The Next Hill to the Northwest

Most people know that Jesus grew-up in the quiet town of Nazareth. This little town is on a hill looking south onto the Jezreel valley. However, you may be surprised to know that a large city on a lower hill two miles northwest was a part of our Saviors life as he grew up. Sepphoris was the Roman capital of northern Israel when Jesus was a young man. This Roman city had forty thousand people with a large theater that could hold 4000 people for their many plays. If anyone living in the small Jewish town of Nazareth wanted something in the big city next door, they could easily walk there in 30 minutes. Because there was lots of spring water in Nazareth, an aqueduct was built to carry water down to Sepphoris. This aqueduct is still there today. We can even walk along the bottom of the huge cistern today and look up at the water levels on the giant walls. It makes you wonder at which level the water was when Jesus looked at the city water supply.

 The conclusion of intellectual thought, on the fact that Jesus grew up alongside a large city, is that we don’t really know what kind of a person the Savior was. Scholars believe that the knowledge of several languages and availability of Roman plays, history and etc. were influences over His thinking. We may not credit Jesus with all his knowledge of this world but Christians certainly know what Jesus was thinking while on Earth and how He lived His life. At times we can actually feel for lost souls the way He did. There were four large Roman cities when Jesus walked in Israel. Caesarea is on the coast, Sepphoris next to Nazareth, Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee, and Bet She’an near the Jordan River. Jesus did not minister in these four cities because of His mission to the Jews. Remember when the woman who was “not” a Jew asked Jesus to heal her, He said; I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Matt 15:24

Speculation is made that Jesus worked as a carpenter in this large city to the Northwest. It does not seem possible that Jesus was a carpenter at all. When He was a teenager he told His mother that; I must be about my Father's business. Luke 2:49 This passage went on to say that Jesus grew in favor with God and men. Jesus probably did not have time to work as a carpenter because becoming the savior of the world was a full time job. People sometimes say “if I could only have been alive during the ministry of Jesus things would be different.” The truth is that if we had lived in one of these four Roman cities at the time, we would not have received a visit from the Savior.  As a gentile it would “not” have been a good experience living in Israel. If we could only understood the benefit of the Spirit living in us, our faith would really grow.  The Spirit reveals what Jesus is like directly to our hearts and His life becomes our life. May we forget the next hill which contains the neon signs of this world.