 

Certainly our religious orientation takes us to the well. One must enter the church to reach the well but it is in the depths of the well itself where the actual Living Water is found. Will we actually convert to Catholicism? That is an unknown. What we have in hand is the added depth of spirituality into which our experiences on this journey with the Catholic Church has led us.