Mark 6:1-6 "A Prophet At Home"

James Reed's FORGE

At this point in the life and times of Jesus, His public ministry has been focused on or around the immediate region of the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum. Today, we’re going to see a slight location change. Jesus moves away from Capernaum and Galilee and goes home. He comes back to Nazareth. This is about a 25 miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum. While Jesus was born in Bethlehem, grew up in a small village. This is similar to people today in that when asked where we are from, there might be several answers that you could give. Depending on the circumstances, I might tell you that I was born in Virgina, raised in Florida, but I came to GMCC from Three Forks. All of these would be correct. Perhaps the same is true for you. You were born one place, raised in another, traveled around, and now consider yourself to be from a certain location. Jesus, in this sense is the one born in Bethlehem, yet we can truly call Him Jesus of Nazareth. This village where Jesus grew up was so obscure, it didn’t even have a Christian church until the fourth century, under the reign of Constantine in the Roman Empire.

There are 640 acres in a square mile according to what I found on the ever-reliable internet. RC Sproul said in one of his sermons that, “…the people of Nazareth built their village out of a rocky hillside in an area that covered 60 acres. The whole town was 60 acres. (That’s not even a full 10th of a sq. mile.) Less than five hundred people lived there. Of course, having grown up in such a small village, Jesus knew everyone in town.” So, we’re talking small and insignificant by any worldly standard when we talk about Nazareth.