“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathaniel quips in John 1:46. The only road out of town went north a couple miles to intersect with the main route with the capital Sepphoris five miles to the west, the Sea of Galilee 15 miles to the east. Nazareth was just a little end-of-the-road village of poor country folks tucked away in the Galilean hills. Nothing impressive. Apparently Jesus hadn’t impressed his fellow townsfolk as anyone extraordinary either during his many years there, as their query “Where did this man get all this?” indicates. To them he was just the village carpenter when he left. Returning with a reputation as a preacher and worker of miracles, he was a mystery to them. They scratched their heads in wonderment . . . Astonishment . . . and maybe a bit of envy.
Sometimes we think we know everything there is to know about someone. Jesus had the power to heal, but our faith opens the door to let Jesus enter and go to work within us. That’s the ingredient the folks from Nazareth lacked.