0102 JESUS THE NAZARENE

Matthew ends his second chapter with this curious fulfillment of prophecy: "He shall be called a Nazarene." What does this mean?

 

The first chapter of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Joseph, who served as Jesus’ earthly father. It also contains Joseph being visited by an angel in a dream, assuring him that Mary’s pregnancy came from the Spirit of God. In chapter 2, Matthew reports three more significant dreams: The wise men were warned about Herod in a dream, Joseph flees Bethlehem in the middle of the night based on a dream, and in  Egypt, the Lord appears to him once again. It leaves me wondering how many of us have made major decisions in life based on a dream that we knew to be from God. But there is a little phrase at the end of Matthew 2 that isn’t found anywhere else, so I would like to focus on that for a few minutes.

 

And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

~Matthew 2:23

Do you know where in the Bible it says, “He shall be called a Nazarene?” You can look it up. You won’t find it. Here is what you will find:

The Bible says the servant of the Lord would be despised and rejected, with no beauty or majesty, nothing attractive about him. Oppressed, afflicted, judged, smitten. That is what it means to be known as a “Nazarene.” No wonder Nate asked Phil, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nobody thought it could.

The region of Galilee never had much of a reputation down in Judea. But the little town of Nazareth was The Lowest Rung on the ladder of respect. A small village with a couple hundred low income residents. No fishing. Few livestock. Very little farming. In fact, Nazareth is so poor . . .. How poor are they, you ask? Nazarenes are so poor that their primary crop is rocks. That sounds like a (very bad) joke, but I’m not even kidding. On the edge of town, the sunny south slope of the hill had been gouged out by the Romans, in order to quarry big building blocks from the limestone to build nearby towns and tombs in the valley. 

They call it The Cliff. We will see the cliff again when we get to Luke chapter 4. 

It was only right that a man of no reputation should be associated with a town of no reputation. You know, Jesus could have referred to Himself a lot of ways: Lion of Judah, King of Israel, Lord of heaven and earth. Those are labels used for Him, but Jesus never used them for Himself. Though He was King of kings, Lord of lords, the only begotten Son of God, He humbled Himself to be found looking like just a man. In fact, our Lord called Himself the Son of Man—He continued down the ladder to be the servant of all. The lowest of the low, in the eyes of man. 

Isaiah called the region “Galilee of the Gentiles.” But he said that despised land would be honored in the future. Know how it happened—how Galilee became honored? Jesus was lifted high in shame, and became the name above every name. 

The demons feared Him and called Him “Jesus of Nazareth.” Pilate respected Him and posted a sign on the cross to identify “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” And so the least becomes the greatest, and the last becomes first. Jesus gets a portion among the great, and divides the spoils with the strong. 

Indeed, the name of Jesus has been lifted higher than any name, with a power to cast out demons, raise the dead, and heal the lame. Even His followers worked miracles because they did them in that name. It was all part of God’s plan to turn the world upside down. The greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all. And the servant of all becomes the name above all.

So if you are ever tempted to think that God, in all His infinite power and wisdom, does not notice you, think again. You might be just a little dot in the vast expanse of time and space, but the God of the universe has a way of working ahead of time to use the lowest things in a mighty way. Every lowly detail is a part of His own story for you.

And so, once upon a time, a little baby girl by the name of Mary was born in a little town called Nazareth.

What are the chances, huh?

And the rest, as they say, is His story.