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, 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 2:22-23 NIVUK
Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ ‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.
John 1:45-46 NIVUK
I remember I was sitting on a train close to a young lad and a girl I assumed was his girlfriend. She was travelling to his home town – which happened to be the town where I live – for the first time. She was struck very quickly by the greenery that took over the view as soon as the train left the city of Glasgow. I remember that she proclaimed, ‘My goodness! I’ve never been this far out of the city! I had no idea you lived this far out in the sticks!’
I felt really insulted. How can our little town be out in the sticks? It has two railway stations (count them!), a bus station, two shopping malls, multiple supermarkets – some of them German – and a football team that sometimes plays in the top division on the country.
We are not out in the sticks.
People really do look down on you depending on where you live.
I grew up in a very tough neighbourhood in a very economically depressed area. The main sources of income – a giant steel foundry and the coal mines – had shut and not a penny had been spent on regeneration. Unemployment was very much the order of the day and something of a generational experience. And I lived in the poorest neighbourhood in that town.
To give you an example, a friend of mine offered to give me a ride home from our school prom. She joked that she wanted to drive past my home at seventy miles an hour and have my tuck and roll out the door like a star of an action movie.
‘Why?’ I parried. ‘Are you afraid they’ll steal your car?’
‘No.’ She responded. ‘I’m afraid they’ll steal my clothes.’
I spent most of my formative years struggling to shake off a poor reputation that I inherited purely from living in that neighbourhood.
Which is why this meditation brings me such comfort.
Let me give you an example. The population of Jerusalem in Jesus’ day was around forty thousand people. The population of Nazareth was around four hundred. It was one hundred times smaller than its capital.
Jesus came from a tiny town with a poor reputation. ‘Nothing good’ came from Nazareth.
Jesus was exactly like me.
Worse, Galilee wasn’t exactly a place that was known for academic excellence. Look at the reaction of the Sanhedrin when confronted with Peter’s confident defence of the Apostles’ ministry:
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:13 NIVUK
Why was this a big deal?
Because people who came from Galilee were seen as unsophisticated, uneducated country bumpkins who could not possibly have spoken so confidently and so eloquently before the authorities.
Look again at this passage from Peter’s betrayal of Jesus:
After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.’
Matthew 26:73 NIVUK
So Galileeans – and people from Nazareth were Galileeans – were seen as simple, spoke differently and were less educated than their more sophisticated counterparts in Jerusalem.
In fact, Jesus’ upbringing completely confused the Jewish leaders:
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ‘Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?’ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.’
John 7:50-52 NIVUK
So Jesus’ human origins weren’t just a reason for people to look down on Him. No, they were also a reason for people to reject Him entirely.
This is so powerful for me. It tells me a beautiful truth. Jesus knows what it feels like to be looked down on because of where you were raised. Jesus knows how it feels for others to persecute you just because of where you were born. Jesus knows how it feels to be rejected because of where you live.
Jesus experienced unjust discrimination.
More than that, He also felt the pressure that comes from living in such a small town:
Coming to his home town, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked. ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offence at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his own town and in his own home.’
Matthew 13:54-57 NIVUK
Jesus knows what it feels like to live in a place where everyone knows everyone else – or like to think they know. He knows what it feels like to be the butt of gossip and innuendo. He knows what it feels like to be rejected for spurious reasons.
Friends, if you are unduly burdened due to the place you were born or raised, lift your eyes to Jesus. Set your gaze on Him.
Because Jesus didn’t just come as our Saviour. He came as our Friend who walked the same paths we walk.
And that includes experiencing life in a small town.
Questions
1. How can the place where you were born and raised affect the way others see you, and how you see yourself?
2. In what ways was Jesus discriminated against as a person from a small town?
3. How would Jesus react in your situation? How does His growing up in a small town encourage you?
I’ve so many memories of living there and the affect it had on all of us. Yet I’m encouraged when I look at the 4 of you and see what God has done in your lives and how each of you fully understands others who are similarly affected by the area they live in. I’m so thankful that God has given each of you a heart for those who are looked down upon or judged just because of where they live.