During the Christmas Season I (Nathan) was reading through some of the familiar “Christmas” passages in Scripture. Matthew 2:23 says, “...He shall be called a Nazarene.” The Lord immediately connected this “title” of Jesus to the other “Christmas” title’s assigned to Him in Isaiah 9:6, “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

But the question that I began to think was, “Why was it so important for Him to carry this title of Nazarene?”  As I continued to study through this thought the Lord led me to two key Old Testament Prophecies concerning the Messiah. 1) Psalm 22:6, “But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.” and 2) Isaiah 53:3, “He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

To be a “Nazarene” meant that you would be considered a worm, no man, a reproach, despised, rejected, sorrowful, grieved, not seen by others, not esteemed, etc. In fact, Nazareth was a place of such obscurity that there is not even one Old Testament record of it existing at that time. Nazarene’s were so looked down on it caused Nathanael to ask in John 1:46, “... “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

The answer to that question is resounding, “YES!” In fact, literally the BEST thing in all of history came out of Nazareth...Jesus Christ...the Messiah...the Savior of the World! So why is it important that Jesus was to not only be “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” but also to “...be called a Nazarene.”?  It’s because it’s meant to be a reminder to us that out of our places of being considered a worm and despised, feelings of rejection, being filled with sorrow and grief, not being seen or esteemed by others, and places of obscurity that SOMETHING GOOD IS GOING TO COME FROM THIS.

If Jesus, the very best thing, could come from Nazareth then we can trust Him to always bring something good from whatever we are going through or whatever situation we are dealing with. We might not understand and even question the Lord at times, but we can remind ourselves that “something good is going to come from this!”