Hymn of the Refugee
Read Matthew 2:13-15
“Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt…” – an angel of the Lord
Exhausted, they had traveled for days. With very little money, they’d waded through crowded airports in multiple countries along the way. By the time they arrived in our city, it was night. Our small delegation had been waiting nearly an hour when the family appeared in the concourse. We had balloons, American flags, and handmade “welcome home” banners. We embraced these travelers like we had known them for years, though it was our first meeting.
Esther and her four children arrived from the Middle East as political refugees seeking asylum on the grounds of religious persecution. Esther had become a Christian against the will of her Muslim family. She had been threatened with death and bore the scars of her decision to follow Jesus. One night, Esther and her children escaped across the border and into a refugee camp. After much waiting and wanting, her application for asylum in the United States was granted. This is who we gathered to welcome to their new home and country.
According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of the people applying for asylum in the United States are Christians. Of the world’s nearly 214 million international migrants, 49 percent claim to follow Jesus. Does that surprise you? Even Jesus experienced political pressures and persecution. His followers have experienced the same. Years before His first miracle, His first sermon, or calling the first disciple, His family was forced to escape their home country. And to run for their very lives.
Herod, determined to eliminate anyone he perceived as a threat, held ferociously to his power. Yet the Magi disobeyed his orders to report the location of the one born to be “king of the Jews.” Herod’s response to such dissent was brutal. But first, before he ordered the slaughter of hundreds of innocents, an angel warned Joseph to move his family to Egypt. Joseph faithfully obeyed and Jesus became, quite literally, the first Christian refugee.
Throughout the Old Testament, fleeing to Egypt was seen as an act of desperation on the part of God’s people. Abraham did it (Genesis 12:10), as did his grandson Jacob (Genesis 46:3-4). Generations later, Jacob’s descendants went from being welcome guests to slaves. So God’s people remained in Egypt, enslaved, for 400 years (Exodus 1:8-14). The Exodus of Abraham’s descendants was an inaugural event for the nation of Israel. God rescued His people from the bondage of slavery.
Matthew captures this history in a single reference to the prophet Hosea, who said, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” (Hosea 1:1) God’s chosen people lived as slaves and refugees in a foreign country for four long centuries. And after their deliverance, they spent forty more years wandering homeless through the desert. They would later suffer captivity in Babylon. Later still, they endured oppression and occupation by Rome. Coming “out of Egypt” had come to represent the hope of final deliverance from all oppression and slavery. The people of Jesus’ day waited for God to send the Messiah, yes, but also expected the coming of another deliverer — a new Moses — to rescue them from bondage.
Like Moses, Jesus narrowly escaped the brutal infanticide planned by an evil king (see Exodus 2). Like Moses, Jesus escaped to a foreign land until He could return and begin the work God appointed to Him (Exodus 2-4). Like Moses, Jesus entered into the suffering, scorn, and oppression of those He had come to save. Like Moses, Jesus would lead His people out of an Egypt of their own making, a slavery to sin. But unlike Moses — whose battle against political tyranny did little to release people from the bondage of sin — Jesus came to bring a freedom no government can give and no tyrant can revoke.
Esther and her children now enjoy freedom in America, not because of political asylum, but because a Savior who suffered the oppression of our sin and shame to rescue us, once and for all.
God our Savior,
Thank You that Jesus set aside His rights as God and took on the nature of a slave to make me free. Today, all across this planet, millions of people cry out, desperate for deliverance -- deliverance from tyranny, oppression, injustice, and sin. Your own Son lived as a refugee, fleeing evil men and corrupt governments. Lord, break my heart for the needs of those like You, Your fellow sojourners and aliens. Remind me every day that what I do for the least of these I do for You.
Amen.
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