“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip (John 1:46 NIV).
I do not know why Nathanael was so negative about Nazareth.
I do know Nazareth was the hometown of Jesus.
Second, I do know many people in Nazareth were cruel to Jesus after He started His ministry.
Third, I do know that even after a murder attempt, Jesus returned to his hometown to offer blessings.
Fourth, I do know that Jesus offered all people in His hometown the ultimate blessing of eternal life!
First, the Bible clearly reveals that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Then after a short stint in Egypt as a baby, Jesus grew up in Nazareth. Nazareth was where He carried out a career as a carpenter, probably in His teens and twenties. Soon after Jesus started His ministry, He moved to Capernaum, another town in the region of Galilee. Now a hometown was important in that culture. Not having last names, outside of His hometown, Jesus was called “Jesus of Nazareth.”
Second, the ministry of Jesus started when He was about thirty years of age, as is revealed in Luke 3:23, beginning with His baptism by John the Baptist. Soon thereafter, Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth, where He attended a synagogue service.
The outcome: Many people tried to throw Him off of a cliff. Seriously. This is recorded in Luke 4:28-30. Jesus had offended them with His statements in the synagogue, so they tried to murder Him. Yet Jesus simply “walked right through the crowd,” thus He remained unharmed.
Third comes an incredible act of compassion and courage by Jesus! Sometime after the murder attempt, Jesus returned to Nazareth.
Indeed a second effort of doing ministry work in Nazareth is recorded in both Matthew 13:53-58 and Mark 6:1-6.
(Matthew 13 and Mark 6 record the same event, yet that event was after the incident recorded in Luke 4. For example, the cliff incident took place before Jesus healed the paralyzed man who had been lowered into the room where Jesus was teaching after his friends ripped through the roof. And it took place before the death of Jairus’ daughter, and the subsequent miracle by Jesus to resurrect the girl from the dead. Yet Jesus’ return to Nazareth was after those two events.)
Jesus was extraordinary. Rather than responding with anger to the Nazarenes who tried to murder him out of anger, Jesus obviously forgave, and He returned on a second occasion to do more ministry work.
Now this is no fairy tale. Luke does not tell an account of Jesus returning to His hometown to encounter a reunion where people showered Him with apologies and hugs. Rather look what happened when Jesus returned:
Matthew 13:54(a) Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed.
Mark 6:2(a) When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
HOWEVER:
Matthew 13:58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Mark 6:5-6 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
After Jesus returned to His hometown, there was not a bounty of fruit, because people stifled themselves. Yet Jesus healed a few people. The more I think about it, the more I realize how incredible His return was.
Fourth, people of Nazareth had the offer of eternal life, just like the rest of us.
The ultimate mission of Jesus was the ultimate act of love offered for all people which Jesus carried out at Golgotha. Jesus died on a cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone. His sacrificial atonement on the cross was not limited by time or space. Jesus died for all people who had lived since the beginning of creation, and Jesus died for all people until the end of the age. All people of all time had, have, or will have the opportunity to accept or reject Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Thus His atoning death included each and every person in His hometown of Nazareth in that very day and age. Jesus even died for the people who tried to throw Him off of a cliff.
Any person in Nazareth who believed in Jesus after Jesus suffered as the Lamb of God on the cross, was saved by Jesus, and is now in heaven for all eternity.
Jesus loves everyone. Jesus loves you and me! Jesus loved folks from His hometown, even though some were cruel to Him.
Have you ever been treated so badly by a person or a group of people in a community that you said, “I am never going back there again!”? I have. Now we followers of Jesus are supposed to “turn the other cheek,” which definitely entails not going for personal revenge. On the other hand, when a person is being consistently abusive, we can leave! There is a vast range of abusive situations, including verbal abuse, or what is sometimes termed mental abuse. How can a person know whether they should leave? Discernment from God is needed, and God can use certain people who love you, or who are counseling professionals, to give keen insight.
Many years ago, in my home church, somebody said something so mean that I left that church and I said I was never going to return. A few months later, I had a gentle urge to return. One Sunday morning, I sat in my car not wanting to get out. Getting out to walk to the entrance of that church was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The outcome? People truly welcomed me back, and I carried on with unique ministry work at that church for another long stretch.
On another occasion years later, in a completely different church, I was treated so badly by someone that I was terribly hurt inside. And no apology ever came. I will probably never go back, and I remain thankful to God for enabling me to simply “walk away” in my heart, and to forgive. And God used that ordeal for something good, which is a long story.
Whatever God guides us to do, we are always called by Christ to forgive. Rather than harboring anger in our hearts whether or not we physically move on, we need to rely on Christ to forgive those who were mean to us. Forgiving brings healing, and then you and I can get back to doing the work Jesus has called us to do.
I am a fan of two people from Nazareth in this day and age who carry out ministry work for Jesus. Sergio and Rhoda are Internet stars due to their videos which educate people about many biblical and interesting sites in the region of Israel.
The ethnicity of Sergio is Jewish. The ethnicity of Rhoda is Arab. What is the spiritual bond between those two? They both follow Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Meeting in a Christian community in Nazareth, they soon fell in love with each other, and then they were married. Those two proud citizens of Nazareth are witnessing the love of Jesus to millions of people worldwide, about two-thousand years after Jesus found few people of faith in Nazareth.
Back to Nathanael’s response criticizing Nazareth, Philip remained calm, cool, and collected. A hometown was not Philip’s primary concern. His focus was on the person of Jesus Christ.
Philip simply said, “Come and see.”
Nathanael did.
Hunter Irvine
Scripture Love Blog
