One Place Jesus Avoided
I'm always attracted by Jesus' radical simplicity and his preferential option for the poor and weak--although a lot of smart experts continue to challenge this. They say Jesus was middle-class or even a degree above it and actually lived quite comfortably, influenced by the lifestyle or cost of living in nearby Sepphoris, a high-class village for sophisticates at the time. He probably earned his living there, too, they add. Picture above from Stokpic. Well, Joseph's and Mary's offering of a pair of doves for Jesus when he was dedicated at the temple speaks volumes about their status in life. As he grew up he remained being known as "son of a carpenter" and once described himself as someone with "nothing to lay his head on," hinting that birds and foxes were better off than he was because they enjoyed nests and holes, respectively. Jesus purposefully avoided Sepphoris perhaps because of what it stood for--worldliness--because it was where the ric