Exiled

Our ship

Part of this tour was a trip to Patmos Island to see where John the apostle was exiled.  The only way to arrive on Patmos was by a small Cruise Ship.  It was our first experience with cruising on a ship in the ocean, and we so enjoyed it.  Being out on the Aegean Sea was exciting!  Interestingly, the water is dark, bluish green.  Not like our Atlantic or Pacific.  The day before, Keith and I swam in the Aegean from the beach close to our hotel, now we were setting sail on the big sea heading to Greece.   

We left from Kasadasi, (pronounced Kush-a-dasi) which is on the Turkish coast line.  We left port at 12:00pm and arrived at Patmos at 3:30pm.  I am still trying to get my land legs. 

 The ship pulled right up to the island dock and our group filed off to Patmos, a very small island that is in a crescent shape.  The monastery dedicated to John was high upon the cliff above the sea port.  Our group went to the monastery and the “cave” except Keith and me.  Our tour guide told us that the cave was the “traditional” site of where John lived for 18 mos. to 2 years, and was given the revelation from God.  He couldn’t guarantee this was the place John lived.  We saw far too many places in Israel that were “the traditional site”.  In 2000 years so many churches, etc. have claimed areas that were the “traditional” site of where Jesus walked, where he lived, where he healed.  Sorry, but there are only a few places that were actually close to where he would have been.  So, we opted to walk around on the Island, and take in the culture.

 

An islander and her cat

To say the island is beautiful is an understatement.  As I mentioned before, it is small. It has white pristine houses perched upon the cliffs that surround the port, and the main part of town.  Tourism is the main source of income.  Cruise ships bring many pilgrims traveling to this small island to see where John had lived.  Natives live on the island for the summer tourism, and go back to Athens, or wherever they live during the winter months. However, there are people that live there year round.  This is their home, and they are quite proud of it.

Patmos is one of the Greek islands, and under statutory protection as a historic monument. Even though it is south of Turkey, and even farther south of Greece, it definitely is Greek territory.  Blue and white flags dot houses and businesses all over the town.

Keith and I walked to the upper part of the island, where most of the homes were, and sat down on a curb so we could see the port to the front, and the Aegean Sea on the back side of the island.

It was here that I, through what God wanted me to understand, realized what John endured. 

My thoughts were….”Wow, not a bad place to be exiled to!”  However, John was a very old man, at the age of 90 when he was sent here. Most of the other disciples had already died horrible deaths for the cause of sharing the gospel. Fortunately, nothing would stop them.  What they had seen and experienced with Jesus and His resurrection was much too powerful. John probably wondered just what his fate would be.

However, sitting in this beautiful setting, would not have been what John had seen.  No pretty white houses, no cruise ships, no restaurants, no markets, no pretty little shops,  not very many people, and definitely not pretty blue and white Greek flags.

John was most likely on house arrest in a cave on the island somewhere.  He would have been required to work in the mines. Roman soldiers would have been patrolling and watching over the exile.  A Roman Caesar named Domitian sent him there to be forgotten.  He was old, and working in the mines would have been torturous to his body.  Also, the island is filled with steep peaks of volcanic rock.  Not easy for an old man to maneuver.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have lived with the Son of God on a daily basis for 3 years, hear him speak and teach the word in a freeing way, perform miracles,    die a horrible death, come back to life and not be able to share this good news with anyone? To be exiled to a lonely island to die? Not being able to tell the people that Jesus died to set them free? 

Little did Domitian know that God was much more powerful than he could ever be, and this wouldn’t stop a disciple of Jesus. John would write 4 books of the Bible, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd John, and Revelation. (Historians tell us that he did have a friend that lived with him and wrote for him.) God himself would reveal the coming days, and then the end of time as we know it.  He showed him a new heaven and a new earth.

Then! John saw his beloved friend Jesus! The messages to the 7 churches were revealed.  He rebuked their compromises, their immorality, superficial conduct, lukewarm faith, and to two churches he gave encouragement. (We went to each one of the ruins of those churches in Turkey).  Not only was it a message to the ancient days, but a clear message to our present day church as well. I am not sure that John could comprehend what was happening. Two thousand years later we would be reading the message he was writing.

John was only on Patmos for 18 months to 2 years, but what a time with his Lord he had!

Keith took this picture at sunset

There are different opinions on what happened to John.  Some say he was brought back to civilization and killed by being “boiled”.  But, no where do we have evidence of that happening. We do know that he was brought back from the small island that was to be his punishment for “stirring” up the people. A Basillica in a town called Selcuk, which is near Ephesus, is built over his final resting place.

I will never read Revelation in the same way again…..