Please read the passage before the commentary.
When Jesus had finished speaking to the crowds in parables, he went back to his hometown. His own townspeople rejected him, much as the people of Matthew’s day had rejected Jesus. They saw him only as one of their own, from their local schools and society, a Nazarene and no more.
They did not see a connection between the name of their town and the term Nazarene ss an especially consecrated person among the Jewish people. They saw him as ordinary as any other person in town. They made no connection with the names of Jesus’ other close relatives who had the names of the Israelite patriarchs James (= Jacob), Joseph, Simon and Judah. Nor did they give much thought that the name Jesus was another form of the Hebrew Joshua (= the Lord saves), the one who had led Israel into the Promised Land.
Some of us have also missed these connections. How has our faith in the Lord Jesus changed and grown over the course of our lifetimes?
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