Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Yesterday we considered the Christmas question “WHY Nazareth” as we looked at the complicated process required for Joseph, Mary and her infant son miraculous Jesus to end up settling in the village of Nazareth in Galilee.
We have only one story in the Bible about the childhood of Jesus growing up in Nazareth and as you may know it’s found in Luke 2:41-52. This is that very special occasion when Joseph led his family to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration and Jesus, having reached 12 years of age, may have experienced what today is often called a “Bar Mitzvah” as a boy becomes a young man. While His earthly family began their return trip to Nazareth, young Jesus remained in Jerusalem and was fully engaged in theological discussions with the teachers of the Jewish Biblical laws when Joseph and Mary returned to Jerusalem searching for Him.
The record of their conversation is very significant: “They found Jesus in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers of the law, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers. When Joseph and Mary saw Him, they were amazed. His mother said to Him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.” (Luke 2:46-48)
Now if you are a parent or grandparent then you probably know exactly how Joseph and Mary were feeling and why they were so frustrated by this situation. Very likely their little family by this time had at least several children. Mark tells us Joseph and Mary had these other children after the birth of Jesus: “James, Joseph, Judas, Simon and sisters…” (Mark 6:3) Keeping a young family together in overcrowded Jerusalem during the Passover festival was no small task, and it had required at least 3 days for Joseph and Mary to realize young Jesus was not with the family and return to Jerusalem to search for Him. At first the response of Jesus to Mary’s question seems disrespectful: “Why were you searching for Me? Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49)
It’s very clear that 12-year-old Jesus fully understood WHO He was, Immanuel, and WHY He had come to live on earth as God incarnate. Luke simply gives us this evaluation of this moment: “They did not understand what He was saying to them.” (Luke 2:49) I’m sure that was equally true of Joseph and Mary, as it was of the learned teachers of the Law with whom young Jesus was discussing theology that day. But Jesus also knew His time had not yet come to begin living His earthly purpose, so the record says: “Jesus went to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:51,52)
That is the picture of what the next 18 years or so was like for Jesus, Mary and their family. This is also the last time Joseph is mentioned in the Bible; thus, we presume it’s possible Mary ended up being a single mother raising her family in Nazareth.
Several Scriptures tell us that during those years NONE of the other children of Mary believed the preposterous story of Mary’s miraculous pregnancy with Jesus nor His true identity as God the Son incarnate. It was only after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension that at least one of them, James, came to fully believe in Jesus and His earthly mission. James actually joined with the apostles and wrote the book in the New Testament which bears his name! I doubt any of us can fully imagine what life was like for Joseph and Mary and their unusual family during those 18 years. In fact, the next glimpse we have of the life of Jesus in His earthly hometown Nazareth is shocking and helps us answer the Christmas question today: “Why NOT Nazareth”?
Dr. Luke is the one who tells us “Jesus was about 30 years old when He began His ministry.” (Luke 3:23) Luke gives us that clue about Jesus when describing the day Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river and a voice from heaven identified Jesus as “You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) From the Jordan river that day the Holy Spirit led Jesus out into the desert for 40 days of intensive fasting and prayer preparing to fully engage the mission for which God the Father had sent Jesus the Son to earth! (Luke 4:1-13)
The very next thing Luke tells us is the answer to our question today: “Why NOT Nazareth?” Luke tells us: Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit of God and news spread about Him through the whole countryside. He was teaching in the synagogues and everyone praised Him. He went to Nazareth, where He had been brought up…” (Luke 4:14-16)
Now that sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Growing famous, Jesus returned to His hometown, and we presume visited His family and friends. We should assume Jesus had worked with Joseph in their family carpentry business and likely had become well known as a faithful son and good carpenter in the village of Nazareth. For most people of Nazareth, the unanswered questions of Mary’s apparent illegitimate pregnancy 30 years before was a forgotten or forgiven painful memory.
It was very natural for adult Jesus to enter the Nazareth Synagogue on the Sabbath for it was His hometown Synagogue, the place whereas a young boy He and the other boys in Nazareth had studied the Scriptures with their teachers and the Rabbi. On this occasion the men were obviously so pleased Jesus had come home for a visit they invited Him to do the honors of reading the Scripture scroll that Sabbath.
Luke describes the scene like this, and I invite us to put ourselves into that Nazareth Synagogue that day. “Jesus stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, Jesus found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the LORD is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news…” (Luke 4:16-19) Look around the Synagogue and you’ll see only smiles and men puffing their chests proud of the young man their little town has produced! Can you see it?
But then everything changed as Jesus rolled the scroll closed and made this commentary on the very famous Scripture, He had read which was such a cherished prophecy for the Messiah. (Isaiah 61:1-3)
Luke tells us what happened: “Jesus rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began by saying to them: ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing… Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! And you will tell Me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum…” (Luke 4:20-30)
It was very appropriate for the honored reader of the Scriptures to make a comment on what He had read, but for Jesus, well known to all of them as Joseph the carpenter’s son, to claim that these sacred Scriptures described Him… well that was nothing short of blasphemy!
Suddenly tempers flared in that Synagogue and this room full of men turned violent! Most all of whom had watched Jesus grow up in their town and they could not imagine that this sacred, revered 600-year-old prophecy of Isaiah could possibly be pointing to their Jesus as the Messiah God had promised to send to Israel! In Jewish law it was very clear, anyone blaspheming God’s Holy Scripture or claiming to be Messiah must be killed, immediately, even if He was known as one of their own hometown boys!
Luke’s record describes that they rushed Jesus out of the Synagogue and toward the cliff on one edge of their village, with full intent to throw Him over the cliff to His death. But Luke describes this miracle: But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on His way. He went down to Capernaum…” (Luke 4:30,31)
There it is my friends, the answer to our question “Why NOT Nazareth”! Jesus was run out of His hometown, by the men of His town. Oh, they believed they were doing the morally, ethically, religiously right thing, the thing God would want them to do! But from that day forward, while Jesus visited many towns and cities over the next three years of His earthly life and ministry, Capernaum became His primary town and rarely if ever did Jesus return to Nazareth again.
Now let’s ponder that for a moment my friends. Is it possible your mind or mine is unwilling to accept something new God might be doing in our towns, in our day? Do you remember this from Isaiah “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you!” (Is. 42:9)
Are we ready for God to do some new things this Christmas my friends? Here’s a wonderful Christmas song that invites us to look closely and consider how ready we are to participate with God in what HE is doing in our world this Christmas season 2024 and in the new year ahead of us. . .
Today’s Scripture: Luke 2:41-52; 4:14-30.
Choose below to read or listen.
Luke 2:41-52
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Luke 4:14-30
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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