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
Matthew 2:23
Believing
that the Bible is the inspired Word of God means to acknowledge that
it doesn't contain errors or contradictions. It also means that there
is no irrelevant details or useless information. Everything in
scripture is there for a reason.
Christ was called Jesus of
Nazareth, even though He wasn't born there and Matthew makes the point
that He was called a Nazarene. It wasn't coincidence that both
Joseph and Mary hailed from Nazareth, Jesus was born in Bethlehem and
the family relocated in Nazareth a few years later.
The
Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem according to Micah 5:2 but
according to Isaiah 9:1-2, He would come from “Galilee of the
Gentiles.” The city of Nazareth didn't even exist in Old testament
times, but in the first century it was a northern outpost of a Roman
garrison.
Herein
probably lies the reason Jesus needed to be from Nazareth. Everybody
disdained the place. It was the kind of town that someone who was
despised and rejected by men would come from.
When
I was growing up, people would tell “Polock jokes” saying
ridiculous things about folks slightly esteemed. Today, the popular
put-down is about “Rednecks.” In Jesus' day, the Jewish people
probably told “Nazarene jokes.” When Nathaniel asked “Can
anything good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:45), he might have been
voicing a popular cliche rather than expressing personal prejudice.
In
any case, Christ did what He always has done. He took that which the
world puts down and then lifted it up to glory. Today, it is quite the
honor to identify with the Nazarene.
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