“He will be called a Nazarene.”

It wasn’t the kind of place where you would want to raise your kids.  Halfway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, this town was in the middle of nowhere.  It’s rolling hills and highlands had only one spring and made Mt. Hermon to the north and Mt. Carmel to the west visible.  It was known as an unsavory place, a place that fomented rebellion, so much so that Roman soldiers were once stationed there as a deterrent against local agitators.  This, of course, attracted “watering holes” (i.e., taverns), lose women and other seedy elements baneful to a respectable society.  People in the surrounding cities and regions considered the town’s locals — Nazarenes — to be, at best, hicks, country bumpkins, or at worst, corrupt, wicked and immoral miscreants.

Surprise, surprise: this is where Mary, mother of Jesus, grew up and lived when the angel Gabriel paid her a visit, giving her the most startling news any woman could ever hear.  “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus” (Luke 1:31).  This is most likely where Joseph lived and where they crossed paths.  It was from here they left for Bethlehem to be taxed as Mary anticipated giving birth to her firstborn (Luke 2:4-7).  Eight days later they dedicated him at the Temple in Jerusalem (vs. 21-38).  Apparently it was not too long afterwards that God warned Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-18).  After Herod died the parents took the Toddler back to Israel, but where to go?  To Jerusalem?  After all, they had heard the pronouncements in the Temple, the instructions in the dreams, and understood — to some degree — that their son was someone special.  Speaking of sons, Archalaus, Herod’s son, was a chip off the old block, frightening Joseph (Matthew 2:22), so Jerusalem was definitely out.  Relatives, already displeased that they were pregnant before finalizing their marriage, wouldn’t be open to their moving into their communities.  And since they already had a home in Nazareth (Matthew 2:23, Luke 2:39-40) … well, why not return?  So they did, and that is where he grew up … a Nazarene.  Besides, who would look for a savior in a place like that?

This Nazarene label stuck with him his entire earthly life as “Jesus of Nazareth.”  You know, that place, Nazareth, a town full of no-goods.  This pejorative term shadowed him from the start of his ministry.  Consider Nathanael’s comment when Philip told him he found the Messiah, “Jesus of Nazareth” (John 1:45).  “Nazareth!  Can anything good come out of there?” (v. 46).  Nathanael was from Cana, another Galilean city.  Judeans despised Galileans, and Galileans despised Nazarenes.  Obviously the latter were bottom feeders in the aquarium hierarchy.

Add to this label the fact that establishment Jews picked up on Jesus’ apparently questionable parentage. Things got personal with them in John 8 during a sharply worded argument.  Instead of dealing with Jesus’ objective challenges to their rightful place as Abraham’s children (vs. 37-41), they responded, “We are not illegitimate children” (v. 42), clearly implying that he was.  ‘Those kinds of things are routine in Nazareth, you know, and he’s a Nazarene.  Need we say more?’  The Pharisees chimed in accusing him of eating with tax collectors and sinners, something a Nazarene would do.  Even the demons used this label (Mark 1:24), as did Pilate when he wrote the notice of his “crime” and hung it over the cross (John 19:19).

This ignominy was not lost on Jesus.  In fact, I can’t help but think it was kind of a backward blessing in two ways.  First, in growing up “in the ‘hood” or “across the tracks,” he dignified and validated the existence of every single person living there before, during and after.  No one should ever put down someone of another socio-economic or ethnic/cultural group.  Doing so does that to Jesus.  Second, this put-down label was something of a lived out parable, an enigma that challenged people to examine and believe his words and ultimately himself.  His parables did that.  Some heard and believed, others heard and didn’t, because some hearts were “calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes” (Matthew 13:15).  Being from Nazareth had the same effect: “The Messiah’s from Nazareth?  Are you kidding?”  Sensitive hearts willing to look got it; calloused, unwilling hearts didn’t.

Yes, the prophets called him a Nazarene, meaning “one who is despised” (Isaiah 53:3).  Certainly many from Nazareth were.  Do you despise him or believe him?  What’s the condition of your heart?