Crossing Borders to Live

CROSSING BORDERS TO LIVE

Mount Hope UMC

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Matthew 2:13-23 New Living Translation (NLT)

The Escape to Egypt

¹³ After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, ¹⁵ and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”^[a]

¹⁶ Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. ¹⁷ Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

¹⁸ “A cry was heard in Ramah—
    weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children,
    refusing to be comforted,
    for they are dead.”^[b]

The Return to Nazareth

¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. ²⁰ “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”

²¹ So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. ²² But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. ²³ So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

            I think today’s Scripture is very relevant considering the number of our Hispanic brothers and sisters who have crossed the border to America, risking their lives to get here only to be held as fugitives in cages with their children ripped out of their arms.  Historically, this is nothing new.  It is only in the framework of today that we find it outrageously politically significant to us.

            We can trace the roots of immigration as far back as Genesis when God evicted his favorite angel – from heaven and condemned him to eternity separated from him.

Then the eviction of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden after they disobeyed him and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.    Then in Genesis 11:1-9 we read the story of the Tower of Babel when God’s people decided to build a tower to reach heaven and God confused their language and the people migrated to different regions as they understood one another’s speech.  And, as we all know, Moses and his brother Aaron—by the power of Yahweh—lead the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt. Effectively, the entire people group become refugees with nowhere to go (Exodus 2:23–25; 15:22–27). This leads Yahweh himself to provide for them (Exodus 16). And one of the first things God does upon their rescue is to recognize that they must have laws to protect the immigrant, refugee, and powerless (Exodus 22:21–27).

Later in Israel’s history, once the Hebrew people are a nation with their own land, king David himself lives as an asylum-seeker on multiple occasions (e.g., 1 Samuel 21:10).

Trekking forward in Israel’s history, we find the prophet Elijah living as a refugee because he spoke truth to the king and was persecuted for it (1 Kings 17:3, 8–10).

And these are simply the stories of major Old Testament figures who were outcasts, asylum-seekers, immigrants, and refugees. There are also many stories of immigrants who needed protection and help—such as the mother of king David, Ruth, who was a Moabite who immigrated to Israel (see Ruth 1).

The most famous biblical example of a refugee is Jesus himself.

We can simply look to Jesus’ own words. When speaking about his final judgment, upon his second coming, Jesus says this to those who understood and received his message:  “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me as a guest, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we [do these things]?’ And the king will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me’” (Matthews 25:34–40 LEB).

It is in the welcoming of the stranger, helpless, marginalized, and those in need that Jesus recognizes a true Christian from one who is not (Matthew 25:31–46).

In worries about security, many people have become apathetic to the suffering of the helpless. When empathy fails us, what we hold so dear—freedom itself—will also fail. The very nature of what we call Christianity will fail.

Out of a desire to protect ourselves, we often turn a blind eye to the suffering of other people. But in the process of doing so, we’re hurting humanity. We’re hurting freedom and we’re hindering the work of the gospel.

People have been migrating and immigrating since the beginning of time.

The history of this country is that we are a country of immigrants.  The Europeans first sent people to the country as a penal colony.  Then the Irish and Italians came.  Then the Chinese.  Then the Africans were brought here in chains.  Today it’s the Hispanics, the Mexicans and Latinas.  Almost everyone coming to forge a better life for themselves and their children in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

But Joseph and Mary packed up and moved in the middle of the night to travel to Egypt – a distance of 429 miles from Bethlehem - to avoid the baby Jesus being caught up in the massacre that Herod had decreed to take place.

We might read this story and ask ourselves, “how could God allow all those children to be slaughtered to save the child – Immanuel – God is with us?”  Why?  This is very reminiscent of the story of Moses when Pharoah ordered that all male Israelite boys be killed and Moses mother secured him in a small boat and put him in the Nile where Pharoah’s sister found him and adopted him as her own.  Once again God spared the chosen one.  He did not condemn the other boys to death or cause them to be killed. That was the order of Pharoah in Moses’ case, and the order of Herod in Jesus’s case.  We need to understand that God does not cause evil – it is impossible for him -- but he is present in times of distress in the voice guiding us, in the sending of us to safety, in the healing of our pain, and in the presence in our lives.

Matthew’s Gospel includes a number of parallels between Jesus and Moses, giving us a sense of Jesus as another Moses. This Gospel lesson includes several such parallels:

• Jesus’ flight to Egypt to escape Herod (2:13-15) parallels Moses being hidden in the bulrushes to escape Pharaoh, who schemed to murder infant Jewish boys to lessen Jewish power and the danger of a Jewish takeover (Exodus 1 – 2:10). It also parallels Moses’ flight to Midian to escape prosecution for murder (Exodus 2:11-22).

• The murder of baby boys by Herod (2:16-18) parallels the murder of baby boys by Pharaoh (Exodus 1:15-22). Both Moses and Jesus escaped the murderous plans of their respective rulers.

• Jesus’ return to Israel (2:19-23) parallels Moses’ elevation to Pharaoh’s palace as an infant (Exodus 2:1-10) and his return from exile after the death of the king of Egypt (Exodus 3-4).

• “for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead” (2:20) parallels “Go back to Egypt; for all those who were seeking your life are dead” (Exodus 4:19).

According to American Magazine, “the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees defines that group of people as follows:

A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

The Holy Family, as Matthew recounts the story, was fleeing because of a “well-founded fear of persecution” because of their “membership in a particular social group,” in this case Jews with young children living in Bethlehem. I am not sure how you could get any clearer than that.

God spoke to Joseph in dreams and directed him as to what to do.  Does God speak to us in dreams or otherwise?  If he speaks to us, do we recognize his voice, and if we recognize his voice, are we obedient to do what God has asked us to do?

Joseph was told to cross borders to save the Messiah.  The Israelites were told to cross the borders of the Red Sea to save themselves from the Egyptians.  The Irish crossed borders to escape famine.  Our Hispanic brothers and sisters crossed borders to flee from drug lords and persecution in their homeland.  Has God asked you to step out on faith from your comfort zone and cross a border into the unknown?

We enthusiastically sing “When he calls me I will answer”, but do we answer or do we want proof that what he has asked us to do is going to uplift us or someone else, or fit in with the plans we have for ourselves?  See, God doesn’t always call us to promote us.  Sometimes he calls us so that we can promote someone else.  Joseph was getting nothing out of what God called him to do.  He was called in obedience to care for the Son of God.  God made provision in the gifts of the Magi – the gold, frankincense and myrrh.  How many of you know that if God gives you a vision, he will give you provision? 

Joseph left home with his expectant wife for a few days journey and ended up being gone for over 2 years.  God made provision for the stable where Jesus was born.  He made provision for their journey to Egypt and while in Egypt, and God made provision for their return to Nazareth where they settled.  And God will make provision for us, if we are faithful and obedient to his vision for us.

They were kept safe by God’s hands from a vicious, insecure tyrant who would kill children because he was jealous and afraid the child would take his place as the leader of his people.  Just like the tyrant who occupies the White House is insecure, jealous and afraid that our brothers and sisters sitting at our border in cages will dethrone him from his self-imposed position of being above the law.

But let me tell you how God worked out my border crossing.  Back in the ‘80’s I wanted to move to the Bay Area in California.  I didn’t know how, when or nothing.  I just knew I wanted to move to California.  The first thing God did was provide me with employment at a law firm in San Francisco.  They told me I could show up anytime I wanted and there would be a job waiting for me.  The next thing God did was provide me with a way to get there by ride sharing with a girl who was from the San Francisco area who wanted to return home.  A mutual friend put us in touch with one another.  She had a little Toyota Celica hatchback and we rented a small U-Haul for our belongings.  She had a 9-year old son, I had a 5 year old daughter and we put them in the back of that car and drove out to California using a map our friend had drawn on an 8 ½” x 11” sheet of lined paper.  We left in February 1980 – it was bitter cold and sleeting.  Our friend had drawn a map showing the southern route we would take to get to San Francisco.  It was a journey, but we made it.  I didn’t have any clue where I was going to stay, but God provided a place to stay.  I worked at that firm in both San Francisco, DC and Virginia for over 20 years.

I can testify that I have crossed many borders in my life knowing that God was going to see me through whatever obstacles, trials or setbacks I was going to face.  I can say that God has been my healer, my provider, my rock, my fortress, my everything.  He has held me up when I didn’t have the strength to go on.  He encouraged me when I was sunk so deep in depression I didn’t think I was going to live one more day.  He kept me safe when I went into some dangerous life threatening situations.  He had my back when others tried to bring me down.  He saved me when I was drowning in my own mess.  And what he’s done for me, he will do that and more for you.  Because one day we will all cross the great border in the sky and see him face-to-face.  I wanna be ready when Jesus calls me to the final border and I live in my mansion not made by man’s hands.

We are all immigrants, refugees and sojourners here for a specified period of time to do the perfect will of the Father who sent us from across the border of our mother’s womb to cross the borders of life to return by crossing the border to eternity with Him.  Let us prepare to cross our borders with peace, love, hope, joy and trust.  And now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.