My friends and I climbed onto a crowded bus, and just hoped it would take us where we wanted to go – a festival where we would get to see a traditional Montenegrin dance performance.
Out of town the bus went, and not just out of town, but out of country. Twenty minutes into our bus ride, just past the Serbian boarder we were dropped off at a bridge, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Next to the bridge was a “Welcome to Serbia” sign.
Beyond the bridge and the sign, there was a road headed up hill. Our fellow bus passengers started walking along it, so we followed them, hoping we were at the right place.
At the top of the hill we found souvenir stands, food stands, tents, and a beautiful church. We’d made it to the right place! Here we enjoyed a meal, browsed the souvenirs, and then ventured into the church courtyard where the dance performance would be held. As we walked through the courtyard gate, we noticed something. Before entering the courtyard most people would stop and kiss the gate post.
The vast majority of the Montenegrin and Serbian people belong to the Orthodox church. Their faith is based on doing the correct things, observing all the right church customs, not a personal relationship with God. In the church courtyard, my friends and I saw this in action.
We made our way through the crowd of people until we found a place close to the stage where we could stand to watch the evening’s program of traditional songs and dances. As we waited for the program to begin we saw a seemingly endless line of people make their way up to the stage to be anointed with oil by a priest, kiss his hand, and then kiss a relic of a saint. Along with that, there was a second line of people making their way to the small chapel near the back of the courtyard. The people in this line carried handfuls of candles to light in the chapel for their dead relatives. These candles are supposed to help the deceased get into heaven by atoning for any sins they forgot to repent of.
Watching this exhibition of the Orthodox faith left me sad for these people. They have been deceived into thinking that they must spend their entire lives working to please God, when that’s not the case. God sent Jesus to put an end to us working to please Him. All we must do to have favor with God is have faith in Him, accepting the work Jesus did on the cross for us, not follow some tradition. Jesus died for our sins. We will go to heaven because of that. We don’t need our relatives to light candles to atone for any wrong we may have committed prior to death. We have been blessed with incredible freedom in Christ. I pray that the Montenegrin and Serbian people will come to know this freedom for themselves!
Taking that bus ride on Tuesday evening allowed me the opportunity to experience a bit of the culture here in Montenegro. I got to hear beautiful singing and see amazing dancing, but I also got something else. I got a reminder about why I’m here, why I’m doing the World Race. I’m doing this to to share with others what I have found – freedom, all because of Jesus.
