Born in Bethlehem, Called a Nazarene

Born in Bethlehem,  Called a Nazarene  

Isaiah 11:1; Micah 5:2-5; Matthew 2:23 (19-23)

When I was in high school, one of my best friend was Terry, the son of the pastor of the Southern Baptist Church in town. He played the piano very well, and with a couple other friends, we formed a quartet. Randy and I went to the Nazarene church, Doris attended a Missionary Baptist church, and Terry was the fourth. As a result of our interdenominational quartet, we learned to take each other with a bit of humor and used one another as the butt of religious jokes and puns. We told each other lightbulb jokes, like – how many Baptists does it take to change a lightbulb? None, my grandfather installed that bulb. How many charismatics does it take to change a lightbulb? Ten, one to change the bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness. How many Nazarenes does it take to change a lightbulb? Ten, one to change the bulb and nine to say how much they preferred the old bulb. How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb? One, to write a list of 95 things wrong with the light bulb and nail it to the door of a Catholic church. And there are dozens more.   

One of my favorites came when Terry’s dad proclaimed that John was a Baptist. Yes, I replied, but Jesus was a Nazarene. I heard that two little boys invited one another to church. The first was Catholic, so on the designated Sunday, the two boys went to Mass. The Catholic child explained to his friend the significance of every part of the service, what the priest was doing, why the people responded, and so forth. The next Sunday the two of them went to the Nazarene church. The Nazarene boy did as his Catholic friend had done, explaining the parts of the service. Then the pastor got up to preach, took off his watch and laid it on the pulpit. The Catholic boy asked, “What does that mean?” His Nazarene friend replied, “Not a thing.” It is good for us to laugh at ourselves. And I share this with you because Matthew engages in a bit of word-play in our text. It’s actually a bit of a pun, but we’ll get to that in a few moments.

My theme this Advent season is The Miracles of Christmas. Last week, we talked about how God worked through history to bring about the right conditions for the spread of the gospel, and what Paul meant when he wrote, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Ro 5:6). Today, Bethlehem and Nazareth, and the significance of the two towns.

Let’s take this a step at a time.

First, Bethlehem. The story of Bethlehem begins in the book of Ruth. Ruth begins with a man from Bethlehem in Judah, who, together with his wife and two sons, went to live in Moab during a time of famine. While there, the two sons marry, and then tragedy strikes the family. First, the father dies, and then the two sons die, leaving three widows: Naomi, Orphah, and Ruth. Naomi decides to return to her homeland, and bids her daughters-in-law good-bye. Orphah returns to her family, but Ruth declared her devotion to Naomi, to Naomi’s clan, and to Naomi’s God, and the two of them return to Bethlehem.   

We are then introduced to a wealthy landowner, another man of Bethlehem, who allows Ruth to glean from his fields. In fact, he rather takes a shine to the beautiful widow, and events transpire that, through the mechanism of levirate marriage, Boaz marries Ruth, having been a near relation to her husband. The two of them produce a son, Obed, who becomes the father of Jesse. Jesse, then, a rather prominent sheep rancher, has eight sons, the youngest of which is the rosey-cheeked, healthy and handsome David. David’s home and heritage is Bethlehem, and that town is his base of operations for the years to come, until he is made king.

David, of course, was the second king of Israel and the one who united the tribes into a single unified nation. He is the one who fought the enemies of Israel and ushered in the age of peace in which his son was to rule. Sadly, we know him mostly for his sin with Bathsheba and his moral failures. He was the singer of Israel and the author of most of the Psalms. But, to show how God can work even through our sin, it was his second child with Bathsheba, Solomon, who succeeded him as king and built the first temple. It was also his sin with Bathsheba that gave us the beautiful song of repentance that is Psalm 51. It should not be his sin that we remember, but the fact that, when confronted with his sin, his first response is repentance. The prophet Nathan called him to account and instead of making excuses, pleading ignorance or poor up-bringing, he recognized himself and his behavior and repented. He changed. And God promised that David would always have an heir on the throne of Judah. David then becomes for Israel the model of the Messiah, who would sit on David’s throne and restore the kingdom as David had united it at the start.   

And then Micah prophesies that the Messiah would not only come from David’s line, but would be born in David’s town. Listen: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be our peace ... (Micah 5:2-5).

Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy to show us that Jesus is descendant of David. Luke begins with the angelic announcements to both Elizabeth and Mary of their impending pregnancies. All of this, however, takes place in Nazareth, about 90 miles north of Bethlehem. Joseph’s family and Mary’s family all lived in Nazareth, and other than going to Jerusalem occasionally for the festivals, they had no reason to leave their home. They had no business that might take them to Bethlehem. They weren’t far from other villages and there was water, food, and all the resources they might need right there at home. But then ...

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ... And everyone when to their own town to register (Lk 2:1-3). Augustus had been emperor for 31 years, and this was the first such comprehensive census. Joseph, we are told, being a descendant of David, went to his ancestral town, Bethlehem, to register. For some odd reason, whether he needed taxes or wanted to know how many men he might draft for the army, Caesar Augustus ordered a census that required everyone across the empire to return to their homeland. So, Joseph with his pregnant fiancé, returned to Bethlehem, and while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.   

This first part of the miracle was some 1200 years in the making, beginning before the judge, Eli lived, and before Samuel was born. God brought a widow from Moab to a man in Bethlehem, and he became the great-grandfather to the king who became the model for and ancestor of the Messiah. But only by a “chance” imperial edict, did Joseph and Mary end up in Bethlehem.  

We know the story of the shepherds, and from the time frame in Matthew, we know that Joseph made a home in Bethlehem. They were living in a house when the Magi arrived, having been sent to Bethlehem by sages who knew the prophecies. But in defiance of Herod’s wishes, and responding to a dream, they avoided Jerusalem on their return home. Enraged by their betrayal, Herod ordered the murder of every male child under the age of two years old in the vicinity of Bethlehem. We know that Joseph also had a warning dream and escaped with his family in the nick of time, going to Egypt out of Herod’s reach. We know that Herod died shortly after the massacre and his son Archelaus succeeded him as king of Judea. After a short stay in Egypt, Joseph took his family back to Nazareth in Galilee and out of the province of Judea.   

But why Nazareth? What is the significance of Nazareth?

Nazareth was then a relatively minor village situated near the top of a cliff overlooking the Jezreel Valley. It is roughly halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean. We know something of it’s location from Luke, chapter 4. There Jesus goes to the synagogue, as was his custom (if it was Jesus custom, it ought also be ours), and stood to read a section from Isaiah.   

From Isaiah 61, Jesus read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” He closed the book, handed it back to the attendant, and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” His next words so enraged his neighbors that they took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff (Lk 4:29). Jesus declared himself to be the anointed one, the Messiah, and that he was the one they were waiting for. How dare he! So they tried to kill him.  

The name of the city derives from the Hebrew verb na-şar, meaning to guard, watch, or keep. Because of it’s location at the edge of Jezreel, the name may mean “watchtower”. But here is where Matthew engages in a bit of wordplay. You see, Hebrew doesn’t have vowels in the same way that our language does, but uses what are called “points” or “vowel points” to guide pronunciation and meaning. The Hebrew name for Nazareth is three consonants: nun, tsadhe, resh. Pronounced one way - nazar - it means “to guard.” Pronounced another way - nezer - it means “branch.” The consonants are the same, but the vowel points are different. Now, here’s why that is significant.   

Matthew ends his nativity account with these words: Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene (Mt. 2:22b-23).

Now, I looked through the whole Bible to find where the Messiah was to be called a “Nazarene,” and could not find it. And that’s where the wordplay comes. Matthew, an educated Jew, takes the Hebrew nşr, and instead of pronouncing it nazar pronounces it nezer. Instead of “watchtower,” “branch.” And we find Isaiah 11:1 – A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. And Jeremiah 23:5 – “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. And Jeremiah 33:15 – “‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.” And Zechariah 3:8 – “‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.” Finally, Zechariah 6:12 – Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord.’

The Messiah will be called “Branch”, a nezer. So, for Matthew, it is significant that Joseph returns to Nazareth, and the political machinations of the Herodians makes that a necessity. Herod the Great ruled Judea from 37-4 BC. He was a highly skilled administrator, but mentally unstable and cruel. Before he died, he heard a rumor that his favorite wife Mariamne and his son Antipater were discussing the line of succession. Paranoid that they were plotting to murder him, he had them both executed. When he died, his fifth son, Archelaus succeeded him. Archelaus inherited his father’s paranoia and cruelty but none of his skill. He made many enemies until Rome had enough of him and banished him to Gaul in AD 6. It would have been far too dangerous for Joseph to have returned to Bethlehem. So, he returned to his home and family in Nazareth.

I want to close on this note: Paul wrote that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him (Ro 8:28). God uses insane kings to fulfill his promises. God uses the whims of emperors to fulfill his promises. The miracles of Christmas show us clearly that God is at work in the rise and fall of nations, kingdoms, and empires. The miracles of Christmas show us just as clearly that God is at work in the church and in the individual lives of those who love him and long for his appearing. What seems bad at first glance may be the hand of God bringing some majestic good into your life. What I’m trying to tell you is that you can trust God. You can trust him in the storm. You can trust him in the night. You can trust God’s love for you, and you can trust that God is fulfilling his promises in you. You can be secure in the loving arms of God.