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Matthew 2:19-23 (Return to Nazareth)

INTRODUCTION: Even though Advent and Christmas are over, we still have one passage left in our Christmas story from Matthew. When we last left Joseph and Mary, they were still living in Egypt awaiting further instructions. King Herod had tried to kill Jesus, but Joseph and Mary were to stay in Egypt until God told them otherwise.

So, there they were, living in Egypt, waiting for a fresh word from the Lord. Maybe that’s you today. Maybe you’re waiting for a fresh word from God. I pray God has that for you, even in this very message. So, it’s time to listen and give our hearts and attention to the word of God to see what God may be speaking to us today. (Read verses 19-23 and pray.)

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This final passage in Matthew 2 is crucial to understanding what happened to Jesus after his birth. Remember, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a star in the sky for all to see. Magi from the east came to worship him. Herod wanted to kill him. All of Jerusalem knew that he had been born. This child was a celebrity! Surely with such miraculous and tumultuous beginnings, Jesus was destined to grow up famous.

But God had other plans. Jesus grew up living a normal, human life out of the spotlight, away from the public eye. And it is fascinating to see how God moves Jesus around here in this second chapter of Matthew.

Matthew chapter one was all about people. We had the long list of names in the genealogy, and then the focus moved to Joseph and Mary as Jesus’ parents. Matthew chapter one focused on people, but Matthew chapter two focuses on places. Look at all the place names listed throughout the chapter. We have Jesus born in Bethlehem, Magi coming from the east, King Herod ruling in Jerusalem, Rachel weeping in Ramah, and Joseph and Mary escaping to Egypt.

Matthew chapter one was all about Jesus’ place in history—he is the son of David and the son of Abraham. Matthew chapter two is all about Jesus’ place on the map—he was born in Bethlehem, exiled to Egypt but then raised in Nazareth. And so, we move from genealogy in chapter one to geography in chapter two.

Each of these places has great biblical meaning. Bethlehem was the birthplace of the Messiah. Egypt was the place of slavery and bondage. So, what about Nazareth? What meaning did Nazareth hold for Jesus? That’s what today’s message is all about.

I. Called to Israel (19-21)

We begin with Joseph and his family being called back to Israel. Look at verses 19-21:

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 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.” So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. (Matt. 2:19-21)

   A. Directed by another dream (Matthew 1:20, 2:13)

Notice that God intervened once again. Joseph is directed by another dream. This is now the third time God has spoken to Joseph in a dream. The first time God told him to take Mary home as his wife. The second time God told him to take Mary and the child to Egypt. This time God tells him to go back to Israel because those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.

Joseph responds the third time the same way he did the first two times. He does exactly what God tells him. He responds with simple, direct, and immediate obedience. There is no doubting, no dragging his feet, no delays. Joseph is a man under orders. He has been given the charge and protection of God’s only Son, and so he does what God tells him, and he goes where God sends him. As we said in an earlier message, Joseph is a wonderful example of obedience for us to follow.

What is important to realize here is that Jesus’ movements as a child were not random. They were directed by God every step of the way. Jesus’ path was not charted by his earthly parents but by his Father in heaven. There is a meaning to all these movements.

   B. Out of Egypt and into the Promised Land (Romans 8:21; Galatians 5:1)

Part of that meaning practically jumps out of the passage at this point. Jesus is called out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Does that sound familiar to you? It should! Just like the nation of Israel was called out of Egypt and brought into the land of Israel, so now Jesus is called out of Egypt and brought into the land of Israel. Jesus is fulfilling all that Israel was meant to fulfill. But where Israel failed God in many ways, Jesus will succeed in every way.

There is a spiritual truth for us here as well. In the Bible Egypt is the place of bondage and slavery, whereas Israel is the land of promise. You and I were never meant to live in Egypt. When you became a Christian, God called you out of slavery to sin and brought you into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom. 8:21).

Have you been living in Egypt lately? Have you been living in bondage and slavery to sin? The good news is you don’t have to. God calls you out of Egypt into the wonderful promises of the gospel through Jesus his Son. I love the way Paul puts it in Galatians: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).

II. Raised in Nazareth (22-23a)

So then, where exactly did Joseph bring his family when they returned to Israel? Did he go back to Bethlehem where Jesus was born? Did he settle in Jerusalem where Jesus could make a name for himself? No, he went back to Galilee to his hometown of Nazareth. Look at verses 22-23:

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, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. (Matt. 2:22-23a)

   A. New danger: Archelaus instead of Herod

Herod was dead and gone, but there was a new danger, and his name was Archelaus. Archelaus was Herod’s son, and he was just as bad if not worse than his father. He was just as cruel as Herod. In fact, he had three thousand Jews executed on Passover of all days soon after he took power. But unlike his father, Archelaus was completely incompetent. In fact, he was so bad a ruler, that when the Jews sent a delegation to Rome asking for him to be removed, Rome actually listened! Archelaus only reigned two years before the emperor removed him from power.

But when Joseph arrived back in Israel with his family, Archelaus was still in power. Joseph was afraid to go to Judea, that is, the area of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. So where to go?

   B. Directed by a fourth dream

At this point God directed Joseph with a fourth dream. We’re not told the exact content of the dream, simply that it was in the form of a warning, and we see Joseph’s response to the dream. He moved his family to Nazareth.

Nazareth was Joseph and Mary’s hometown, so perhaps God simply told Joseph, “You can go home now!” Either way, the geographical maneuverings are complete, and Jesus is now in Nazareth as directed by God. Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth from Bethlehem by way of Egypt. They took the long way home!

   C. Settled in Nazareth (John 1:46)

Now, we said that each of these places associated with Christ had an important Biblical meaning. Jerusalem was the center of worship and power. Bethlehem was the birthplace of the Messiah. Egypt was the place of bondage and slavery. Israel was the land of promise. So, what was Nazareth?

Nazareth was … nothing! It is not even mentioned in the Old Testament. It is a tiny town located in the hills of Galilee about eighty miles north of Jerusalem. No one important ever came from Nazareth. No great events ever took place there. No great buildings adorned its landscape. There was no downtown Nazareth. Nazareth was Nowheresville. It was the Sticksville of its time. It was poor people living in poor surroundings surrounded by poor circumstances. And it is exactly where God chose for Jesus to be raised.

Nazareth represented three things in Jesus’ life: humility, obscurity and contempt. First of all, humility. Jesus was born in humble surroundings, and he was raised in humble surroundings. Of course, he was also born King of the Jews! He should have been raised in a palace in Jerusalem, but instead he was raised in the humble town of Nazareth. Jesus was raised in humility.

Secondly, being raised in Nazareth meant obscurity for Jesus. Jesus had a high-profile birth in Bethlehem, but he lived a low-profile life in Nazareth. For thirty years Jesus would labor in obscurity as the son of a lowly carpenter. For thirty years the Son of God who created the universe would work and eat and play in a small town in the corner of nowhere. Jesus was raised in obscurity.

Thirdly, being raised in Nazareth meant contempt for Jesus. When Jesus began his public ministry and people found out he was from Nazareth, they were not impressed. Trust me, you did not want Nazareth on your resume. When Philip told Nathanael he had found Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael responded with utter contempt: “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46). Jesus was raised in a place that meant humility, obscurity and contempt.

III. Called a Nazarene (23b)

So why did God do this? Why did God choose Nazareth for Jesus’ hometown? We find the answer in the second half of verse 23:

So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.” (Matt.2:23b)

What was God’s purpose in all this? It was to fulfill Scripture. This was God’s plan. It was God’s design.

   A. He will be called a Nazarene (John 19:19; Acts 4:10, 22:8)

The prophets said: “He will be called a Nazarene.” And he was. Throughout his life he was not known as Jesus of Bethlehem or Jesus of Jerusalem but rather Jesus of Nazareth.

When Jesus died on the cross, Pilate put up a sign saying: “Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews” (John 19:19). When Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, the apostles continued to preach him as Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and raised from the dead (Acts 4:10). When Jesus spoke to Paul from heaven, he even took the name upon his own lips when he said: “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 22:8).

So, Jesus was most certainly called a Nazarene. He was identified with Nazareth in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. He would forever be associated with Nazareth.

   B. Foretold by the prophets (Judges 13:5; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5; Isaiah 53:2-3)

The question now becomes: where was this foretold by the prophets? We said earlier that the town of Nazareth is not even mentioned in the Old Testament. This particular phrase—“He will be called a Nazarene”—doesn’t appear in the Old Testament either. So what prophecy is Matthew referring to?

Some people say perhaps this was an unwritten prophecy that had been passed down verbally through the ages. Possibly, but we don’t have any record of that. Besides, Matthew always seeks to ground the life of Jesus in Scripture. So I believe Matthew is pointing us to Scripture here.

However, Matthew does do something different with this prophecy compared to other prophecies that he quotes. Usually when he quotes the Old Testament, he says, “This was to fulfill what the prophet said,” where he uses the singular word “prophet.” Sometimes he even names the prophet, such as: “This is what the prophet Isaiah said.”

But here the reference is much more general: “So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets.” He uses the plural word “prophets” instead of the singular. This would indicate Matthew is not thinking so much of one specific prophecy in Scripture. Rather, he is thinking of a more general revelation about Jesus that can be found in a number of prophecies from the Old Testament.

So, what were these prophecies? Some people point to the similarity between the words “Nazareth” and “Nazirite” and see in these words a fulfillment of the word originally spoken to Samson’s mother in the book of Judges: “You will conceive and give birth to a son…. The boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judg. 13:5). Although Jesus was not a Nazirite like Samson, he was certainly set apart to God from birth, and he worked a much greater deliverance than Samson.

Others see a similarity between the word “Nazareth” and the Hebrew word for “sprout” or “branch” (netser). Matthew may have been thinking about those prophecies which speak of the Messiah as a Branch. There are six of these prophecies in the Old Testament—two in Isaiah, two in Jeremiah, and two in Zechariah (Isa. 4:2, 11:1; Jer. 23:5, 33:15; Zech. 3:8, 6:13).

Let me share just two of them with you here. First from Isaiah: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch [or netser] will bear fruit” (Isa. 11:1). And then from Jeremiah: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch [or netser], a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land” (Jer. 23:5).

Finally, there are those prophecies that speak of Jesus coming quietly and humbly. I think of Zechariah’s prophecy about the Messiah: “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey” (Zech. 9:9). Or there is Isaiah’s prophecy of the suffering servant which speaks not only of humility but also of derision and contempt: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isa. 53:2-3).

You put all of these prophecies together, and what do they tell us? 1) That the Messiah would come humbly and quietly; 2) that like a branch or a shoot out of dry ground there would be nothing remarkable about him to draw our attention to him; 3) that we would treat him with contempt, as if he were less than nothing. In other words, we would treat him exactly like someone who came from the dirt town of Nazareth.

   C. Jesus came not only to be with us but to become like us (Matthew 1:23, 2:23)

The beautiful truth we learn from these verses is that Jesus came not only to be with us but to become like us. There are two prophetic names given to Jesus here in the opening chapters of Matthew. The first is given at the end of chapter one, and the second is given at the end of chapter two. At the end of chapter one Jesus is called Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). At the end of chapter two he is called a Nazarene, which shows he has become “one like us” (Matt. 2:23).

“God with us” is a beautiful truth, but God can be with us and still be separate from us. Let me give you an example. God was with Israel in the wilderness, but he was not like Israel. He was highly exalted in the flame and the cloud, and he dwelt in the tabernacle apart from men.

The beautiful truth of the Nazarene passage is that God is not only with us, but he became like us. He became one of us. Jesus was God in the flesh. He was God undercover, God incognito. There was nothing about Jesus’ physical appearance that might signal to us that he was God. There was no shimmering halo, no other-worldly glow. His feet walked in the dust; his hands gathered blisters.

He was an ordinary person like you and me. He was raised in an ordinary town. He lived an ordinary life, far from the power center of Jerusalem, far from his birthplace in Bethlehem. He lived in obscurity. He was not known as Jesus of Bethlehem, which would have had Messianic implications, but rather as Jesus of Nazareth, a term filled with contempt. He made himself nothing and became a servant for us. He was a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering. He who was born a King was raised a Nazarene.

Jesus lived in humility, and he died in humility. He humbled himself and become obedient to death, even death on a cross. The meaning of the Nazarene passage is that Jesus became a nobody so you could be somebody. Jesus became like us so we could become like him. He made himself of no reputation, so that you could be known as a child of God—holy and righteous, destined for glory.

This is the capstone of the Christmas story. Jesus was a Nazarene! He lived in humility, he was raised in obscurity, he suffered contempt—all so that we could be brought into the family of God. What a wonderful Savior!

CONCLUSION: I can think of no better way to end this message than by sharing with you a poem about Jesus called “One Solitary Life,” which was adapted from a message by Dr James Allan Francis back in 1926. Perhaps you’ve heard it before. (Note: I’ve updated the phrase “nineteen centuries” in the poem to “twenty centuries” since a hundred years have passed since the poem first was written.)

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty and then for three years was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book; he never held an office; he never owned a home.
He never had a family; he never went to college; he never visited a big city.
He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born.
He did none of the things usually associated with greatness; he had no credentials but himself.

While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him.
His friends ran away; one of them denied him; another betrayed him.
He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.
When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

[Twenty] centuries have come and gone, and today Jesus is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress.
All the armies that have ever marched; all the navies that have ever sailed;
All the parliaments that have ever sat; all the kings that ever reigned,
Put together, have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life.

So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.” Thank God for Jesus the Nazarene—who became like you, so you could become like him.

© Ray Fowler

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