Day 2.3 Tabgha and Lunch
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Leaving Beit She’An we traveled back north, in short while returning to the drive along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A few miles north of Tiberias, we stopped at the Tanureen Galilee Restaurant for a meal featuring “St. Peter’s Fish” – basically tilapia, the most common fish in the Sea of Galilee today and likely in the time of Jesus as well. Most of us had it fixed in the traditional way as a whole fish – sure made it easy to envision Jesus & the disciples fixing and eating exactly this (minus the french fries!), including after Jesus’ resurrection:
John 21:10, 12-14
When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. ….. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.
After lunch we made the very short drive to the nearby shore and a site known as Tabgha, just a few hundred yards south of Capernaum, where there stands a very old church called the Church of the Primacy of Saint Peter right on the shoreline. By tradition several events happened at this location, including the entirety of John 21 after Jesus’ resurrection:
John 21:1-8
The “Primacy of Peter” in the name of the church refers to and would be better named the “Restoration of Peter” as recounted later in the same chapter, and from which Jeff taught for a few minutes as we sat in the shade next to the church looking out on the Sea:
John 21:15-19
Jeff focused on the grace given to Peter in restoring him despite his outright denial of Jesus just a few days earlier … Jesus, amazingly, extends that same grace to every one of us today if we come to him! Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your grace and love for us … for me!
Phil led us in quiet worship with singing of Amazing Grace … so appropriate and meaningful.
Whether these events occurred at this precise location along the Galileean shore we of course do not know, but there is no doubt it was very close by. What a powerful, moving time to sit under the trees and gaze upon those same waters contemplating all of these things. I went down to where the water gently lapped up onto the land, touched the water and then filled a bottle with sand, tiny shells and water to bring back home as a memory.
Josiah in the meantime found a new friend on the steps of the church … the first of many cats to receive his affection and connection over the next several days! 😊
One word on the church here … it saddens me how here and at several more locations we will see the Catholic church placed such a priority on claiming precise knowledge of events, locations, remnants and icons to then revere those places and things down through the centuries and up to today. We know our faith is not in these physical things, but in the Jesus himself and the God we serve! While the church itself was blessedly simple with colorful stained glass windows, on the ancient stone steps outside is an engraved marker quoting a pilgrim to the area in the ~5th century saying, “The stone steps in which Jesus Christ climbed are still visible on the southern side of the Church”. Just not necessary and only detracts from the location in my view.
We were blessed again to be almost the only people at this site the entire time … very much not the norm. That pattern was repeated once we loaded back up and made the very short drive down the road to Capernaum. A very large parking lot normally jammed with tour buses welcomed just ours and one other…. Amazing!
