Jesus was raised in a Ghetto

Jesus was raised in a Ghetto

Yes, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but as someone I heard preached, "Jesus was born in a barn in a backyard!" Jesus was not born in a home or an Inn. This nugget added fuel to a thought I was developing which is often the case when Preachers listen to other Preachers. What some may not be aware of is that, “Jesus was raised in a Ghetto!”

There was a class structure among Gods people in place long before the birth of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. The Jewish leaders considered themselves to be the upper class or the elite. They believed they were educated and the outstanding members in society, and they were above everyone else. They refused to speak the language of common people. It was considered profane and vulgar.

There was a middle class of people they considered to be just below them, that were subject to their dictates. They probably were the Samaritans. They would have dealings with them in day to day matters.

However there was also a lower class of people than them, uneducated, who spoke a common language that offended their refined ears. Perhaps the gentiles were included in this class. The upper class with all their education could not understand them. They refused to learn the language and it was not allowed to be spoken among them. They did not want to have any personal dealings with these people. They were the poor and the homeless, the common people. The upper class Jews would employ the middle class people to conduct day to day business with them.

And guess who some of those lower class, common people were? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. Nazarene’s, the people of Nazareth! As far as the upper class Jews were concerned, nothing good comes out of Nazareth. 

No wonder they did not like this young man who showed up. And not only did he show up he corrected them on the finer points of the law! What an insult. This commoner from Nazareth did not attend their institutes of higher learning. This commoner from Nazareth had not placed himself under submission to the teachings of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the High Priest. Who was this young upstart from the Ghetto? None other than Jesus!

Because Jesus was raised in the Ghetto, Jesus had a Ghetto mentality. And as you know, you can take a man out of the Ghetto, but you can’t take the Ghetto out of a man. Jesus has a heart for Ghetto people and the Ghetto life where people care for one another, and depend on each other just to survive. The Ghetto prepared him to live anywhere, submit to authority, accept what was freely given to him, and he took joy in the simple pleasures of life.

Jesus was raised in the Ghetto because he came for Ghetto people, those who were poor in spirit. He came to give them life, and life more abundantly. Oh how hard it is for the elite and middle class to enter the kingdom of God. But with God all things are possible, even salvation.

Those who are rich don't know they need a Savior and are harder to reach.

They don’t think they need someone to supply all of their needs. They don’t know why they keep striving to meet their own needs and can’t because their needs are spiritual. Those who are rich have a problem with those who are poor.

They ask themselves questions like this: How can the poor be content no matter what their circumstances are? Why don’t the poor get a real job like them and buy nice things like them? And then they won’t offer the poor employment opportunities that would allow the poor to live like the middle and upper class people. And if the poor become thieves they wonder why, and have them arrested and punished.

Jesus came as a thief. He became flesh to be among us but the world was unaware of who he was. The children of God were expecting him though. Some even met him in the barn he was born in, and at Jacobs well where he came to visit them the Samaritan’s.

Jesus lived like a thief. He delivered souls from the devil’s grip, and set them free from their captivity. He gave them a clear conscience of sin by his shed blood that the blood of animal sacrifices could not do.

Jesus will return as a thief.  As a thief in the night to those who do not believe. No one knows the day or the hour of his return. But to those who do believe he will not return at a time they don’t expect him. We are always in a state of expectancy of his return. We will recognize the signs of his return and will be anxiously waiting.

The apostles asked Jesus what will be the signs of his coming. And every once and a while we become over zealous as if he might return any minute! This is yet another of his signs to us the soon coming King of kings and LORD of lords, Jesus. Those who don’t believe fear his return and place guards even today at his empty tomb!

Jesus is coming back for those who have the mind of Christ and King Jesus had a Ghetto mentality. Let this mind be in you that is also in Christ Jesus. It is not we that lives but Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Be mindful that Jesus is coming soon. What is the day, month, year, hour he will return? No one will know until it happens and all eyes will see him. A five minute delay or more on all live broadcasts will not prevent this. He did not need our technology when he spoke all things into existence and created man, woman, beast, and all creepy things upon the earth.

I believe John said it best in the book of the Revelation being convicted as well as submitted. Can you imagine what he went through writing that book? What an experience! Who would argue or question God after that? Christ said he was coming soon and all John could say was, “Even so LORD, come.”

John was too humbled to ask what soon meant. He probably did not understand much of what he wrote anyway nor could he explain it to others of his time.