Jesus of Nazareth
July 27th, 2025 by G.
We sang Jesus of Nazareth today in church. The first line caught my eye.
“Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King.”
Jesus “of Nazareth” is a peculiar choice for someone’s title. It appears several times in the scripture. probably because there were lots of Jesus’s running around while he was the only one of note from Nazareth. Probably the only person of note from Nazareth of any kind, since it was a small rural town.
It still makes a piquant contrast. Jesus from Nowheresville, Savior and King. As if to say, Bob from Tooele or Doug from Hoboken.
Zen
July 28, 2025
Actually, I understood that Nazareth had a decidedly negative reputation as a source of crackpots. Hence the line, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
Perhaps the parallel would be closer to, Jesus from Roswell, NM.
Eric
July 30, 2025
Jesus of Tooele or Jesus of Brigham City would also work well for our day; I haven’t known anyone from either town who wasn’t nuts–though admittedly my sample size isn’t very large.