Galilean

When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean.

Luke 23:6

Galilean – not exactly a name for Christ – not really even a title. It is more like a label or pigeonhole where you put people beneath your dignity. Galilee was an insignificant region of an insignificant province. Back then, Galileans were what hillbillies or rednecks are to our culture today.

On the day of Pentecost, the disciples impressed everyone by preaching the gospel eloquently in more than 16 foreign languages. The amazement was even greater when someone said: “Look are not these who speak Galileans?” (Acts 2:7). Since these were simple, backwoods folk, the conclusion people came to was that they must be drunk and didn't know what they were saying.

Flavius Claudius Julianus was the nephew of Constantine the Great and the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He is known in history books as Julian the Apostate although the title he chose for himself was Julian the Philosopher. While Constantine and his sons embraced Christianity at a time when the faith was growing in the empire, Julian renounced the new religion when he ascended to the throne and became the last champion of polytheism in Rome.

Julian despised Christians and always referred to them as Galileans. They weren't educated or cultured like he was and he was distraught that so many of his subjects were abandoning the gods to follow Jesus of Nazareth. He idealized the philosophy of paganism and wrote books on the subject.

Initially, Julian had great success in battle but on June 26, 363 he found his small, Roman army surrounded by a huge Persian force. Mortally wounded, his aides brought him back to his tent where tradition tells us that he threw his blood towards heaven and shouted “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!”

Wow! Who’da thunk it! The emperor of the Roman Empire glorified Jesus Christ with the most demeaning of titles.