Why James Martin’s Middle East pilgrimage matters

Jonathan Merritt

I’m typing these words from Beirut, Lebanon after spending the day at refugee tent settlements about 10 minutes from the Syrian border. My trip has me pondering the importance of the Middle East for my faith and its history. The Rev. James Martin knows how I feel.

A Jesuit priest and editor-at-large of America magazine, Martin also recently visited this region, which he documents in a fascinating new book, Jesus: A Pilgrimage. Martin brings his journey through the Holy Land to life by moving beyond mere to stories to telling us what it taught him about a Jesus who can often seem distant. Here, we discuss what he learned about Christ while traveling through the cradle of Christianity.

RNS: You begin the story of your trek through the Holy Land to rediscover Jesus with the classic question Christ asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” How do you answer that question?

JM: For me, Jesus is everything! But to answer more directly, Jesus is the fully human, fully divine Son of God. That’s why one of the goals of the book is to underline the importance of both his humanity and divinity. The same person who walked the dusty landscape of first-century Palestine also rose from the dead. To put it in more theological terms, the Jesus of history is the Christ of faith. Otherwise, the Resurrection is meaningless.

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