As our tour group entered Nazareth, our guide didn’t immediately take us to the Church of the Annunciation. Instead we took a winding road up a hill on the south side of Nazareth to the Mount of Precipice. According to tradition, this is the spot from which the angry mob was going to throw Jesus down to his death.

God stands above history

From here the whole Valley of Jezreel spread out before us. I could see a thousand years of history. To our left was Mount Tabor where Deborah and Barak gathered to fight the forces of Jabin, king of Hazor. A little to the south was the Hill of Moreh where the Midianites and Amalekites assembled against Gideon. Farther to the south was Mount Gilboa where King Saul had fought the Philistines and died. Across the Jezreel Valley is Megiddo: captured by Joshua, fortified by Solomon and Ahab, where King Josiah died at Pharaoh’s hand. Mount Carmel, the place where Elijah had stood his ground against the 450 prophets of Baal, was far to the right.

It dawned on me that this is God’s view of history. As we live our lives, the events of each day loom up large in front of us. The enemies are many. The defeats are overwhelming. Victories can become monuments to our own greatness. But God stands above history. He sees it all in perspective in one grand sweep.

God steps into history

This view from Nazareth also reminds us that the God who sees all of history also stepped into history. This eternal God stepped into Mary’s life, announcing that she would conceive and give birth to a son, her own Savior. This eternal God stepped into the lives of the people of Nazareth, announcing that he had come "to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor" (Luke 4:19).

This God has also stepped into our personal histories. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Nazareth so that he could be truly human and take upon himself the guilt of all our spiritual defeats. He has proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor to us through his Word and sacraments. He offers us the spoils of his victory: forgiveness and new life.

Mary believed that God stepped into her history. "May it be to me as you have said . . . My spirit rejoices in God my Savior" (Luke 1:38,47). The people of Nazareth rejected him. He didn’t act the way they wanted; he didn’t do miracles at their beck and call. They didn’t want to hear his call to repentance.

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, God sees all the defeats and victories already. This will be another year in which God will not always act the way we would hope. But whom will we imitate? Mary or the people of Nazareth?