“And Nathanael said to him, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?'” John 1:46
It seemed very unlikely that the Messiah would come from a place like that. If you were looking for the One the prophets talked about, go to Jerusalem.
Go to the capital city.
Go to the place of sophistication.
Go where the people are, where the wealth is, and the elite live.
Here is the irony of it all, both then and now. For every Jerusalem, there are a hundred places like Nazareth. The world is filled with unlikely places where nothing much ever seems to happen, where there is no great university, little towns without much commerce, places off the beaten path, tiny villages and hamlets where few people live.
Nathanael represents the “big city” attitude that prevails today.
How could anything good come from Nazareth?
But our God is not a front runner. He doesn’t design his coming around the prejudices of those in the “big times and big places.”
Jesus was not ashamed to come from Nazareth, and Jesus is not ashamed to be listed among the least.
He was born in Bethlehem described in Micah 5:2 as being “too little to be among the clans of Judah” and raised in Nazareth a place on the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak.
So today, if you are feeling insignificant, overlooked, disrespected, or unappreciated, trust the Lord Jesus who was born and grew up with those words for street names. Believe in His ability to raise you up according to His plan and to make your life dwell on the streets named significant, strategic, and valuable.
