Rebirth, renewal in the River Jordan

It is unlikely to be Jesus’s real baptism site but Yardenit attracts more than 600,000 pilgrims annually.

By DEBORAH S. DANAN
Baptism 521 (photo credit: Eric Berger)
Baptism 521
(photo credit: Eric Berger)
Framed by giant eucalyptus trees and limestone walls, the natural pool just south of Lake Kinneret has the look and feel of a luxury nature spa. And, just as one might expect from people who have indulged in a spa day, most of the pool’s visitors look happy and relaxed. Yet this isn’t the case with all of the visitors. The reactions of some of them seem starkly incongruous to their tranquil surroundings. Their arms are held aloft and their eyes are shut tight as they direct their exclamations to the skies above them. They are clearly in ecstasy.
That’s because this is no ordinary pool and it is certainly not a spa. Called Yardenit, the pool is located at the point where the Jordan River flows out of the Sea of Galilee. Yardenit is of particular significance because it is the baptismal site for Christian pilgrims in Israel. Yet despite the fact that some 600,000 tourists and pilgrims visit the site every year, Yardenit remains relatively unknown to most Israelis.
At the behest of the Tourism Ministry, the Yardenit site was constructed in 1981 and is open every day of the year, without the need to make an appointment.
Prior to 1981, Christian pilgrims had been accustomed to stopping on the side of the road and baptizing themselves on the southwest bank of the Kinneret, near the site of the Bronze Age city of Beit Yerah. Due to the obvious perils of this practice – indeed, one pilgrim was killed in a traffic accident – the ministry built Yardenit in conjunction with Kibbutz Kinneret, which continues to maintain the upkeep of the site.
Kibbutz Kinneret is Israel’s second-oldest kibbutz and is located just north of Yardenit. The kibbutz earns its money primarily from agricultural industries, including a quarry and a date factory, as well as from a plastics factory. Despite the fact that entrance to Yardenit is free of charge, about one-quarter of the kibbutz’s income comes from tourists who shop in Yardenit’s gift shop or who eat in the restaurant adjacent to the visitors’ center. The site employs 55 people, about half of whom are members of the kibbutz. The visitors’ center is a beautiful limestone structure built in the shape of a church’s nave. Tourists are lured in by a host of bible-related purchases ranging from silan (date honey) produced by the kibbutz to baptismal gowns, which are required in order to enter the waters. A favored souvenir purchased by many of the Christian visitors is a small bottle of holy water.
Encircling the entire site is a Wall of New Life that includes over 60 translations of the passage from the Gospel of Mark that describes Jesus’s own baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.
But the question remains: was Jesus really baptized at this location? As the managers of Yardenit will tell you themselves, chances are that he was not. This is in contrast to the other baptismal site in Israel, which maintains the claim that Jesus was actually baptized there.
Apart from being the site of Jesus’s baptism, Qasr el-Yahud, meaning “the Jew’s fortress,” is traditionally the place where the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River after leaving Egypt and is also the place where Elijah the Prophet ascended to heaven. Following years of renovation, the site, which is east of Jericho, was opened to pilgrims in 2010.
Yet even though Yardenit might be less “geographically authentic” than Qasr el- Yahud, it is still the preferred baptismal location for most pilgrims visiting the Holy Land.
THE YARDENIT site, which is home to a host of local wildlife, including catfish, otters and beavers, can accommodate up to 1,800 pilgrims at any one time. Sixty percent of all pilgrims to Israel come to be baptized at Yardenit, and that number includes a fair share of celebrities from the worlds of sports, politics and pop culture. Brazilian footballer Ronaldo was baptized at Yardenit, as was Israel’s footballer Gustavo Bokali, and the president of New Zealand. Mike Huckabee comes to Yardenit every year to be baptized and there are photographs of Glenn Beck and Whitney Houston planting trees at the site following their own baptisms. Following his rescue from the mine in Chile, after being trapped with 32 others for 69 days in 2010, one of the miners flew to Israel to have his son baptized at Yardenit. “I feel content now that my baby has been baptized in the River Jordan,” he said.
What attracts so many Christians to come and be baptized at a site that is not known to be the official location of Jesus’s own baptism? Reverend Elwood McQuaid, a political commentator who is the executive director of Friends of Israel, avers that Yardenit is a wonderful spot for recollection, serenity, tranquility, and inspiration.
“I like to go there and sit where the Jordan flows under the shadowing trees,” he says. “I’ll spend a few minutes counting how many huge fish float by – makes you feel like everything is moving in the right direction.”
Sherry Herschend, the founder of the first century Nazareth village, has been accompanying pilgrims to Yardenit since 1974. She recalls that before the present-day site was built, she would bring shower curtains attached to hula hoops so that pilgrims could change into their baptismal gowns.
“I bring people here so that they can get close to God,” she says. “The baptism is a public declaration of a private commitment.”
This past summer Herschend made her 40th trip to Yardenit, accompanying a group of pilgrims from Branson, Missouri. Her nephew, Bradley Herschend, joined the group, which was led by Pastor Tom Willcox and his wife, Raylene. Bradley, 17, recounts his rededication at the age of 14.
“I made the decision to give my life to the Lord,” he says. “To be able to be baptized in the place where Jesus walked is amazing.”
WITH OVER 26 years of experience in the ministry, Tom Willcox was a hospital chaplain before becoming the pastor of a congregation in Branson. Together with members of his church, Willcox made his first trip to Yardenit this year, managing to find sponsors for congregants who could not afford the trip. For Willcox, the fact that Yardenit is not the precise location of Jesus’s baptism is a moot point.
“It’s about identification, not about location,” he says. “And mainly it’s about showing support for one another.”
Willcox says that the visit to modernday Israel was an eye-opening experience.
“In the Golan Heights, a veteran spoke to us about how Israel fought during the war [of Independence]. It suddenly made it real. I’m concerned about Israel, and seeing that Israel is sustained is so important. Anyone who is a Christian should be supporting Israel.”
In addition to visiting religious sites, Herschend’s pilgrimages to Israel include tours to historical sites. “I want Christians to understand Judaism and Zionism,” she says. “They need to see that Israel is fighting for its existence.”
Michael Gibson, a high-school graduate who is a member of Willcox’s congregation, maintains that the trip to Israel was a huge learning experience for him. “Everything from the culture and the food all exceeded my expectations,” he says. But for Gibson, the highlight was the baptism at Yardenit.
“To be able to be baptized in front of people that I’ve grown so close to was amazing. I can’t describe it in words,” he says.
Indeed, many of the pilgrims were in tears during the baptisms. In a particularly emotional scene, Raylene Willcox was baptized by her husband, the pastor.
“It was incredible,” she says after emerging from the water and hugging her husband. “Of course, for my first baptism I didn’t yet know [Tom]. So this was a very precious moment to share together.”
Meredith Mizell, an opera singer, sang hymns by the banks of the water while the rest of the group entered the pool.
This was her 10th experience at Yardenit and she claims that she discovers something new and unexpected each time she comes. Mizell recalls her first baptism at Yardenit in 1999.
“It was such a sweet moment, I wanted to sing as soon as I came up out of the water!” Mizell concludes that there is simply no better way to connect to her Christian heritage than visiting the land where it all began. “There seems to come a moment for all when the Bible stories we have been taught come to life,” she says.
For Mizell, visiting the Western Wall was particularly poignant. “There is a special moment when you draw close to the Western Wall of the Temple, where so many Jews and Christians have prayed for ages. It’s almost as if you can physically feel all the millions of prayers that have been said there.”
Just as the group is leaving Yardenit, another group enters the site; yet this one is of a vastly different nature. It is a busload of haredi yeshiva students who have clearly either lost their way or want to make use of Yardenit’s bathroom facilities. Either way, no one seems to be nonplussed as the group – tzitzit (ritual fringes) swinging at their sides – marches by the Wall of New Life, blissfully unaware of the passage from the Gospel of Mark that is engraved upon it: “Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in the Jordan… And a voice came out of the heavens: Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased."