War and Peace
Brutal stories of war are reported almost daily. Enough could never be said about the damage to innocents especially children. Peace does not stay long until another battle begins.
War is the backdrop for some of the most powerful stories ever told. Some of those stories are in War and Peace written by Leo Tolstoy about families affected by Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Later he wrote, “wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” History cannot be written without stories of the ego’s affinity for war and elusive peace.
Horns of Hattin
The same egos cloaked in religious belief and fervor were at battle centuries earlier on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. Twin peaks from an extant volcano called the Horns of Hattin saw the deciding battle of Saladin’s forces over the Christian Crusaders in 1187. That battle paved the way for Saladin and his forces to take Jerusalem.
This religious war was waged over two centuries in an area of the world called Holy. All those soldiers could have looked east across the Sea of Galilee to the place where a battle of the “other” war was fought eleven centuries earlier.
Kursi
The “other” war was at Kursi. The Gospels report how one or more men possessed by destructive spirits were freed from their internal tormentors. Jesus had hours earlier demonstrated His authority over nature. Next he battled in the world of the soul and spirit. The apostle Paul would later write that our struggle is not flesh and blood.
The eastern and western side of Galilee present two types of war. The western side sees the story of humanity as humans fight humans. The “other” war on the eastern shore reveals a battle between good and the evil that could be working in any of us. The “other” war is not won by human effort. The “other” war is won and inner peace experienced by God’s work in the individual yielded human soul. The “other” war could have a profound positive impact on human inhumanity against other humans.
The picture with this blog post looks west from Kursi across the Sea of Galilee to the landscape that on the far left includes the Horns of Hattin and to the right Capernaum, associated with many of Jesus’s miracles and teachings.
Carl Dickerson, EdD
