Things started to get wierd. There is no other way to put it. The tour guide at the grand cathedral in Cusco, Peru began be-littling Jesus….
The Bible says to expect criticism, if we are Christians…
But honestly, I was still shocked. Never experiencing anything like this, in America. (Matt 5:11, John 15:20)
The tour group, made up of Asians, Europeans, and my husband and I, Americans, were asked questions about the Bible. Then, the dark-haired guide looks directly at my husband and I, drilling us for answers.
We respond as accurately and humbly as we can. Still, He mocks us with sarcastic replies, ridiculing our Jesus, and putting down our faith…in front of the a crowd of gazing eyes.
I should have known something was up, when our tour-guide zipped past paintings and sculpture of Jesus upon entering the cathedral.
My spirit turned inside, as this man explained, Incan’s were victims in light of every hate-filled, white person, who came to the region of Cusco.
It was all or nothing, this, “us-vs.-them” mentality he painted, darker than any painting I looked upon in this cathedral…
But, maybe part of what he said was true? I am not a historian or some theologian…I mean, what did I know?
Still, the mocking of Jesus, pierced me deep…I mean mock a man who came in peace, love, and to bring healing? Why blast Him? Why mock the One who died as a sacrifice for him? The One most of the world worships, calling the Son of the Living God?
Why blend the cross of love with murder, blood, and division? Using hate as an excuse to persecute an entire religious group of people?
The tour group makes its way into another space. There, large rocks stood higher than me. Our guide laughed in mockering, looking right at me, “So, He claimed to be the king of the Jews….but it’s funny because even until today, most Jews don’t even follow Jesus.”
His laugh? Nothing short of a movie where the villian throws his head back, hackles with a glimmer of contempt inside his eyes.
I stood in the half-circle of people surrounding our so-called tour-guide. Dumb-found. Could this really be happening?
My mind took awhile to catch up with the reality of what my ears were actually hearing…
First, the nightmares I experienced before coming here, taughting me…then, this ridicule of my Jesus? What was happening. Things were getting really strange.
I stopped, asking God for wisdom. “Warfare” came to my mind. I knew what that word meant.
The tour guide then talked about the Incan Shaman’s, “The religious leaders of the ancient Incans”. He explained how they would stand at the top of a mountain. Then, “the one that got struck by lightening, was the one who they felt the gods declared the next religious leader”.
I gagged his face. A sarcastic smurk fell upon his face.
He laughed, again smugly adding, “They were covered in metal. What did they expect? Of coursethey’d be hit by lightening”
O.k. So maybe it wasn’t just Jesus, but every spiritual practice our tour guide hated? Maybe it was every leader, every religion who ever came to confess their need for a higher power, he blasted?
The bold and willful, arrogant and educated was standing b
efore me. And I saw something in him that I knew must be the heart of God…pity.
He continued to profess the history of the ancient Incan people.
And it was then I had to ask….Why did his arrogance so repulse me? Was his sinful heart of hate for my religion, a reflection of my own tainted heart? A snapshot of my own carnal need for control, fears, and a picture of those times I too tried to be my own god?
I mean, don’t we all, at one time or another try to make ourselves higher, smarter, better than we are? Could it be the hear of this tour-guide is in us all? Every sinful seed demanding power, dictating our own lives, listening to the same serpant who deceive humanity?
When if fact, we know we are not the author, dictating of our fait? We don’t hold our own life within our hands. We must submit to someone greater. And I knew His name was Jesus.
How many times had I thought I had known the way? Was too proud and arrogant to beg for help? Denied I could just cry out? In pride refused to seek the One who hung upon a tree?
How many times had I woken in the night, twisting and turning, worried about something…but failed to cry out to the One who was just a name-call away?
Had my knowledge and education puffed me up too? (Romans 11:21-31, 1 Cor. 8:1)
Had I trusted my own wisdom more than coming like a child, blank and abandoned to the simplicity of a gospel that welcomes the humble, but apposes the proud?
Doesn’t He asks each of us…
“Come follow me”, “I will make you fishers of men?”
I tried not judging this tiny, dark-eyed tour-guide, man. The one who blasted and laughed at our faith, right before our eyes, in front of a crowd watching.
But then he said something that stopped me in my tracks. “There are rumors that the Incans still sacrifice children today.”
I couldn’t breath.
My lungs started gasping for air. What was this? This man. Those words. This culture he claims still thought harming children was a way to gain dignity or favor from heaven?
I pulled on my lungs for air again. 
My chest tightened, rising little this time.
I needed to leave. I needed to get out of here….stop following like some cattle-assembly, this man who seemed happy to state, Incans are still killing children.
Was it too late? Would it be rude to just step out from under this teaching?
The next stop was Sacsayhuaman. The place my husband talked most about remembering as a child.
But, I needed air.
The group stepped out from the shade of the church, into the scorching sun. I felt faint. My breathing more shallow with each breath.
Could I keep following this one who mocked my Jesus, laughed in our faces at this idea of faith and our confession of Jesus being Lord?
Would I take the bus, make my way to the desert, then faint from lack of oxygen or water?
I needed to make a decision. The bus in front of us would be leaving. Should I go or turn around and walk away?
(Thank you for reading! This post is a part of a series of posts, taking place last fall, that led to a shoe campaign where by grace, we MIRACULOUSLY raised $2695.00 in 15 days to buys shoes for needy kids in the Andes mountains!)
To read all the previous posts in this series, click HERE.
2 Comments
Oh Jen, the spirit in this man was literally sucking the life-force from within you!
I hope you left.
We cannot remain in the presence of evil without being affected by it, although by rights, the life force within us is greater than he that is within the world, but it is hard at such times to silence the voice of the accusor.
What I quietly do is thank the Lord that He rebukes the devourer for us.
I stand on Exodus 14, 13-14.
I know God will redeem this awful experience and bring great good from it, as that is His way.
Yes, greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world! Standing on that promise, with you!