Gospel: John 1: 45-53
Nazareth was an insignificant village in Galilee. Its inhabitants were poor laborers, most likely under the employ and servitude of the Roman occupiers. Most of the surrounding villages were in a similar situation. Jesus himself was likely a slave in this system, manumission being granted at age 30, the time he began his public ministry.
In this environment Jesus saw revolts and uprisings against the Roman occupiers. All of them ended in the same way - in greater oppression and misery. Moses had been a slave and delivered his people from this state not through revolution but through the calling of God to life under God's law on pilgrimage to the Promised Land.
Jesus, the new Moses, envisions a revolution of the heart that will transform both the oppressed and the oppressor through the power of love. Love is the core of the law and only love can permanently end the oppression of all forms of sin and slavery in our world. And so good things indeed will come from Nazareth, and through love we come to see greater things in our world as the kingdom of God builds a civilization of love in our midst.
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