In today’s world, when we think of a “hub,” a multi-cultural epicenter, a district of the arts, business, finance, and excitement, filled with diversity and change, multiple voices and traditions with a window to the world, we think of a place like New York, Miami, Los Angeles, or London. Perhaps you know of a neighborhood in your own city –swirling with cultural richness and divergence, the “place to be.”

In Jesus’ time, that was Capernaum.

Capernaum lay on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, along the bustling Via Maris (the Way of the Sea) trade route. The Way of the Sea, a busy road traversed daily by merchants, traders, officials, and visitors, connected the northern and eastern countries with Egypt, passing directly through Israel. A kind of toll road, the Romans collected t…