19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2)
24 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown... 28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. (Luke 4)
Thoughts: Today if you go to Nazareth, the Christian population parades through the towns on Christmas Eve (click here). Why Nazareth? Nathanael asked if anything good come out of Nazareth (John 1:46). I believe God chose an unlikely country- run over by those from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome; a small unlikely town and a small unimportant family to show His ability to lift up the humble.
Yet the people of Nazareth, like the people of Israel, rejected him. Perhaps they did so because they were too familiar. Maybe they knew the carpenter and his son too well and didn't think anything unusual could happen with them (just as Nathanael wondered if anything could happen from Nazareth). Too often we think God cannot do anything unusual with people around us. But God can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. With God nothing is impossible. But we expect the ordinary and some even get mad when we think beyond the ordinary.
Yet the people of Nazareth, like the people of Israel, rejected him. Perhaps they did so because they were too familiar. Maybe they knew the carpenter and his son too well and didn't think anything unusual could happen with them (just as Nathanael wondered if anything could happen from Nazareth). Too often we think God cannot do anything unusual with people around us. But God can do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. With God nothing is impossible. But we expect the ordinary and some even get mad when we think beyond the ordinary.
Prayer: Lord, thank you that you are able to do the extraordinary with the ordinary. Thank you that you lift up the humble. Help me to humble myself in your sight that you may lift me up.
(Nazareth today- with Church of the Annunciation prominent)
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