He raises his hands in the air and declares in Ugandan flavored English, “The time has come! The kingdom is here!”
Over his shoulder, far down below, a modern city hums. People drive from home to work. A KFC bucket slowly spins on a pole jutting up from the sea of densely packed lightly colored buildings.
Hard to imagine this place two thousand years ago. Danny, our Israeli guide, says no more than ten families lived in Nazareth back then. A population of no more than 150. Probably less, he says.
I think about my own small town in Tennessee. Main Street. The Farmer’s Co-op. A bedroom community shared by cows and cars, farms and low-priced starter homes.
A kid can’t get by with anything in town like Nazareth. Someone who knows mom will see…and tell.
The people of a small town have a way of keeping one another small too don’t they? Expectations grounded by familiarity. Hard to imagine the boy next door as anything other than the boy next door. And in a town like Nazareth, isn’t everyone next door?
“Isn’t that Joseph’s boy?” the hometown crowd muttered in the synagogue one morning. Jesus had been invited to speak. The text was chosen in advance, part of the scheduled lectionary. Just so happens the scroll the attendant handed Jesus was Isaiah and the passage prescribed that day was a Messianic prophecy.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,” Jesus bellowed. “He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”
Neighbors leaned in close, some with bellies growling, as the words of Isaiah explained why the Messiah’s message would be “good” for the poor.
“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then Jesus rolled up the scroll and handed it back to the attendant. It was time for the visiting rabbi to expound on what he’d read. The eyes of the crowd were fastened on him as he began. “This scripture has just come true – just now – while you were listening.”
Kids Jesus played with as a boy, now all grown up and with kids of their own. Men who worked with Joseph in construction. Mary’s friends, the ones who’d beaten their laundry against rocks and rinsed them in spring water beside her for years. –Everyone was there. Everyone was surprised at how articulate and confident “little Jesus” had grown up to be.
“Isn’t this Joseph’s boy?”
Then Jesus said…
“You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.
“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.” – Luke 4:23-27
The crowd’s mood shifted suddenly from amazement to madness.
Family friends turned furious. The angry mob leapt from their seats, grabbed Jesus and dragged him up Mount Nazareth.
They aimed to silence the self-proclaimed Messiah once and for all, to boot him into Jezreel Valley below.
Battles were fought in the valley long before. God’s armies defeating God’s rivals on the open plain.
Jezreel. “God sows”. God tends his people here. He protects them from lunatics and liars. He plants his foot firmly in this soil and cuts down his enemies like wheat at the harvest. A good place to get rid of Jesus – the blasphemer, the mock prophet, the hometown boy who lost his mind and claimed to be divine.
They neared the cliff’s edge and for some reason their grips loosened. Were their fingers pried from his biceps by a convincing argument, another quote from Isaiah, his silence or…
Jesus turned toward the crowd, walked through the familiar faces, and on to Capernaum.
(Mt. Tabor is the round peak on the left. Nazareth is to the right and begins where the white building is.)
Kelli says:
Very, very cool.
Allyson E says:
I loved your instagram tour of Israel so much – thank you for sharing that walk through scripture with us!
Katie says:
I was reading this passage earlier this winter and was so struck by Jesus’ character. He came to life off the page for me in a dramatic way. It is a dramatic scene and we have an authoritative and powerful Savior. I love that He simply walked back through them and left. It magnifies His strength and authority to me. I’m originally from a small town too and get this scene in a personal way. Yet am I undaunted by the reputation that precedes me there? I should be! Jesus certainly was! “But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself them, because He knew all people… For He Himself knew what was in a man.” (John 2:24-25). Wow! What a Savior we have! May we be more like Him!
Kris says:
No prophet is accepted in his hometown…. Interesting passage. I haven’t read this one in a while. I back in Genesis these days, re-reading the bible from cover to cover, as a story. Thanks for this, Shaun. I’m chewing on these words…
Shaun Groves says:
Becky’s reading through the Bible right now in chronological order – not book order. I’ve never done that before. Fascinating. Is that what you’re doing, Kris? Or are you reading it through in the order the books are in?
Kris says:
Interesting–maybe I should do it that, I am still in Genesis, so there’s time to do it that way! I’m reading it very slowly, using my keyword bible to study some of the original words in Greek and Hebrew. Is Becky using a reading plan? I didn’t want the pressure of a “read the bible in 90 days” plan, so I’m just doing it on my own. I’ll gladly hear recommendations though 😉
Kelly says:
Great post and wonderful pictures. I would loved to have seen it back then. A complete different place.