HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, August 21, 2025 – From the time he was old enough to know his own name, Jesus knew he was the Messiah. It was never a mystery to him, his messiahship, and even at the ripe old age of twelve, he was eager to be out and about doing his Father’s work. But God held him back for nearly two more decades, putting him through his paces and forming him quietly behind the scenes… until one day he emerged suddenly as Jesus the Christ.

But of all the places Jesus could have debuted as the Messiah, why Nazareth? Jesus had already started his ministry work when he made the announcement that shook the very foundations of the spiritual realm. He’d already built a reputation as a preacher and healer, working countless miracles in villages throughout Judea and beyond, and gaining a loyal and growing following.

But Nazareth – Jesus’ hometown was a whole other kettle of fish. There, Jesus was still just the son of a carpenter, big brother to a brood of brothers and sisters, and Mary’s eldest son. Sure, the villagers enjoyed listening to Jesus read from the scrolls, as was his habit on the Sabbath, but when he stood up that day to read the passage from Isaiah that foretold the coming of the Messiah and then announced that he was the fulfillment of that prophecy – well, you could have heard a pin drop. No ecstatic applause greeted his pronouncement. No flowers or teddy bears rained down on him. Just shocked silence, followed by murmurings and occasional angry outbursts and the growing realization among those present that a very great blasphemy had just been committed.

Surely Jesus must have known, when God advised him to choose his hometown to come out as the Messiah – surely Jesus must have known precisely the response he would get from his fellow Nazarenes. When they all leaped to their feet and drove him out of the synagogue and then out of the town itself, aiming to stone him to death and throw him off the cliff, Jesus must have known this would happen.

Death by stoning was the execution method prescribed in the law for cases of blasphemy, and calling oneself the prophesied messiah was the height of blasphemy. Had Jesus purposely set himself up to be executed? I mean, if he’d come out as the Messiah someplace else, someplace where he wasn’t known as the carpenter’s son but as a miracle worker and preacher par excellence – if he’d come out as the Messiah as a stranger in such a favorable environment, it’s highly likely he would in fact have been received as the Messiah and would have gotten his due shower of flowers and teddy bears from the adoring crowds. People might even have strewn their cloaks in his path, like they did when he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem a few years later, just before his crucifixion. But this adulation wasn’t going to happen in Nazareth, where the last thing he was considered was a prophet, let alone THE Prophet spoken of by Moses.

So we can only assume that Jesus chose Nazareth to come out as the Messiah specifically because he wanted to set himself up for future execution. He knew the response he would get from the Nazarenes, and he knew that they would not let it go, that they would report him to the temple elders, and that he would be a hunted man from that point on. But he also knew (because God assured him) that nothing would happen to him on that day or on the days to follow, and that he would continue the work that God had sent him to do until it was done.

We, too, if we’re genuinely born-again and are out and about doing our Father’s work – we, too, have had our moment of standing up in our local synagogue and announcing who we are, only to be met, like Jesus was, with shocked silence, averted eyes, and growing murmurings against us. Like Jesus, we’ve painted a spiritual target on our backs simply by proclaiming who we are, and by so doing, set the ball rolling towards our own execution. This I know for a fact.

And yet, like Jesus, I say: “Bring it on”. God will protect us until it’s our time, and when our time comes, God will be right there with us, like he was with Jesus. Being under the world’s condemnation and having a target on our back is part and parcel of being a born-again follower of Jesus. If you don’t accept being hated and hunted solely for who you are, you’re in the wrong line of work.

Just as surely as we had our Nazareth moment when we came out as born-again, we’ll have our Jerusalem moment when it’s our time. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he came out in Nazareth as the Messiah: He was setting himself up for the glorious “baptism” of the cross, which would be his (and our) only way Home.