The Nazarene and the Sect of the Nazarenes

Charles Spurgeon

"And 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.

We find the Jews speaking of Paul, and they say, "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.

Thus it appears that our Lord and Master is called a Nazarene, and his disciples are styled "the sect of the Nazarenes," while Christian doctrine was called by the Jews, the heresy of the Nazarenes.

Our Savior, though actually born at Bethlehem, was commonly known as Jesus of Nazareth, because Nazareth was the place where he was brought up. There he remained with his reputed father in the carpenter's shop until the time of his showing unto the people. This Nazareth was a place very much despised. It was a small country town, and the people were rough and rustic. They were some three days' distance from Jerusalem, where I suppose the Jews thought that everything that was learned and polite could be found, as we are apt to think of our own city, or of Oxford, and Cambridge, and other seats of learning. The people of Nazareth were the boors of Galilee, the clowns of the country.

More than that, you will generally find in every nation — I was about to say in every county of our own country — some town made the butt of ridicule. I do not know that "silly Suffolk," is any sillier than any other part of the world; but I do know that I myself happen to have been born in the next parish to the town of Coggeshall, in Essex, concerning which all sorts of jokes are made; so that when any stupid thing is done, they call it "a Coggeshall job."

I merely mention this because it is an illustration of what used to be said concerning Nazareth. It was a primitive place. It was situated in Galilee, which was thought to be quite boorish enough, and Nazareth was the most rustic of all. The name signifies, in rough words, "sprouts," and the Jews, who were great at puns upon names, threw it as a jest at the people who came from that town. We Anglicize it in a more refined way by the word "branch;" for "Netzar," or "Nazareth," signifies a branch.

You will begin to understand why the Savior is said to be called by the prophet a Netzar, or a Nazarene, and you will guess that Matthew refers to the passage in Isaiah, in the eleventh chapter at the first verse, where it is said that a rod shall come out of the stem of Jesse, and "a Netzar, a Nazarene, a Branch shall grow out of his roots." There is another passage in Jeremiah where we read of the man, the branch — the Netzar — the Nazarene; and again in Isaiah, "And his name shall be called a branch," or Nazarene. Those are the passages, I think, to which Matthew referred when he said, "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Netzar, a branch, a Nazarene."

The Hebrews made a great deal out of names, a great deal more than you and I generally do with names of places in England, and they had reason for so doing, for there was generally a meaning in the names of places. Perhaps Nazareth was called "branch" because trees flourished there, and not much else; or because they thought that the people were rather verdant, and they therefore called them "sprouts" and "greens," making the same use of language as the vulgar do at this day when they wish to express contempt.

That may have been the origin of the term "Nazareth." Certain it is that the place was the subject of the jests of the Jews of our Lord's time; for even Nathanael, in whom was no guile, one who spoke in a simple hearted, honest way, and had no prejudices — but wished well to everybody, said, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" As if he felt that prophets and saints were by no means likely to spring from a town so low down in the scale of progress and education. How could he of whom Moses spoke, be found away down there among the country folk of Nazareth?

As Nazarene was a term of contempt in the olden times, so it has continued to be. The apostate emperor Julian was accustomed always to call our Lord the Galilean; and when he died, in his agony of death, he cried, "O Galilean, you have vanquished me." He was obliged to confess our Lord's supremacy, though he still showed his contempt by calling him the Galilean. The Jews to this day, when they feel angry against our Christ, are accustomed to call him the Nazarene.

Nazarene is not at all the same word as Nazarite. It is a different word in the Hebrew, and you must not confound the two. Never suppose that when You say, "He shall be called a Nazarene," that it signifies that he was called a Nazarite. Nazarite among the Jews would have been a title of honor — but Nazarene is simply a name of contempt. A recent traveler tells us that he had a Mohammedan guide through Palestine, and whenever they came to a village that was very dirty, poor, and inhabited by professed Christians, he always said, "These are not Moslems; they are netza," or "Nazarenes," throwing all the spite he possibly could into the word, as if he could not have uttered a more contemptuous term. To this day, then, our Lord has the name of the Nazarene affixed to him by those who reject him, and to this day Christians are called among Muhammadans, Nazarenes.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was never ashamed of this name: in fact, he called himself "Jesus of Nazareth" after he had risen from the dead. He told Paul when he smote him to the earth, "I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you persecute." His disciples were not ashamed to call him by that name; for as they walked to Emmaus, and he joined them, and asked them what they were speaking of, they said they were talking of Jesus of Nazareth. This is a name at which devils tremble, for they besought him, even Jesus of Nazareth, that they should not be sent into the deep when he cast them out. It was the name which in contempt was nailed above his head upon the cross, "Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews."

Oh — but it is a glorious name, as I shall have to show before I have done. But still this is the meaning of it — the meaning of Matthew when he says that the prophets declared that he should be called a Nazarene. He meant that the prophets have described the Messiah as one that would be despised and rejected of men. They spoke of him as a great prince and conqueror when they described his second coming — but they set forth his first coming when they spoke of him as a root out of a dry ground without form or loveliness, who when he would be seen, would have no beauty that men should desire him. The prophets said that he would be called by a despicable title, and it was so, for his countrymen called him a Nazarene.

I want you to notice our divine Redeemer's condescension, before I plunge further into this matter. It was a marvel that Jesus should live on this world at all. He who inhabits all things, whom space is not wide enough to contain — dwells on this poor, dusky planet. If he must dwell in this world — why is he born in Judea? for though I am grieved it should be so, yet the Jews are a people greatly despised — shame on Christians when they ever join in such despising.

But still if Jesus must be a man in this world — why is he not born in Rome, in the capital of the nations? Why must it be in a little miserable country like Judea? Yet if he shall be born in Judea, why must he live in Galilee — that most despicable part of Judea? If he must live in Galilee, why not at Capernaum? Why does he choose Nazareth? Why must be go to the lowest of the low — that most despised place of a despised country?

And if he must come to Nazareth — follow him a stop lower — why must he be a carpenter's son? Why, if he lives there, can he not be the son of the minister of the synagogue, or some respectable scribe? No; but he must be reputed to be a poor man's son. And then if he must be a carpenter's son, why can he not so constrain men's hearts that they shall receive him? for the deepest depth of all is that even as a carpenter's son, his fellow citizens will not endure him; but they take him to the brow of the hill to cast him down headlong from the cliff whereon the city stood.

Was there ever such condescension as that of the Savior? If in the lowest depth there be a lower deep — he plunges into it for our sakes. He emptied himself. Our old version says, "He made himself of no reputation," but the new one is in this case much better, "He emptied himself." Nothing was left him of honor or respect. He gave up all. "Though he was rich, yet for your sakes be became poor" — poor to the last degree, poor in reputation. He was born — a man, a Jew, a Galilean, a Nazarene.

You have gone down as far as language can descend; and I invite you now to think of the way in which Jesus, the Nazarene, is still despised. That shall be our first head. When we have thought upon that, we will say a little upon his disciples: the sect of the Nazarenes must expect to be despised until brighter days shall dawn. When we have talked about that, we shall have to say in conclusion that there is nothing despicable either in the Master or in the servants, though they are called Nazarenes by a contemptuous world.

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