"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
Nathaniel asked. We ask the same question every single day. We want someone from Jerusalem. Or maybe Bethlehem. Heck, Nazareth ain't even on the map!
No king, no prophet, no priest ever came from Nazareth. Maybe that's why Luke and Matthew came up with Bethlehem birth stories. And the 'Joseph-from-the-house-of-David-was-the-father' tradition as well. And, of course, the demigod mythology. Mark's 'The woodworker from Nazareth, the son of Mary' (read, bastard) was a hard sell.
Yet to this day, the Nazarene who lived his life with and for those whose only hope was God; who preached good news to the poor; who challenged the rich to sell everything they have and give the proceeds to the destitute; who defied empire; and who commanded everyone who followed him to offer one's life for a friend is a hard sell.
Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip's answer is as true today as it was then.
COME AND SEE!
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