The evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke all say that Jesus after beginning his ministry went back to Nazareth where he was rejected by those who knew him from childhood. Yet, the evangelists describe the visit taking place at different times.  Mark’s gospel says he returned to Nazareth after he raised a little girl from the dead. A miracle like that would be widely known. The girl’s father, Jairus, was a synagogue official.

Mark also says that before Jesus returned to Nazareth, others were already questioning the marvelous things he did. Scribes from Jerusalem, the religious experts of the time, were warning to keep away from him. So when Jesus visited Nazareth there were suspicions, warnings about him. Still, after raising a little girl to life, you would think he would be well received atNazareth. He wasn’t. 

Over and over Mark’s Gospel tells us what we wouldn’t expect: that Jesus was rejected in places where he went. In Capernaum, he drove out an unclean spirit, cured Peter’s mother-in-law and, at the end of the day, the whole town was at his door. {Mark 1, 16-34) Their enthusiasm doesn’t last, however. Capernaum and other towns in Galilee first receive him, then reject him. (Matthew 11,23)

In pagan territory, on the east bank of the Sea of Galilee, he also meets rejection. He cast out the unclean spirit there, as he did at Capernaum, but when the pigs stampede down into the sea the townspeople ask him to leave. He’s endangering their economy, they say. (Mark 5, 1-20)

Jesus did not have a continual path of success in his ministry, Even his own hometown, his family, don’t receive him well. Final rejection takes place on Calvary in his passion and death, but rejection and misunderstanding meet him all through his public life.

Nazareth had a prominent place in the story of Jesus’ rejection. Later apocryphal gospels dating from the 2nd century relate miraculous deeds Jesus did as a child, but they lack credibility. Jesus did nothing remarkable in his hidden years. He was just “the carpenter’s son”,  the child of Mary and Joseph, hardly noticed, “

Nazareth never seems to have accepted God’s Son. Historians say early Jewish-Christians after his resurrection were expelled from the town. The Christian presence in Nazareth has always been small, even today. Nazareth is part of the scandal of the Incarnation.

Recent commentaries on the Passion of Jesus say we should recognize that mystery of Jesus all through his life, not only as he enters the Garden of Gethsemane, We limit our understanding of Jesus if we see him only as a powerful teacher, a merciful worker of cures, one who commands the wind and the sea. The evangelists remind us that Jesus, “though he was in the form of God “humbled himself.” He carried a silent cross. a cross unseen, before the cross of wood.