Can Anything Good Come from Nazareth?

Homily for Friday of the Second Week of the Christmas Season

“Can anything good come from Nazareth!” Philip runs to Nathaniel and exclaims:  "We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth." To this extraordinary claim, Nathaniel responds: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

At first glance, Nathaniel’s response seems to be prejudicial. However, if we look rather deeply into the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures, we can come to understand why Nathaniel makes this response.

The prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, Zechariah, – in fact, any prophet worth his salt – has spoken of the coming of the Messiah. In those prophecies, they look back to Moses who told the children of Israel, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren—him you shall heed." Pay attention to the phrase, “from among you.” Then, remember that the man that led the Israelites after the death of Moses was Joshua. The name Joshua or Yeshua is the same as the name Jesus. Moses seems to be saying that a man named Jesus would appear out of one of their tribes. We know from Isaiah that the Messiah will come from the stump of Jesse. We also know that Jeremiah said, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

Now this is where the whole story becomes interesting. Nazareth did not exist at the time of the prophets and certainly not at the time of Moses. Consequently, when Philip says that they have found the one prophesied by Moses, Nathaniel’s response is simply a nod to the fact that the prophets have said that the Messiah would come from among them. Because Nazareth was a relatively new community, it simply did not seem to fit into the messianic prophecies. And then like a thunderclap that shook his very soul, Nathaniel realized that the name “Nazareth” and the Hebrew word for “branch” (as in righteous branch) are one and the same. His mind is opened and he realizes that the Messiah was indeed supposed to come from Nazareth. Notice that Jesus says of Nathaniel, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” Jesus knew that Nathaniel would come to recognize him as the Messiah because he was that true Israelite.

Like Nathaniel, we also are invited to follow Jesus. These words, spoken by Jesus to many of the characters that populate the Christian Scriptures, are for all of us. Each one of us has been chosen by God to follow the righteous branch of the tribe of David.

Today is the feast day of St. John Neumann. His words remind us of the invitation that Jesus offers his disciples, for he once wrote: “Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing. We are not born at random.”