It’s that time of year when we think about summer holidays and travel. As the New Year rolls around, we take stock of the year gone and year to come. Where have you travelled this year? Where will the coming year take you?
Our readings for this first Sunday after Christmas are about travel. But not a work trip or summer holiday. Mary, Joseph, and little Jesus are fleeing for their lives in the midst of massacre. It can appear to be a strange story on the back of the joy and celebration of Christmas.
Directly after Matthew’s account of the first Christmas, and the arrival of the Wise Men, we have our gospel reading, sometimes referred as ‘The flight to Egypt’ or ‘The slaughter of the innocents.’ Foreigners who practice magic (Magi, Magi-cians) see the rising star of a king, so travel from the east to Israel. They don’t know where to find this king, so they arrive at King Herod’s court. “Where is the baby born King of the Jews?” The first century audience would have gasped. “Did they not know who Herod was and what he would do!?” See, Herod was a brutal and bloody king. He murdered his own wife, his sons, his mother-in-law, his brothers-in-law, his uncle, and whoever else posed a threat to his throne. Jealous, Herod commits another atrocity — he orders all the boys two years old and under in Bethlehem and surrounds to be killed. But Joseph is warned in a dream and the holy family manages to escape to Egypt as refugees.
Author Andrew McDonough has written this story from the point of view of little Jesus, titled ‘Jesus was a refugee.’ https://www.lostsheep.com.au/stories/jesus-was-a-refugee/
It seems strange to have this story of heartache and pain set alongside the joy and wonder of the Christmas story. Can you imagine what the holy family went through? Joseph must be asking, “What sort of saviour is Jesus?” Remember in the Christmas story that the angel had commanded Joseph to name the child “Jesus,” which in Hebrew means “God saves” or “God’s salvation.” Now, less than two years later, Joseph finds himself fleeing to a foreign country to save his son’s life. What sort of saviour is Jesus?
This was not the first time an Israelite family had fled to Egypt. At the end of the book of Genesis we hear about another Joseph, son of Jacob (later renamed Israel), sold by his brothers. This Joseph also receives a message in a dream: seven thin cows eat seven fat cows (representing seven good years of harvest, followed by seven bad years). So Joseph prepares for the coming famine. When Jacob and family are suffering in the famine, they hear there is food in Egypt and flee there as refugees.
The Israelite family grows and are brutally enslaved by Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. But God has a rescue plan to bring them back. He raises up Moses to lead his people from Egypt. God sends ten plagues, including the last in which the firstborn sons of Egypt are struck down. God carries his children out of slavery in the great exodus. They dramatically pass through the parted waters of the Red Sea.
God also rescues his son Jesus from Egypt. Joseph receives another message in a dream that it is safe to return. They dare not settle in Bethlehem, so they continue onto Nazareth in the north.
So in both stories there is a Joseph, messages via dreams, travel to and refuge in Egypt, slaughter of male babies, and escape. The parallels are unmissable. The life of Jesus repeats that of his ancestors. He lives the history of his people. ‘So the words the Lord had spoken through the prophet came true. He had said, “I chose to bring my son out of Egypt.”’ (Matthew 2:15). The children of Israel are refugees in Egypt, and Jesus — this new child of Israel — is a refugee in Egypt. Just as the old Israel were rescued from slavery in Egypt through the great exodus, the new Israel is rescued from slavery to sin and death in a new exodus. This account of the ‘Flight to Egypt’ shows us what sort of saviour Jesus is.
(1) Jesus is a saviour for the real world. He’s not just a saviour who delivers a good car parking spot right outside the shops. Or a saviour who helps when we have a runny nose or lose our car keys. Yes, Jesus is interested in the little things, but he knows the breadth of human joy and the depth of human tragedy. He’s not just a saviour of the little stuff, but the big stuff too. He is the saviour for the real world. He has come to deal with the complexities of politics, the pain of displaced people, the anguish of grieving parents, he has come to know and set right the atrocities of evil rulers and systems of oppression.
(2) Jesus is a saviour who knows your distress. This world is corrupted by sin and evil — it is full of distress. How many refugees would you say there are worldwide? In 2019 it’s estimated there were 70.8 million people forcibly displaced (that’s 37,000 per day, or nearly three times the population of Australia!). Aside: Australia receives only 12,000 refugees per year, that’s less than 0.02% – I think we can do better, don’t you?! As a refugee Jesus has felt and experienced this particular distress. And he knows you and your distress. As our Old Testament reading says:
In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed his people; he lifted them up and carried them. (Isaiah 63:9)
‘In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them.’ Both the incarnation (Word becomes Flesh) at Christmas and the ‘Flight to Egypt’ show us that Jesus has fully entered into this world to deal with evil, sin and death. It is Jesus’ presence that saves. He has come to know our distress. Ultimately he feels and knows this on the cross. It is on the cross that the weight of sin crushes him. We often think of “sin” as our own personal wrongdoing. And, yes, “the sin of the world” does encompass that, but so much more. The “sin of the world” includes the murder of all those innocent children in Bethlehem, as well as all grieving parents throughout history. It includes the fear of 37,000 refugees per day. All the atrocities, injustice, hurt, and pain that ever was — including yours — is nailed to cross. ‘In all their distress he too was distressed.’ On the cross, Jesus takes on all this — for you, for me, for the whole world.
(3) Jesus is a saviour who rescues you from sin and death. ‘In his love and mercy God redeemed his people; he lifted them up and carried them.’ God doesn’t leave his people trapped in slavery in Egypt, but lifts them up and carries them through the Red Sea. God doesn’t leave Jesus in Egypt, but lifts him up and carries him to Nazareth. And God doesn’t leave Jesus dead in the tomb, but through the resurrection lifts him up to new life. And likewise, God does the same for you. He doesn’t leave you in your places of distress, he doesn’t leave you languishing in your “Egypt,” he doesn’t leave you in the hands of sin and death. No! Like Israel going through the Red Sea, God lifts you up through the waters of your baptism. As the water drips off, you rise as a new person. You rise up out of Egypt, out of the water, to new life. You are joined with Jesus, adopted into God’s family. You are part of the new Israel, you embark on the new exodus. And now God carries you for the rest of your traveling days into eternal life. As the song goes: ‘May the feet of God walk with you, and His hand hold you tight. … May the child of God grow in you, and His love bring you home.’ (LHS888).
God’s love comes to life through your hands. Take a moment to look at them. God is going to use your hands to bring his love into the world and carry his children home. How will God use your hands this week?
So wherever you go this year, wherever you travel, God’s promise is the same. It’s a new year, but you have the same promises. God promises to be with you in your distress. God promises to rescue you from sin and death. Through the waters of baptism, God promises that you are his people, his children, his family. God promises to carry you throughout your new life with him into eternal life. And God will use your hands to carry his children. It may not be an easy journey, it may involve distressing flights to Egypt, but he’s got you. For in his love and mercy God redeems his people; he lifts you up and carries you. Amen.
