Excerpt from John 1:43-51

"Nathaniel said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?'"

Reflection by Felix Carrion

If we are to believe The Jerome Biblical Commentary, "Nazareth was an insignificant village never mentioned in the Old Testament. [And] no prophecy had connected the Messiah with Galilee, and certainly not with Nazareth."

The first extraordinary leap the early disciples made was to believe that this fellow who looked and sounded like them was no ordinary character. In fact, they had to defy what they had been taught since they were children and for all intents and purposes had internalized:  "How can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

How did they begin to believe something different?

First, they "come and see" this Jesus who knows differently. They experience in Jesus One who is possessed of a knowing, an experience, an illumination, of his true identity and purpose. This is the "secret blooming" of his soul. With care, he gently reveals the essence of what he knows to the incredulous, to those who long ago stopped believing in themselves, to those who accepted pronouncements and proclamations made about their "kind"—their  family, class, etc.  And once they understood this for themselves, their lives were turned inside out to reveal the true stitching of their make-up.

And since his appearing over 2000 years ago, men and women, young and old, poor and rich, have been called to follow him who came from Nazareth.

Prayer

O God, help me to believe like Jesus believed. Amen.

About the Author Felix Carrion is Coordinator of The Stillspeaking Ministry, United Church of Christ.

Give it Up! Lent Devotionals 2012 from the Stillspeaking Writers' Group. Click here to order.