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The Return to Nazareth
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 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.
Observations
1) There is no verse in the OT that says the messiah will be "called a Nazarene."
Possible solutions:
a) One must understand that our standard for quotation and the ancient world standard for quotation are completely different. There are no quotation marks in Greek. In a primarily oral culture it is more about getting the general sense of what is said, as opposed to a high def. digital age, that expects exact words. This does no make the words less true. A impressionistic painting is not less true than a photograph. (In this case the beauty is seen by observing an obscure reference to living in an obscure place).
b) The word for "branch" and the word for "Nazarene" are pretty close, and thus Matthew may be referring the many references by the OT prophets that the Messiah would be a branch from the tree of David.
c) In Matthew's day, the town of Nazareth had a very bad reputation, as a town with low moral standards. So to be from Nazareth was to be despised. There are several occasions in the OT where the messiah is said to be hated by men. In this case, Matthew may simply be saying that just like the prophets of old said, Jesus would grow up despised by men.
2) The broader context of chpt 2. We are missing the broader context in the five verses we are looking at today, and I think it is important to see what is going on. In the telling of this story, there are three characters in this episode. The wise men play one role, Herod and his son play a second role, and the young child, Jesus plays the third.
a) The wise men - they are the gentile seekers that go looking and eventually find the child, and worship him.
b) The King (Herod/his son) is the unrepentant hard hearted sinner. He is given the opportunity of a million life times, to go see the Messiah and to worship with the wise men. He is even able to give good information to the men as to where to find the Messiah. He gets that information from a whole room full of seminary professors. But all of them sit on their butts rather than going to worship the true King. And to be very honest, this is the picture of sin, original sin. Soaked into our bones, undeniable, bound for Hell, SIN. And there is no cure. Or I should say there was no cure, until Jesus.
c) The final character in this episode is Jesus. He is about 2 when they leave for Egypt, and he is an elementary school kid when they return from Egypt. In this story he is beginning his mission. He is doing what must be done in order to ascend to David's throne. In his trip to Egypt and back he is reliving the exile of the children of Abraham in Egypt. He has assumed his role. And he will play it perfectly. Complete obedience, complete submission to the will of his Father. In these final verses of Chpt 2, Jesus travels into obscurity. Joseph does not take him to the temple. The family does not travel to Rome. There is no indication that Jesus travels to America to teach Native Americans about the Great Spirit. No, he is raised in a small town, a town so little, when the historians of the day made maps, they often did not include it in the list.
d) Significance of this triad. The wise men seek the child. Herod at first ignores the child, then tries to kill the child. And Jesus, makes his way in OBSCURITY through our world on a singular mission to save the world. And as he does we have a choice. Will we respond as the Wise men or as Herod?
3) I think it is important to see how Joseph makes decisions.
a) He is told in a dream to go home, and he does.
b) He gets to Israel, looks a the facts, finds out who is in power and decides not to go back to Bethlehem.
c) His observations are confirmed by a dream, which he again obeys and moves his family to Nazareth.
d) Joseph's decision is later confirmed by Matthew's book to be the will of God, as proclaimed by the prophets.
4) How does this relate to the Vision Sunday at the EDGE. I would say it all relates. I wish I could say I planned this. I did not. But lets move backwards through our thoughts today.
a) We like Joseph must make decisions based on God's revelation and our observation of the facts.
b) We must tell the story of chpt 2 over and over again...When the child appears, our hearts are exposed. God is looking for Magi, and he will judge Herod. We must chose to worship Jesus, and to obediently do the will of God - regardless of the outcome.
c) A Nazarene? A Nazarene? Are we as a church willing to become Nazarenes? What does that mean? Well, what did it mean? To become despised by men. To set out of the lime light. To live among the least of these, in order to show God's radical love in radical ways? Are we willing to become obscure?
Mark Kraakevik
The EDGE Colorado - Live The Message
720-308-4051
www.theedgecolorado.org
To live is Christ, to die is gain.
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