SOME readers and interpreters of Scripture seem to have confounded the word Nazarene with the word Nazarite. This is a mistake. It is written:
These words show that a Nazarene was one who dwelt in a city called Nazareth. If Jesus must be called a Nazarene, it was necessary that He should be “Jesus of Nazareth.” The providence of God, therefore, with a view to the fulfillment of prophecy, led Joseph, the reputed father of Jesus, to take up his abode in Nazareth when returning from Egypt after the death of Herod.
But a Nazarite was not necessarily an inhabitant of Nazareth. A Nazarite was a Jew of either sex, and from any quarter in the land, who bound himself by a vow of special separation to God. (See Numbers 6.)
But there was no particular prophecy, so far as we know, which foretold literally in so many words that Jesus should be called a Nazarene. In Matthew 2:2323And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:23) no particular prophet is named, but it may be gathered that the prophets in general predict the Nazarene character of Jesus. For a Nazarene was a despised person. It is necessary to understand the force of the word Nazarene, as it was used in the Saviour’s day in order to see the full force of the teaching of the prophets on the subject.
We read that―
“Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:45, 4645Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 46And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. (John 1:45‑46)).
Nathanael’s question to Philip shows the disrepute in which Nazareth and the people of that place were held. It was a Galilean town, and this of itself was enough to lead the inhabitants of Judea to look upon it with contempt. But Nathanael himself, who asked the reproachful question, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” was a Galilean, and therefore Nazareth must have been laboring under some special opprobrium in Galilee itself, even to being the most despised town of a despised province.
But it seemed good in the wisdom of God that our Lord should come to be regarded as a native of this much-despised place.
In Acts 24:55For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: (Acts 24:5) Christians are called “the sect of the Nazarenes,” a term, surely, of great reproach, but none the less it was as Jesus of Nazareth, or as Jesus the Nazarene, that our Lord first revealed Himself to Saul of Tarsus as he was nearing Damascus (Acts 22:2626When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. (Acts 22:26)). It is plain that our Lord came to be called a Nazarene, that He was much despised in consequence, and that His followers inherited the opprobrious title, and therefore the consequent place of dishonor. The force of the teaching of the prophets as to this seems to be that they foretold in a general way that Christ should be a sufferer, that He should be lowly and despised, “without form or comeliness,” “a root out of a dry ground,” and, as we know He became, “of no reputation.” These humble features of Christ’s character are spoken of by more than one of the prophets, and the despised name of a Nazarene appears to be chosen by the Holy Spirit to describe them. It was fitting that the lowly Jesus should be associated with the lowly city called Nazareth. He was entitled, of course, to claim the most elevated places and positions of human greatness, but He did not so choose.
When our Lord was born, David’s royal line was in a very reduced condition, and at His incarnation Joseph and Mary were in very reduced circumstances compared with many of their ancestors, including David and Solomon. Nothing is more manifest than their poverty, and it was at this stage that Jesus came in flesh. Humanly speaking, our Lord was exposed to poverty all His life. “He became poor.” The enemy, though without avail, sought to turn Him aside from this lowly condition in which He was found by offering to Him, on condition of disobedience to God, the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them.
But any other condition than that of poverty would have been unsuited to the doctrines that Christ taught. As it was, His own earthly position was perfectly consistent with the demand He made upon the young ruler to go and sell all that He had and give to the poor, and also with the charge to the disciples to sell what they had and give alms. This teaching was consistent with the lowly, despised Nazarene life He led, but it would not have been in harmony with a place of wealth and reputation in the world.
By becoming a Nazarene our Lord came into circumstances of life which peculiarly fitted Him to be at the head of a dispensation specially characteristic of suffering. In this He became a pattern for all Christians, and no one of His followers has departed from the pattern without suffering loss in His own soul. The result of becoming rich and increased with goods, of leaving the despised Nazarene position for one of social standing in this world, is very often blindness, suffering, and misery.
The apostle Paul maintained the despised position to the last, and by his writings, inspired as they are by the Holy Spirit, he sets forth the lowly path of suffering and shame for all Christians in every age.
When Jesus perceived that men were coming to take Him by force and make Him a king, He departed again into a mountain alone. The kingly position in an earthly way was not at that time the will of God for our Lord. It did not correspond with the purpose of God, which was that Jesus should die at Jerusalem for sinful men. Man would arrange that He should be a prophet and then a king, but God’s way was that He should be a prophet, next a priest, and afterward a king. But if a priest, then He must die. He could only be a priest by offering up Himself. It was thus that He pursued the pathway of separation from the world. He knew nothing, and would share in nothing, of its glory, greatness, and renown. “He was despised and rejected of men.” From of old it had been foretold, if not in so many words, yet according to the spirit of the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
The whole tenor of New Testament teaching brings the Christian into the same position.
The fact that Jesus chose in His incarnation to be named after a despised place like Nazareth, shows the low estimate that God forms of all earthly greatness in its present lost and unredeemed condition, and at times God sets over the kingdom of men the basest among them. Man was lost. Men were all sinners. They all needed to be reconciled to God. They might have great reputation among their fellows, but what did that signify in the sight of God from whom they were alienated.
Jesus did not seek honor from men. He testified against the world that it was evil. His principles could be best enforced in the position of a Nazarene. He testified that a prophet had no honor in his own country, and on one occasion, to avoid the honor which was not of God he deliberately returned to Galilee (John 4:4343Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee. (John 4:43)).
Not many mighty, not many noble are called. But those called from the higher classes are called to be of the sect of the Nazarenes. The position and principle of true Christianity is Nazarene still. And this is so, not only in a heathen country, but also in the most favored parts of Christendom. Let the Christian bear witness for Christ in the drawing-room, in the ballroom, at the garden party, or in any place of worldly resort, and he will soon find that he is out of fashion. There is in this world a place for everything but Christ, but there is little or no place for Him. Men of the world still hate Him. His home-truths condemn their lives. His claims are too exacting for them, because they interfere too much with their pleasures.
It is the will of God that we should be despised as Christ was. Further, that we should be willing thus to be. And if we know that His place in heaven is and will be ours, we ought to know also that the place of the Nazarene on earth is our place now. Our enduring substance is in heaven. Knowing these things may keep us from many snares and hurtful lusts, while the poor, the weak, and the despised may learn that their own circumstances are not unlike those of their Lord Himself as a Man in this world.
T. H.