Israel 2017: a Tale of Two Cities

Well my time in Israel is come to an end. I've very much enjoyed my stay; the heat was as bad as I expected though the place more interesting, as though this were my compensation. Will I now become one of those 'experts' who, when reading a biblical text, delights in sharing special insights with the less-well-travelled? Time will tell. 
 
Israel strikes me as a land of contrasts, summed up by two of its leading cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The latter is known for its night life, LA style beaches and liberal attitudes. There I saw two women open-mouth kissing on a street corner. Its bars are world famous and it's something of the party capital. It's an eastern outpost of western hedonistic and secular liberalism.
 
 
Jerusalem, on the other hand, is almost stifling in its religiosity. Places of worship turn visitors away for such heinous acts as wearing shorts. Here, I saw mass protests because some shrine had been allegedly disrespected. A young Orthodox Jew would rather struggle lifting a child in a pram than have a gentile like me assist him. These black-clad Jews I have found to be the least friendly people I've ever met. Surely, they have turned wine into water (they are a great contrast to the Arabs who are very friendly when they want your money, which means they are friendly always).
 
 
Of course there are many Israelis, possibly the majority, who fit somewhere in between my crude analysis of Tel Aviv's licentiousness and Jerusalem's devout zeal. Nevertheless, it was from these two extremes that Jesus the Messiah came to deliver us. Human sin may express itself at either end of the scale. The Messiah's offer of eternal life sets us free from obsessive observance of religious rules as well as from the unrestrained (and ultimately unsuccessful) pursuit of pleasure. 
 
'I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly'.