It’s pretty obvious where most Nativity scenes are set. Everybody knows that Jesus was born in Bethlehem! That’s where the manger was. That’s the town the shepherds were working near. That’s where the Wise Men were sent to find the baby Jesus. Everybody knows that!

Well, yes, today, everybody knows that.  But when Jesus grew up and began his ministry, people didn’t call him “Jesus of Bethlehem.”  They called him “Jesus of Nazareth,” since that’s the town in Galilee where he grew up, and that was where his father lived.  And that fact did not help Jesus get off to a very easy start in recruiting disciples and teaching the world about himself.

For one thing, Nazareth seemed to have a stereotype as a very backward place. “Can anything good come from there?” asks Nathanael in John 1:46.

For another thing, because good Jews knew their Scripture, they knew the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. As far as they knew, that pretty much ruled Jesus out (John 7:41-42), despite his miracles and the testimony of many people who believed in him. Bethlehem and Nazareth were only 80 miles apart, but most Jews couldn’t figure out how to mention them in the same sentence.

This is probably one reason why the Gospels go into great detail to establish that Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem, to get rid of that mistaken impression right away.  But at the time of his ministry, the familiar stories in Matthew and Luke hadn’t been researched, much less written down – and once people get the wrong idea about you, it can be hard to change their minds.

But Nazareth is still a very important place.  It’s where the angel appears to Mary, announcing that she will be the mother of the Messiah.  It’s where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus settle after returning from Egypt, and where Jesus grows to manhood.  It’s where Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah one Sabbath in the synagogue and announces, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

So in the background of our Nativity scene, let’s imagine we can see Nazareth in the distance. To us, those 80 miles aren’t such a great distance at all.