Daily Scripture
Luke 1:26-27
26 When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, 27 to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary.
John 1:45-46
45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the Prophets: Jesus, Joseph’s son, from Nazareth.”
46 Nathanael responded, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”
Reflection Questions
As Luke began his story about Jesus' birth, he told of a divine messenger appearing to Zechariah, an aged priest, in the imposing Temple in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital city (cf. Luke 1:5-11). But that was just prologue to the main story. The main story came from Nazareth. Pilgrims came from all over the Mediterranean world to Jerusalem, but Nazareth was not on any pilgrim’s wish list. Honestly, it’s likely that most citizens of Judea (southern Israel) had never heard of Nazareth.
- Scholar Craig Keener wrote, “In contrast to Jerusalem, with its massive building projects, Nazareth was a lowly village (cf. Jn 1:46).”* The town where Mary lived was not the kind of place to fill its young people with lofty ambitions. It seems most unlikely that she had any idea we’d be reading about her in the year 2021. Where were you born and brought up? What effect, positive or negative, did the surroundings of your birth and childhood have on your expectations of life?
- In the text from the gospel of John, we see that Nathanael didn’t think coming from Nazareth said anything promising or good about Jesus. His doubts likely reflected a common opinion in the area: “Nathanael himself was from nearby Cana (John 21:2).”** Yet we only know about the incident because, after meeting Jesus, Nathanael became one of his followers. When has God used an unexpected person or ministry to uplift or deepen your spiritual life?
Prayer
Lord, when I sing “this is my Father’s world,” that song reminds me that you are at work in all the obscure places of our world as well as in the powerful and famous. And you want to work in me, no matter how obscure or famous I may feel. Amen.
* NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, eBook (Kindle Locations 232155-232156). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
** J. Ramsey Michaels, study note on John 1:46 in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 172 NT.
The Journey: A Season of Reflections
Today’s Insights is chapter 2 from The Journey: A Season of Reflections, by Adam Hamilton. Copyright © 2011 by Abingdon Press, and available on our website for 24 hours by permission of Abingdon Press. If you’d like to buy the entire book of reflections, you can click here for a direct link to the Cokesbury sale page, as well as other Journey resources.
2. A Town in Galilee Called Nazareth
Luke 1:27
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
IT WAS “THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS,” if there had been tracks in first-century Palestine. Nazareth was only four miles from the thriving city of Sepphoris with its luxury villas, markets, temples, and Roman theater. You can still walk among the amazing ruins at Sepphoris (Zippori) to this day. You can see Sepphoris from Nazareth, and by car it’s only a ten-minute drive; but in Mary’s day it was an hour’s walk to Sepphoris from Nazareth. Sepphoris was where the “haves” lived. Nazareth was for the “have nots.”
Nazareth doesn’t even show up on first-century lists of villages in Galilee. It was considered by the Jewish population of the region as insignificant, or worse. In John 1:46, Nathaniel asked, when told that Jesus was from Nazareth, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
A woman, who grew up in poverty, once described for me the formative years of her childhood. She lived in a trailer park at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. Children teased her at school, calling her “trailer trash,” a name they had learned from their parents. Forty years and a law degree later, she was describing how it felt as to be made to feel small and insignificant.
When I think of Nazareth I think of her story. If the tradition is correct, Mary’s family lived in the cheapest form of affordable housing at that time: a cave. * Mary’s village was considered of “no account.” But it was precisely here that God came looking for a young woman to bear his Son.
God routinely chooses the humble and the least expected in and through whom he might do his greatest work. Mary recognized this in Luke 1:46-55, when she praised God because he “looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant” while he “scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.”
Many of us live in Sepphoris. But God’s choice of a woman from Nazareth to bear the Christ leads us to see the importance God places on humility; calls us to repent of any ways in which we, like Nathaniel have said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”; and even invites us to reconsider how we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
As you are preparing for Christmas, here’s a suggestion: What if this year you recalibrated? What if this year you decided to give away a bit more to people in need and spend a bit less on yourself and your immediate family?
Our family made a commitment several years ago to donate to organizations serving the poor and those in need an amount equal to the total of what we spend on our family and friends at Christmas. This decision forces us to reduce what we spend on people who don’t really need anything, so that we can give to those who truly stand in need. In the process, we’ve found greater joy in our Christmas celebration. **
Lord, forgive me for any time I’ve ever made others feel small. Forgive me for thinking more highly of myself than I ought. And help me, in the words of Paul, to “consider others better than myself.” Help me, this Christmas, to look for ways of increasing what I give to those in need. Amen.
This further suggestion is on p. 159 of The Journey: A Season of Reflections:
A New Christmas Tradition
On Christmas Eve, we invite our congregation to give of what is precious to them as an expression of their joy and gratitude for the birth of Jesus and his role in their lives. For some who are struggling financially, the gift may be something small, but all are invited to give something if they are able. These gifts are then given to projects benefiting children in poverty, divided equally between projects in the developing world (currently Africa) and in our own inner city. This has become one of our most meaningful traditions.
Even those who are nonreligious find this to be a moving part of the service. Mike Slaughter, pastor of the Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, reminds his congregation each year that “Christmas is not your birthday!” Consider giving a special offering this Christmas, for people in need. If you have children, teach your children this tradition, and help them learn that Christmas is not primarily about what is under the tree, but about God’s gift of Jesus Christ, and, in turn, Christ’s call upon our lives to give ourselves for others.
* The cave may have included an upper level, as there are steps leading from it. You can see the cave that tradition claims was Mary’s home in session 1 of the videos.
** The idea of giving an amount equal to what we spend on our family came from my friend, Pastor Mike Slaughter, who expands upon this idea in his book Christmas Is Not Your Birthday (Abingdon Press, 2011).
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