To this very day the idea of “the land” plays a vital role in Jewish identity. When the people of God were in exile away from their homeland it was the dream of returning which gave them hope. The prophets fed that hope: I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have come, and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land. Jesus was misunderstood by the authorities, both Jewish and Roman, because they presumed his dream was for the land as well, a restoration of Israel as a nation in the promised land. However, as the gospel of John points out the high priest unwittingly prophesied the different future that Jesus proclaimed. He prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. Jesus’s concern was not simply for the land but for all the children of God. His death was not a national tragedy but a universal remedy. Because of Jesus there isn’t any land which is not holy land, a place where the Spirit of God calls all of us to live in peace and justice.
