Jesus: his home
Taken from Jesus, his home, his journey, his challenge
Description
Jesus: his home
Introduction
Throughout the Gospels Jesus is identified as Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 1.24). This might seem obvious to us but it is actually very surprising that someone who came to be seen by his followers as the Christ or Messiah should be so closely associated with what was then a tiny village in Lower Galilee. In view of the stories about his birth in Bethlehem, we might have expected him to be remembered as Jesus of Bethlehem. Equally, given that he was not a prominent public figure until his baptism when he was about 30 years old (Luke 3.23), we might have expected him to become known as Jesus of Capernaum, which seems to have become his main base during the years of his public ministry. But not so: he was known as Jesus of Nazareth. How are we to respond to this? Was it significant? Was it an association that arose from his long connections with the village that he could never quite shake off?...