Day 7

Nazareth is the first of two locations for the story leading up to Jesus’ birth. This Galilean backwater is the home from which Mary and Joseph must make the long journey to Bethlehem and has become the place with which Jesus becomes inextricably linked, being called ‘Jesus of Nazareth’.

Nazareth remained a neglected city throughout its history. It was only in the twentieth century that a large basilica was built to mark the believed site of the Annunciation – a cave where Mary encountered the angel.

The fact that Jesus came from Nazareth is evidence that God is drawn to the humble and the marginalised; that God works through the humble, and that he is not to be found in the awe-inspiring places embused with history and significance.