Can St Matthew be wrong?
He says of Our Lord
that the prophets say,
"He shall be called a Nazarene."
Which prophets?
Bethlehem is prophesied
by Micah.
Egypt is mentioned by
Hosea.
But who mentions Nazareth?
Any ideas?
Neither have the scholars!
Where on earth
has St Matthew plucked this?
Is he misreading
the Old Testament prophets?
Is he referring to a prophet
that isn't in the Old Testament?
Or is his memory failing?
[PAUSE]
St Jerome tells us
to be fair.
He reminds us
that St Matthew doesn't
mention a specific prophet
or specific prophecy
but is rather
referring to a fact
borne out the combined
testimony of the prophets.
We're used to this.
The Holy Trinity
isn't mentioned
explicitly in the Bible.
But the doctrine is there
when you put the pieces together.
St Matthew isn't talking
about one prophet.
He's putting the pieces
of the prophets together.
]PAUSE]
You see Nazareth
sounds a lot like
Netser which is Aramaic
for branch.
Both Jeremiah
snd Isaiah refer
to Our Lord as being
a branch out of David's line.
So, this is one reason
why Our Lord
is called a Nazarene.
But there is another possibility
which goes along with that.
The Prophet Isaiah
says that the Messiah
will be despised and rejected,
of little account,
having no beauty.
Nazareth is famous
for being less glamorous
than Chatham docks
after the dockers
have spent New Year's Eve
at a dodgy curry house.
It does not have a good reputation.
Indeed, you remember that
St Nathanael asks,
"Can anything good
come out of Nazareth?"
This is in keeping
with a baby born in a stable
laid in a cattle trough
who will dine
with the prostitutes
and tax collectors
and die a cruel
and humiliating death
with thieves.
If Nazareth is the dunghill of Judaea,
then Our Lord's life of humility
shows that He is indeed called
a Nazarene.
And from dunghills,
branches can grow and flourish.
[PAUSE]
You see why
St Matthew cannot identify
a single prophet
because Our Lord's life and work
is encoded
in the entirety of the Old Testament.
We may see Him.
in poverty in Isaiah,
as a cuckold in Hosea,
as the blossoming rod of Aaron
as the Son of Man in Daniel
even, possibly,
as Melchizedek
or one of the visitors to Abraham.
Just like St Matthew
might struggle
to find explicit, specific references
to Our Lord in the Old Testament,
so we might struggle to see Him
explicitly and specifically,
not just in the Old Testament
but here and now.
While it is good
to have something concrete
to refer to,
Our Lord,
the Word of God,
is written on our hearts
more than just on the page.
Our life of prayer
is as much about
knowing His presence with us
as it is knowing what is
written about Him in the Bible.
Internal presence
and external book:
both are important.
And both are united
through the grace of the Sacrament,
because that's what sacraments do.
They nourish the soul
through physical means.
[PAUSE]
But we do have to remember
that in opening our hearts
to Christ,
we open our hearts
to a Nazarene,
the lowest of the low,
the one who challenges us
not to feel contempt.
Our Lord's humility
challenges us to be humble.
If we are wise,
we must learn to see ourselves
as Nazarenes
from which the branch of David
can grow
live and thrive.
That's not to say
that we are worthless,
because the Incarnation
says we are worth more
than we know.
It's more that
we should recognise
the cheapness of the World around
and trust God
to lead us to fruitful lives
which mean more than
the World will ever know.
Following Our Lord,
we too will branch
out of our Nazareth.
No comments:
Post a Comment