Jesus of Nazareth (it's important)

This morning I have been reading through the different accounts of Jesus visit back to Nazareth after He began His ministry. These can be found in Luke 4, Mark 6 and Matthew 13. To summarize, Jesus goes back home and teaches in the synagogue and although the people are amazed at His wisdom and authority, they ultimately cannot accept Him, and even become offended at Him. He declares that no prophet is ever accepted in His hometown, and afterwards leaves and we don't really ever hear of Nazareth again.

What I find interesting is that Jesus is then identified as Jesus of Nazareth, really throughout His ministry, even when He confronts Paul on his way to Damascus. Clearly the identification by location of hometown was one of the ways the people differentiated people with the same name, and there was more than one Jesus in the history of the Jews. The reason I find this interesting is that Jesus names Himself the Nazarene, and yet this is the one place He really didn't do any miracles. This is the one place where Jesus lived the majority of His life hidden from view, living a purely human existence as the son of a carpenter. I like this because it is clear that Jesus never lost sight of who He was or where He came from. He was the greatest man whoever live, yet He chose to refer to Himself as from Nazareth.

Although He was the Son of God, He claimed and named Himself as coming from Nazareth, never letting us forget His humanness. This is so different than many of the 'important people' we see today who change their names and almost try to obscure their pasts as normal people. Many famous entertainers go to great lengths to distance themselves from their normalcy. Many of the great leaders of history tried to create stories of their uniqueness as evidenced by their unusual childhoods, trying to get people to believe they were somehow different than everyone else. Jesus, although there are stories of a unique birth, always pointed back to Nazareth, for even demons called Him that name. He was and is unwilling to let us forget His humanness, His years of quiet living as a carpenter's son.

Thus, this must be an important point, and one we should think on. His incarnation, His humanness is essential to our salvation, and also to our ability to follow in His footsteps. The whole idea behind WWJD (What would Jesus do?) is to identify what He would do, and then do the same thing. We are called to "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons." (Matt 10:8) if we believe He only did these things because of His divinity than we will never even try. However, if we believe that He was doing these things as a human, through the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him, than we can do the same things, for that is our operational mode. Jesus referred to this exactly when talking about the miracles and belief in John 14:11-12, and uses this idea to launch into the gift of the Holy Spirit, and His role in our lives (John 15-16). It is clear that Jesus fully expected His followers to walk in His footsteps and minister the way He ministered. We can only do that if He ministered as a human, emptying Himself of His divinity (Phil 2:6-8).

One other thought, the fact that He could do limited miracles in Nazareth also points to His humanness. If He was operating out of His divinity, the culture of faith or unbelief would have no effect on Him or His abilities. Yet, scripture clearly says He was limited in what He could do there, because of their lack of faith.

So, the fact that He is named the Nazarene, and He calls Himself that name is really important, for it is directly related to His incarnation. Jesus was truly God and truly man. We, as His followers, can operate as He did because He was operating as purely a man during His ministry prior to His death. Let us proudly follow Jesus of Nazareth, and let us follow His example and never forget where we came from, and our own humanity.