Nazareth is barely, if ever, mentioned in first century documents outside of the Scriptures. It is pretty inconsequential.
The little we do know – is largely “speculative and wholly unremarkable.”
Apparently – scholarship suggests that Nazareth was “a small community” of anywhere between 500 and 2000 people.
Nazareth was likely located not far from a major East-West trade route that ran from Egypt to Asia called the Via Maris.
Nazareth was situated in the hill country of Galilee, a region of fishing and farming that was also known in Scripture for its “distinctive regional accent” and for having a large population of “Gentiles,” a high number of “immigrants, foreigners, resident aliens.”
You can always tell a Nazarene – you just can’t tell them much!
Archaeological evidence also shows – that Nazareth may have sat somewhat “in the shadows” of the nearby city of Sepphoris that was being rebuilt as “a regional capital” around the time of Jesus. It was the go-to-place…the get-away-to-place.” Jobs and culture flourished in Sepphoris.
Even “Bible Dictionary’s” describe Nazareth as being “an insignificant agricultural village.
Jesus goes home on the Sabbath-after having already been “out on the road” for a while.
He now resided full-time in another city named Capernaum.
So going back home to Nazareth – was “big stuff.”
At first – everybody is proud of him, amazed by his gracious words.
They pat each other on the back and say to themselves, “Get a load of Joseph’s kid; maybe something good’s going to come out of Nazareth after all – for a change.”
Jesus knows his people so well that he knows what message they “most need to hear,” and “he loves them so much” he is willing to preach it. He says he was anointed to release captives and to open the eyes of the blind, so that is what he intends to do…from here…
The Nazarenes have come out in “large numbers” hoping to see some spectacular displays put on by this “hometown kid.”
Jesus is “more than aware” that the people of Nazareth are clamoring for him do the same kind of healings and miraculous cure’s there – that he has done elsewhere.
And “they” probably think that since Jesus is from Nazareth – and that – they are his own people – that they will receive preferential treatment: after all, they’re from Israel, and believe they are “more important” than those “Gentiles-“non-believers” living just across the border.
People who have grown up in small villages and towns know – that those places often times do have their own challenges.
Perhaps, they’ve seen some of the violence that simmers beneath the surface of civility…the willingness to draw hard lines between insider and outsider…the family identities that can crush “true expression of self” …and the “thinly veiled prejudice.”
Those things are sadly associated with smaller, tight-knit-rural communities.
And, it was in one such small-rural community that Jesus was raised.
It was in good old Nazareth that he likely attended synagogue and recited Torah and learned the words of Scripture.
It was in Nazareth that Scripture says Jesus “increased in wisdom and in stature and in divine and human favor.”
And some scholars have been quick to point out – that “for the rest of his life,” Jesus would carry the name of his home community with him.
“That name” would be on the lips of crowds, demons, and angels, he would be called, Jesus of Nazareth…from this time forward…
For some people, Nazareth and communities like it – are just exits on the highway…undeveloped land…the boondocks…pretty pastorals on the way to somewhere else. Small places to pass – by… Small places to be pretty much ignored. Quaint-little-places.”
But God loves Nazareth and places like it. As they are… And as they will be… God cares about the suffering of small burgs, villages and communities very much like Nazareth.
They are not always easy places to visit. They are not always easy places to call home…but ah, their memory will linger.
There are good times to be had in small towns and villages. There is much that can be learned about people and relationships – in small towns.
And Jesus was from one such small town.
And going home…well…it was an experience – wasn’t it? But then, no matter where we are from, going home – usually is!