The Currency of the Kingdom
Mt 2:19-23 - The Return to Nazareth
Two aspects of inquiry this week: one textual and one moral/personal.
First the textual:
The Nazarene prophecy is puzzling. Jesus went and lived in Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled.
While Matthew’s three prior fulfillment quotes referred to a specific prophet (in the singular), this fourth one refers to the prophets (in the plural). Why the shift?
As this is not a direct quotation from any Old Testament prophecy or any extant source, Matthew is not referring to one single prophetic text, but rather to a larger theme across the prophetic tradition of the messianic branch.
In Hebrew, the name Nazareth is thought to be derived from “netzer” - “branch” or “shoot.” Or “natsar” - to watch, guard, or keep.
Remember Adam was charged with “tilling and keeping” the garden, and Isaiah prophesied that from the stump of Jesse (David’s father) “shall come forth a shoot…and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (Is 11:1).
This future Davidic king would save his people (Jer 23:5-6; 33:14-16; Zech 3:8; 6:11-13), establish a worldwide kingdom and reunite the divided peoples of the earth (Is 11:9-11).
Within that bigger context, now the moral/personal.
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Why does Jesus grow up in a seemingly insignificant town in a rural, agricultural part of northern Israel? To note, its population at the time was likely between 300-500 people. No wonder Nathan asked: can anything good come from Nazareth? (Jn 1:46)
To draw a contemporary comparison, Nazareth - for me - is reminiscent of the fly over states. And I grew up in the Midwest, so I’ve got a lot of pride for them.
There’s a general coastal bias that these places are seemingly “forgettable” and “unimportant.” They lack the innovation and cultural vibrancy that’s present on the coasts (NYC, DC, and LA for example). After all, can anything relevant come from the flyover states?
Nazareth - a town with 300-500 people? Really? Even compared to where I grew up, that’s tiny. Why there?
I think the lesson is humility.
Jesus took on a human nature in its weakest form (as a child) and came of age in a seemingly insignificant and irrelevant place because humility is the currency of His Kingdom.
And humiliating experiences force us to confront our sinful selves all the way down to our interior depths.
Can you imagine how flabbergasted folks were when they found out from their friends or acquaintances that the man they think is the Messiah is from Nazareth?
Would you believe it if someone told you, “I think I’ve met the Savior. He's from [insert some extremely small town you may or may not have heard of & that you’ve never cared about.]”
How easily could we identify with such “irrelevance”? It’s a tough sell.
But He’s always up to things we don’t expect, and His humility must be the stuff of the soil in which we plant our identity every day.
Onward & upward,
Ted
A Book Worth Reading
In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s… Most important, he issues a clear call to action, diagnosing the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.
For more content, check out my latest piece on Substack - “Netflix and Scroll: On Scrolling & Reclaiming Your Attention”
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