Last week, we looked at the time period in which Jesus was born. The Roman Empire sprawled across the Mediterranean and governed much of the known world under an uneasy peace— the somewhat ironically named “Pax Romana.” But even within the Galilee, Jesus grew up in an unlikely place.

“Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?” the soon-to-be disciple Nathanael asked when he learned of Jesus’s hometown in John 1. Something of a backwater compared to the larger cultural centers of Jewish culture, Nazareth is so unremarkable that it doesn’t even appear in any Jewish writings before the third century CE. Much about Nazareth during the life of Jesus is speculation, but we know this: to the movers and shakers of the ancient Jewish world, this city didn’t matter much. Jesus would be looked down upon for the place of his upbringing, especially by the more affluent and influential groups like the Sadducees and Pharisees. After all, what would a teacher from nowhere have to offer in this tense political and cultural moment?

Imagine coming from such an unremarkable place at a time when your people were under the thumb of Rome; imagine being treated by your own people like you were from nowhere and then even being rejected within your hometown! With such an upbringing, what would your relationship be to the insurmountable authority of Rome? Jesus’s position gave him a unique response.

The Sadducees appeased Rome whenever possible
so as to hang onto what little power they had,
but Jesus turned over the Sadducees’ tables and welcomed all.

The Pharisees grumbled quietly against Rome in their synagogues
and threw their energy into the study of the scriptures,
but Jesus revealed the Pharisees’ legalism and called for love.

The Essenes fled to the desert to await the messiah away from Rome’s reach,
but Jesus rebuked the Essenes’ isolationism and called them to come and follow.

The Zealots sought a violent revolution to topple their occupying Roman oppressors,
but Jesus exposed the Zealots’ bloodthirstiness and called for nonviolence.

The man from Nazareth had a different approach to all the teachers of his day: he diminished the Kingdom of Rome by preaching the Kingdom of Heaven. He unmasked the powers of this world and brought a revolution not through war, but through radical peace, as only a teacher from nowhere could.

This series is heavily influenced by Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited. For a deeper dive into the life of Jesus and what it means for people who are suffering, outcast, and downtrodden (not to mention a thoughtful exploration of racism and authoritarianism in the U.S.), I cannot recommend this book enough.