I guess I married a city girl. Compared to where I grew up, my wife was raised in a metropolis. You see, I grew up in Maury, North Carolina. There wasn’t much to my town when I was a kid; there is even less to it now. They closed the schools. They closed the sewing plant. They also closed the service stations, the grocery stores, the ball field, and the soda shop. I think the barber shop and beauty shops are gone also. For me it was a perfect place to grow up, but for most outsiders, it was nothing—or maybe even less than nothing. Did you grow up in a place outsiders might call “Nowhere”?
Jesus grew up in “Nowhere” also. Did you know that the Old Testament never even mentions Nazareth? Think of all the genealogies and historical accounts in the Old Testament, and you will often find a lot of attention paid to land, geography, and places. Yet, you will not find one single mention of Nazareth. This small speck on the map was an uncelebrated, forgotten town, off the beaten path, even for Galilee. When guileless Nathanael questioned a friend about Jesus, he expressed the common Jewish sentiment in the first century (John 1:46): “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
Yet here in this sleepy town is where our Lord’s earthly father and mother begin their story. They were Nazarenes (not Nazarites). And it was only a matter of time before it would be the moniker that the enemies of our Lord, and a host of demons would use to throw mud on His credibility.
His parents came to Bethlehem as census travelers. He was born in noble Bethlehem, but this is not where they would stay. Mary and Joseph returned to their hometown (Matthew 2:23). And after they took their Child up to Jerusalem to dedicate Him, “they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth” (Luke 2:39).
We also see that after His memorable visit to the temple at age 12, Luke tells us Jesus “went down from Jerusalem” with His parents. Indeed, He did. To leave Jerusalem was to “go down” — not always geographically, but always socially. And yet, as a glimpse into the self-emptying pattern of His incarnation, the Son of God “went down with them, and came to Nazareth” (Luke 2:51).
Outside the New Testament references, we know very little, if anything reliable, about ancient Nazareth, simply because it was so obscure. First-century historians didn’t know or speak much about it, at least not in prominent enough publications to be preserved. Still, in God’s wise plan for His Son, a big part of His life of humility, and submission to His parents, was leaving the big-city temple, and “going down” to small-town Nazareth. It was in Nazareth where He was to live thirty years in obscurity. Here He would remain until John the Baptist’s arrest (Matthew 4:13). And Nazareth not only meant a more backwater life than “up” in Jerusalem, but “Nazarene” would be a stigma He would carry the rest of His life.
You see, among the Jews, Nazareth’s reputation was poor enough, but outside Israel, the town wasn’t even known. Which is why each of the Gospel writers had to explain what Nazareth was — a town in Galilee — when they first mentioned it (Matthew 2:23; Mark 1:9; Luke 1:26).
Today we sing about the little town of Bethlehem, but Bethlehem, humble as it was compared to Jerusalem, had a name that dwarfed Nazareth’s. Bethlehem was a city with a history. It was known far and wide as “the city of David.” And Nazareth? Well, there just isn’t much to be said.
During his earthly life, so far as we know, Jesus never self-identified as “Jesus of Nazareth.” Only rarely did His followers call him that. Typically, it was crowds unfamiliar with Him, or His enemies: demons, false witnesses, and the soldiers who came with the traitor to arrest Him. And while many despised Him for his hometown, even His fellow Nazarenes soon rejected Him, drove Him out of town, and threatened to throw Him off the cliff (Luke 4:28–30).
Wherever we find His name on the lips of foes who want to give it a derogatory spin, expect them to call Him “Jesus of Nazareth.” And if Nathanael’s comment, and the venom of demons and detractors, had not been enough, Pilate inscribed it on the instrument of his torture: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, and even being called a Nazarene.
But Nazareth’s story did not end in dishonor. Our Father saw fit not only to redeem a fallen race, but also to redeem a stigmatized town, when He raised the Nazarene from the dead. Now the risen Christ is indeed “Jesus of Nazareth,” not in shame but unparalleled glory.
First, it came from the angel at the tomb: “Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here:” (Mark 16:6). For more than three decades, “Nazarene” had been a bitter foretaste of His coming crucifixion. Now the tables have turned. Now it tastes of sweet glory.
Soon Peter made it clear, the crucified, risen Lord of the universe was none other than “Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 2:22). Peter healed a lame man “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” (Acts 3:6) and declared that name to all who would listen (Acts 4:10). Even in Caesarea he came preaching to the Gentiles of God’s anointing on “Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 10:38).
Then came the revelation to Paul of Tarsus, who would admit, “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 26:9). Here even Jesus Himself, in the only record we have of Him self-identifying with Nazareth, took up the newly honorific title when He appeared on the Damascus Road. “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutist” (Acts 22:8).
So, God Himself grew up in a forgotten town in Galilee. He came down from Jerusalem, and went down in self-humbling, and down into the tomb, and then took Nazareth up with Him in His triumph.
Now, for the question; how many of us today, in our foolish immaturity, harbor a kind of mild contempt for our Nazareths. It may be our hometown, it may be our social standing when we were kids, it may be our parents or our questionable family heritage, perhaps it is the way we were treated. Sometimes we even rejoice that we have ascended to heights greater than our modest origins? I am not saying that is always bad. I am just asking you to consider just what God might have been doing behind the scenes when we were growing up in our Nazareth. Consider how our Lord might have been redeeming the days we spent in Nazareth, only now to reveal how He used them for our good and for His glory. You may weep over the wasted years, but perhaps they were not wasted at all.
How remarkable that our Lord, being fully God and perfect man, didn’t make for the big city the first chance He got, or insist He dwell where all the action was. Rather, He gave nearly the entirety of His life and public ministry not grasping for Jerusalem, but humbling Himself in Galilee. Dwelling in a man-forsaken town called Nazareth.
The answer to Nathanael’s question is an emphatic yes. And not only can something good come from Nazareth, but the greatest good can come from Nazareth. And because our God loves to produce His best in the places we least expect, perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised when He makes the forgotten places, maybe even the shameful places, in our stories into His chosen channels of our greatest good.
Merry Christmas!
You can read many of Dr. Worthington’s PathPoint articles at www.pathpointemagazine,org.
Dr. Worthington has been in the ministry for over forty five years and serves as President of Pathway Ministries and Christian Bible College