To Egypt and Back

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During the past few weeks on the Metro the Darlek-like voice has been referring to 'the festive season'. But what is it? Perhaps the delights of shopping at the Metro Centre? Of crowded public transport? Of needing tissues for Downton Abbey? Of the joy of receiving a present and then taking it to a charity shop? Of being nice to grumpy old grannie? The festive season – a secular ho, ho, ho bonhomie - of self-indulgence wrapped in tinsel. That is the world of the secular festive season. A festival devoid of any religious significance or interference. Like the comment from the girl on seeing a religious Christmas card – 'Fancy that. They've even brought religion into Christmas'! And of a recent survey in which some thought that the first visitor to baby Jesus was Father Christmas!

But scripture insists that there is another narrative. Another set of events. Another focus. Christmas is when we thank God for the Incarnation. Of God with us. Of God entering into our situation. Of God identifying himself with us. Of God become man.

I sometimes think that Evangelicals need to be reminded that there even was an incarnation. Yes, we are told that Jesus was born to die to take away our sins. But Jesus was also born to enter into our world to identify himself with us. To touch base with his creation. To usher in the Kingdom of God. To reveal something about the nature and character of God. As John tells us: 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us [and] we have seen his glory' (John 1:14). But have you? Have I seen his glory?

Jesus like us. Jesus with us. Jesus alongside us. Like us in every way, yet without sin. Not that he appeared to be a human being but he was truly man. Never ever laying aside his divinity. Always fully human. Nothing less than truly God and truly man.

I sometimes think too that our presentation of Christmas is simply too twee. Too sentimental. Too sanitised. Too far removed from reality. Too much shaped by tradition. Too far removed from scripture. Many of the Christmas carols don't ring true. What do you make of the words in 'O little town of Bethlehem' - 'how silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given'. Is childbirth silent? Is it pain free? And what about 'the cattle are lowing the baby awakes'. The Pope was right when he dismissed as myth the presence of oxen, asses, camels and other animals at the birth of Jesus. And the magi or wise men (who were not kings) – were there three of them? There were three gifts, but were there three travellers? And when did they come? Certainly not at Christmas. And where did they go? Not to a cave but to a house.

Tonight we are looking at a post-Christmas event. Its dramatic. It's a tough story - of danger. Of terror. Of death. Of escape. Of a journey. Of exile. Of return. Of re-settlement. The Incarnation happened at a particular time, in a particular place, and in a particular set of circumstances.

1 Calendars and kings

Chronologically we have moved on from Christmas to Epiphany. While we associate the shepherds with Christmas, the magi are associated with Epiphany. Their visit probably occurred about two years after the birth of Jesus. We are told that he was no longer a baby but a child. And the family were no longer in temporary accommodation in a cave (the traditional place for the birth of Jesus) but they were now living in a house.

From v.13 the mood changes. And what do we find? Not a nice sanitised nativity. But a brutal world of intrigue. Of political rivalry. Of terror and mayhem. From 66 BC the much of the Roman empire had been ruled by puppet kings like Herod the Great. He ruled from 37 to 4 BC. He was a great builder of cities, temples, fortresses, palaces, hippodromes and amphitheatres. He loved power. He imposed heavy taxes. He was also cruel. He was violent. He was a ruthless tyrant. A monster who killed members of his own family. Work out the dates. If Herod died in 4 BC then Jesus must have been born about 6 BC. In the sixth century Dionysius the Small (what a lovely name!) he was the monk who invented the calendar, got his dates mixed up. Jesus was born earlier than he had calculated. And Jesus was probably one of no more than twenty boys born in and around Bethlehem. Then it was a small village outside Jerusalem. Today it is a suburb of the modern city.

After the death of Herod in 4 BC his kingdom was divided among his sons all of whom were also called Herod. Herod Archelaus, Herod the Tetrarch and Herod Philip. For ten years Herod Archelaus ruled Judea and Samaria. Like his father he was a great builder and was even more brutal and cruel than he had been. He angered the Jews by marrying the widow of his half-brother, and he was deposed and banished. After him Judea was ruled directly by Roman procurators, one of whom was a certain Pontius Pilate. One of the other sons of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas ruled Galilee and Peraea. He too was a builder and he developed Tiberius on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This is the Herod who executed John the Baptist, and sent Jesus to Pilate for judgment. The background to Joseph and Mary moving back to Nazareth is found in vv. 22-23. Rather than settle in the south under Archelaus they moved to the north under the rule of Antipas.

I'm sorry if that was a bit complicated, but it fills in the gaps and explains when it was that Jesus was born (during the reign of Herod the Great). That he (Herod) instigated the murder of the innocents; that Joseph took his family to Egypt and returned to Judea (where Archelaus ruled), and rather than remain there they journeyed north to their home town of Nazareth in Galilee (where Antipas ruled).

All of this reminds us that the gospel narrative is set within an historical context. It hasn't been made up. It isn't just a well-crafted story. The Incarnation happened in real time, in a real place, to real people. That is of course how we encounter the Incarnate One – or rather how the Incarnate One encounters each one of us. In our daily lives, as we are out and about in God's world … as we begin a new year … Jesus is present with us. But how real is our encounter with him? Is it fresh and living or reduced to sentiment and abstract doctrine, a matter for conversation and debate rather than with everyday living?

2 Journeys, dreams and prophecies

Much of the Bible is about journeys for God's people were always on the move. The two pivotal moments in the OT involved lengthy journeys – the Exodus from Egypt; and the Exile to Babylon. Those events are the two major people movements in the OT. But individuals were on the move too -Abraham, Jacob, Ruth, Samuel, Elijah, Jonah, Jeremiah. And in the NT - Joseph and Mary, Peter and Paul. And if tradition is to be believed, Thomas the Apostle travelled to South India.

In scripture Egypt is seen as a place of refuge, a place of asylum. A temporary place of exile. But Egypt was also a place of bondage, of confinement, of slavery, of sorcery, of magic and of witchcraft. You wouldn't choose to go to Egypt unless you had to. There may be food and shelter there, but it was not the sort of place to make into a permanent home. It is a place for travellers but not settlers! The Exodus event remains significant for Jews and it continues to resonate with the experience of Christians. They had once been slaves - but now they were set free. They had been oppressed - but now they were liberated. For us, freedom and liberation are at the heart of the good news. Once we were slaves of sin / but now through Christ we have been set free.

What do we find in Matthew 2? The headings in the NIV give us a neat summary: 'the escape to Egypt' and 'the return to Nazareth'. And we also read about angels and dreams. Look at vv.13, 19 and 22. God spoke directly to Joseph in his dreams. 'Leave Judea and escape to Egypt' (v.13) and 'Return to Israel' (vv.19-20). But once they were back over the border Joseph had another dream, and rather than settle in Judea in the south they returned to Nazareth in the north (v.22-23). Galilee was no mere backwater, but (as someone has called it) 'the gateway to the world' a centre of trade and people movements. And Galilee was a much more open community than Jerusalem, and many who lived there longed for the coming of the Messiah. It was a fruitful ground for Jesus' preaching.

How does God speak to us today? Probably not very often through dreams. Then the people had what we call the OT but they also needed to know the direct leading and guiding of the Lord. Now that we have the NT / to illuminate, to guide, to inspire us, God seems not to use dreams as he once did to communicate to his people. But sometimes he might do so and we must be open to that surprising possibility. How does God speak to us today? Hopefully we would say from the Bible. From God's Word written we encounter God's Incarnate Word, the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As well as journeys and dreams, the narrative picks up several OT prophecies. Much of Matthew's gospel is presented to us as being a fulfilment of what had gone before. There are three OT quotations in Matthew 2, and a fourth which echoes the spirit of the OT. Let's look at each in turn.

vv.6-7 (Micah 5:2) 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah ...'
Where was Jesus born? Not in a palace in Jerusalem, but in a cave in Bethlehem. Not surrounded by wealth and power, but in modest, humble circumstances. Remember the words of the hymn? 'Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour, all for love's sake becamest man'.

v. 15 (Hosea 11:1) 'Out of Egypt I called my son'.
Here we see Jesus as the new Moses. As Pharaoh tried to kill Moses, so Herod tried to kill Jesus. Jesus is the one who will save his people not from slavery but from sin and death. Jesus fulfilled what had gone before. The one who can and will save and redeem his people.

v.18 (Jer 31:15) 'A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping with great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children ...'
The village of Ramah was near Jerusalem. And the Jews who were about to go into Exile assembled there before they set off for Babylon (Jeremiah 40:1). Do you see the point that is being made? Rachel (who was buried at Ramah) cried from her tomb for the exiles, and there would be crying too for the Messiah as he went into exile to Egypt. The Messiah who was to escape from Herod the Great would one day return, rule and reign. Yes, there was grief and sorrow for his exile, but there would be great joy when he returned.

v.23b 'He will be called a Nazarene'.
This is not a direct quotation from the OT, but more of a prophetic summary. But it makes an important point. To refer to someone as coming from Nazareth was a term of disgrace. Paul was referred to as the 'ring leader of the Nazarene Sect' (Acts 24:5). The drift of v.23 is that Jesus the Nazarene was regarded with contempt. This is not surprising: for he was; after all, the one who was despised and rejected (Is 53:3).

So do you see what is being said here in Matthew 2? The OT pointed the way to Jesus. As we dip into the OT we find it pointing us forward to the One who was to come, who would identify himself with us and who will save us from our sins. Some Christians are over-concerned with what they call unfulfilled prophecy: but the Bible makes it clear that all prophecy finds its fulfilment in the Incarnate One, the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Believing and responding

Just now I made some remarks about our presentation of Christmas. We need to separate myth and sentiment from what is found in scripture. We need to strip away the unreality found in many of the traditional carols. To think less in our minds of infants wearing tea-towels, of three kings presenting gifts, and of cows and sheep around a crib in a wooden stable.

We should be asking ourselves - 'What does the Bible actually say, and what does the Bible actually teach?' Fact or fiction? Apart from anything else we need to separate Christmas from Epiphany. The shepherds came at Christmas and the magi at Epiphany. So what then are we to believe? What do we celebrate at this time of the year? How are we to understand the significance of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ? We certainly need to revisit the text. To look afresh at what is said in Luke and Matthew, and to ground our thinking in the first chapter of John's gospel, where it says 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us ... and we have beheld his glory' (1:14).

Mt 2:13-23 brings out the themes of the exile to Egypt and of the exodus out of Egypt. Of God's sovereign providence in keeping the Holy Family safe, and then leading them back to Nazareth. One commentator says that 'Matthew has a word of encouragement about opposition. Opposition is inevitable, but it will never, in the providence of God, be allowed to quench God's mission. There was every possibility of quenching the Messiah: his mother Mary might have been stoned as an adulteress; he might have been killed by Herod; he might have been lost in Egypt. But no. God's hand was upon him. Opposition could not extinguish God's light.

In our own lives we must constantly make the connection between the world of the Bible and the world of today. And we find that it is a world that resonates with ours -of dictators, of oppression, of being strangers in an unknown land, of exodus and exile. And a personal exile can provoke a real testing of faith. Think of the cry of the Babylonian exiles 'How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land'? (Ps 137:4). How can God be known outside the holy land, away from the holy temple and the holy city? How can we still believe in a God when we are separated from family and friends? When our work takes us away from home? When we deliberately go our own way and turn away from the Lord?

Think of the Holy Family in Egypt. They must have been there for at least two or three years (one tradition says seven years). Perhaps they were living among the million or so Jews in Alexandria? They were far from home. Away from family and friends. They knew what it was like to be strangers, to be refugees. We know very little about Jesus' early years and so mustn't speculate like the writers of the apocryphal gospels.

In his gospel Luke tells us that Mary treasured all of these things in her heart (2:51), and that needs to be more of our response to scripture. To reflect upon the significance of the Incarnation. To reflect upon Jesus' death and resurrection. To reflect upon his coming again. To face up to those times in our lives when we have felt alone and afraid. Perhaps we have even run away. We have done a Jonah – deliberately done a runner. God has said one thing and we have done another. But even in our exile have we sensed God's leading and direction? Has our exodus generated faith and hope?

Are we as responsive to God's promptings as were Joseph and Mary? God spoke directly to them and they trusted and obeyed him. They were attuned to hearing God's voice. We may or may not interpret dreams as they did.
But we have the scriptures through which God can address us. But we need to be attentive to his still small voice, to hear and to obey.

In the year ahead resolve to look more to the Lord, to trust him and be prepared to obey him and to be more conscious of his presence, his leading and divine direction. To live more by faith. To live more for Jesus and less for self. To treasure all of these things in our hearts.