Jesus Birth Place In The River Was Baptised falls in a conflict zone

After taking a long winding road through Sandstone Mountains and sparse, desert-like vegetation of shrubs and stray trees, buses carrying tourists come to a halt seemingly nowhere. “It is from here the journey to the River Jordan will commence”, announces our tour guide, Salaheddin Abunaffaa. For a destination that means so much to 32 per cent of the world’s population — Christians — its barrenness surprises you.

The importance of this journey to Jordan River, where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist, is apparent on a group of tourists around us, who have travelled far greater distance and gone through extreme misery to come here. Walter Ibrahim, a Christian devotee who fled Mosul in Iraq after it was taken over by the barbaric Daesh or Islamic State is one of them.

He has come with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. “I was teaching Electrical Engineering in a vocational college when Daesh destroyed my world”, says Ibrahim. “Even if the war ends, I cannot go back to Mosul as my neighbours are my new enemies”, he says wistfully. Ibrahim is waiting for travel documents that will take him and his brood to Australia. Before he left Iraq and this region for good, he wanted to visit River Jordan and sprinkle the holy water on his grandchildren.

Ibrahim is part of a large group of Christian refugees from Iraq who were forced to vigorously embrace their religious identity after the old socialist and secular structures were torn down by US invasion against Saddam Hussein. The rise of Daesh forced them to get out of areas, which had a Muslim majority.

Wars and violence come easy to this land. It is in times of conflict and uncertainty that faith in religion gets renewed. As Abunaffaa tells us that more Bible tourists would have come in big numbers to Jordan if there was no war in the neighbourhood. Syria is burning and so are other countries in the region.

Expectedly, much of the Bible tours operate through Israel, which is visibly, as our guide points out, barely a 100 metres from where we were standing.

In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, turning the region into a war zone where soldiers from both sides must have stared down at each other, not oblivious to its disputed legacy. Till 1994, the Christian world believed that the place where Jesus was baptised was located in Israel.

Excavations by Jordanian archaeologist, Dr Muhammad Waheeb, revealed around the east bank of the Jordan river a wide range of buildings, making him conclude that this was truly the place where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. He relied on the New Testament to direct him to where Jesus was baptised — in ‘Bethany Beyond the Borders’, which is also called Al-Maghtas.

Roman remains were found near this point, suggesting that pilgrims visited this place near the Jordan River that reached its zenith during the Byzantine period. As evidence began to build about it being the original site of Jesus’ baptism into the Christian faith, Pope John Paul II, too, visited the area in 2000 and put his imprimatur to seal the controversy, much to the chagrin of Israel that had been monopolising tourism dollars, claiming the West Bank as John the Baptist’s original abode.

In 2015, UNESCO also declared Al-Maghtas a heritage site, putting its authenticity beyond the new interpretations of scriptures and technological interventions. UNESCO’s certification brought great delight to Jordan Tourism that had been savaged by wars in the neighbourhood.

After walking through a canopied track of red soil we found ourselves in a small clearing with a few benches set up against the wooden railings. “So here is the Jordan river,” Salaheddin Abunaffaa announced with a flourish.

It was a river that could only be noticed by climbing the benches to peer beyond the bushes. Though this was selfie time, the river was plainly disappointing. Surely, the world’s holiest river deserved more water and a better view perhaps. From our perspective, the Jordan River that served as the marker between Jordan and Israel was not more than few metres wide.

A little later, we were in a bigger clearing. This was the excavated portion that helped Jordan earn its due in the Christian world as the place where Jesus was baptised. A holding area of sorts with an elevated platform where John must have had his abode was cordoned off for the visitors. Just below this dug-out structure was a little puddle of water.

Did Jesus take a dip in this joke of a pool? Salaheddin quietly explained that the Jordan river was once far bigger and wider than what is now left of it. We could believe this. We later learnt about the Israeli enterprise to draw water from different points that had even degraded the Dead Sea, which many believe can die during our lifetime unless water from the Red Sea revives it. On the walkway there is a picture from 2000 of the Pope in his car, gazing at John’s former abode. A little distance from here is a spankingly new Russian Orthodox Church, which was visited by President Vladimir Putin some years ago.

There are images of President Putin dipping his hands in River Jordan. A few metres away from the church flows the Jordan river — or what is left of it. In many ways, it is like a miniature Ganga Ghat, where Christians take a dip to rid themselves of their sins. On the other side of the bank is Israel. A good long-jumper could cross over to the other side without wetting his shorts, but could get a bullet in some part of his body in the process. Too much firepower all around!

Many American Christians from the Israeli side, attired in white or black cloaks, were being chaperoned by their priests into muddy but holy waters to be baptised. On the Jordanian side there were only traumatised Christian refugees, driven by the Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Mosul, seeking God’s intervention to make their life’s journey easier and less painful.

As Abunaffaa ushered us to our next destination, these Iraqi Christians sprinkled themselves with some water from a fount located a few steps away from the tiny river and headed to a life of uncertainty, hoping that the Lord will be their shepherd.