“Jesus left there and went to His hometown, accompanied by His disciples.” (Mark 7:1 NIV)
Disciples follow faithfully. Even to Nazareth. Now Nazareth may sound like a not-too-shabby destination to us today, but that’s because we bring our modern understanding to our interpretation of scripture. We know that Jesus grew up in Nazareth, so there’s a holy curiosity of sorts.
If we interpret the text according to it’s original culture, though, we learn that Nazareth was not a nice place. Very poor, rural, disreputable. Additionally, Nazareth was out of the way, “People didn’t go there unless they specifically wanted to go there.” according to my research. Nazareth remained that way until the 19th century when the Catholic church named it as a holy site. We get a good idea of the reputation of biblical Nazareth from the gospel of John “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Not exactly the tourism tagline a town would want.
Recent archeological digs have revealed a deeper and perhaps darker past to Nazareth. Large pits have been discovered far under the city, some with two and three levels. Historians believe these pits to be places of storage and even hideouts. It is presumed that goods may have been trafficked in Nazareth to evade the oppressive Roman tax system. Makes sense to me; Nazareth was clearly off the beaten path.
Despite it’s reputation as the birthplace of Jesus, by my experience Nazareth is still a nasty place. I was appalled to see trash drifted between it’s buildings. The streets and infrastructures are run down. It felt very unsafe as we stayed tight-knit in our tourism group. It is certainly not the sort of neighborhood where I would want to raise a family, let alone the Savior.
The point of all this is: Jesus will routinely take us to unpopular and even dangerous places. He will inevitable lead us to locations we’d rather avoid altogether. But note our text: disciples follow. They stay close despite their personal preferences. Proximity to Jesus is far more important than comfort or partiality. Disciples follow. End of discussion.
Where is the Lord leading you today?
“Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am my servant will also be.” (John 12:26 NIV)
Lord, please help us possess the love and loyalty to accompany You wherever You go. We want to live as followers, not mere fans. We want to walk with You even when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable. Please strengthen us by Your Spirit to keep this commitment. Amen.