David Hathaway

At the beginning of Matthew 9, Jesus crosses over the Sea of Galilee, and enters His own town Nazareth. Nazareth had a bad reputation. Remember, Philip, who came from nearby Bethsaida, as did Andrew and Peter, when he found his friend Nathaneal, told him, “We’ve found the one Moses wrote about, about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph!” But Nathaneal’s sarcastic reply was, “Can anything good come from there?!” So, to be called Jesus of Nazareth was not complimentary! Of course, the name ‘Jesus or Yeshua’ was very common in Israel, so to be called Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph, identified who He was and where He came from. But Nazareth itself seems to have been known for being a hot bed of troublemakers. People from there were definitely regarded as tending to be rebellious! Some men brought to Jesus a paralysed man on a bed and put him down in front of Him. When Jesus saw their faith – notice, it was not the faith of the paralysed man that He saw, but when Jesus saw the faith o