Jesus the refugee
Refugees. We see a picture of a dead refugee boy and we can react in many ways. They caused their own mess! Who cares! Or we can see a boy like a neighborhood kid and want to do something.
Or we could say, “That could have been me but for the grace of God go I.” Or “There are millions of them and what is helping one going to do?” Or “Give them arms and training and let them reclaim their territory.” Or “They’re all terrorists!” Or “We have enough suffering people here.”
Well, caring individuals, groups, churches and governments have decided to bring some in.
At this time of year, many celebrate the birth of a baby that was prophesied to rule the hearts of people and be a great peacemaker. His name was Jesus.
Did you know he was a refugee too?
All people in the Roman empire were ordered by Augustus Caesar to leave their hometowns and travel to their ancestral homes for census-taking (Luke 2). Jesus’s family had to travel several days from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to comply.
Later, murderous king Herod, fearing an uprising, decided to kill all baby boys two years old and under and eliminate the future prophesied king (Matthew 2: 1318). Young Jesus and his family now had to flee for their lives and escaped to Egypt for refuge. He later returned to Nazareth, grew up there and worked as a carpenter until he began his preaching and healing ministry.
He was later persecuted by the religious authorities and had nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). He was arrested on trumped-up charges, sent to a kangaroo court, tormented, beaten, whipped and executed in a gruesome way with spikes in his wrists and feet. After three days he appeared again and later left for a heavenly kingdom promising to return one day and make things right (Revelation 19).
So if you celebrate Christmas in some fashion this year and are cursing the refugees in our midst, remember that the Christ child was also a refugee and you might not be celebrating Christmas except for a gracious country allowing them to settle there for a time to escape persecution.