What would have happened if it had been three Wise Women instead of three Wise Men?
They would have asked directions,
arrived on time,
helped deliver the baby,
cleaned the stable,
made a casserole,
and brought practical gifts, and
there would be peace on earth.
But what they would have said when they left…?
“Did you see the sandals Mary was wearing with that gown?”
“That baby doesn’t look anything like Joseph!”
“Can you believe that they let all of those disgusting animals in the house?”
“I heard that Joseph isn’t even working right now!”
“And that donkey that they are riding has seen better days too!”
“Want to bet on how long it will take until you get your casserole dish back?”
Isaiah 9:6
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,[d] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
will make this happen!
Mt 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Luke 2
14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
22 Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
23 Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ 24 But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.
25 “Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”
28 When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. 29 Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, 30 but he passed right through them.
“The rim of hills around Nazareth is generally bare, rocky, and treeless, in this contrasting strongly with Northern Galilee. Nazareth has been filled by monastic inventions with holy places, such as the Virgin’s House, and others equally unhistorical. But there is one special incident of our Lord’s life at Nazareth which points to a definite locality, and that is ‘the brow of the hill whereon their city was built,’ down which the infuriated men of Nazareth sought to cast headlong Him whose teaching had offended them. This has been transferred by the monks to the so-called ‘Mount of Precipitation,’ half an hour south-east of the town, a site contradicted by the history. There are several precipitous cliffs in Nazareth itself.
So steep is the place generally, that in many parts there are only houses on one side of the street, the other being simply a wall of rocks, whence building material has been quarried. But while the extension of the modern town is towards the valley, the traces of the older village are rather higher up. There is almost a semicircle of steep cliffs, though now concealed, for the most part, by a luxuriant growth of prickly pear; and in excavating the upper platform, there have recently been found many traces of ancient buildings, situated above the amphitheater which forms the modern town.”
Bible Places: Or, The Topography of the Holy Land (London: 1884), p. 253–54 Interesting.
So the reading in the Greek could easily mean that Nazareth wasn’t built on the “brow of a hill” but whereon could refer to the fact the town was built on a hill itself. Modern-day Nazareth is nestled in a natural bowl which reaches from 1/5th of a mile above sea level to the crest of the hills about 1/3rd of a mile.
While a thousand-foot drop will end someone pretty quick, a 40 to 50-foot drop could hurt someone pretty badly as well. In fact, the median lethal distance for falls is four stories or 48 feet, according to the reference book Trauma Anesthesia. In other words, this means that 50% of patients who fall four stories will die. The enraged crowd could have intended to push Jesus down the cliff and stone him to finish the job, if necessary. The King James Version and Young’s Literal translation but say the mob intended to cast him down headlong, meaning head first.
Jesus routinely elevated and honored those who are pushed to the fringe by religious people.
When people say we don’t fit and we are not enough, God says we are invited.
Jennifer Slattery