#5kMay2020 Blog (Day 20)

Jodi and I woke up and put in a nice, brisk 4 mile run this morning. Even though we were planning to be a part of the Wooster Group Run this evening, we just love to get our run in first thing in the morning. That way it is not hanging over our heads, and if something were to happen to keep us from getting to the group run, we would still be covered.

Before the group run, we stopped in at Vertical Runner to take advantage of their 20% off for #5kMay2020 participants. Both Jodi and I picked up a new pair of shoes at an incredible price. #Winning.

We had a little family picnic at Oak Hill Park and then joined the group for an epic walk and run. Jodi and the kids joined some friends for a 3.1 mile walk around the park. I somehow wound up with the fast group and put in 8 miles strolling around Wooster.

At one point someone who was walking on the path thought it was important to point out that we were not following proper “social distancing”. We were running far less than six feet apart from one another. Of course, the man was standing about two feet away from us when he said it… The whole awkward encounter reminded me of a passage that we read earlier this week:

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Luke 6:41, ESV

Daily Run: Jodi and I ran the 4 mile “Fairlawn Loop” in 36 minutes and 44 seconds, which is an average pace of 9:09 per mile. For my second run, Michael Sullivan, Kevin Beachy, and I ended up running 8.22 miles in 1 hour, which was an average pace of 7:22 per mile.

Daily Bible Reading: While reading the three stories in Luke 15, I was reminded of my time spent touring Israel in 2017. While there, we stopped at the remains of Chorazin.

Chorazin is west of the Jordan River and quite a bit inland. It was a neat place to visit with quite a bit of interesting archeology uncovered.

While we were there our group leader played an interesting trick on us. He hid a Shekel (Israeli currency) coin on the floor of the common place. The floors were made of many stones, so the coin was really hard to find. He reminded us of the story from Luke 15: 

“… what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’”

Luke 15:8-9, ESV

He asked us to find the missing coin. With 40 of us altogether, and with a little “you’re getting hotter” coaxing, we found it within a couple of minutes, but I was amazed at how hard that task was. I guess I never really thought much about that story because I always imagine it in my Western, good lighting, flat carpeted floors setting. Not anymore. 

One of the most fascinating things that we heard that day was in response to one of our questions to the tour guide. Someone asked about whether or not there are Pharisees and Sadducees and such in modern Judaism. The answer really surprised me. 

He said that there were actually 24 different streams of Judaism in the first century. Those streams include Zealots, Herodians, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and more. However, after the destruction of the temple, most of the different streams were also destroyed.

The Sadducees, for example, collected their income from the Temple. With the Temple gone, they had no income, and they were no more. The Zealots, who were zealous against Rome, were all killed off in the revolt. The Essenes were massacred because they didn’t believe in using weapons or violence against the Romans. 

The Pharisees were the only group to remain, and since they were the only ones left, there was no reason to call themselves Pharisees. They resorted to simply calling themselves “Jews”. Therefore, today’s Judaism is really the Pharisee stream of thought with 2,000 years of modernization.