Day 31 Refugee Status

Day 31 Refugee Status. 

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt. Matthew 2:13-14

In general, the world despises refugees. We may feel a twinge of pity when we see them massed on the border or living in squalor in a camp someplace; but we would rather not have to deal with them in our country. Let someone else deal with them. Refugees represent human failure, particularly failure of government. We despise refugees as those who consume resources without a return on the investment. We sequester them in shabby camps in often inhumane circumstances. If we do give them food, it’s rather unappetizing. I know, I’ve eaten standard U.N. refugee rations, and they make MREs delectable. We apply the NIMBY principle to refugees, not in my back yard. We would just as soon forget them.

Advent pushes refugees and our attitudes toward them into the limelight. No discussion of the events surrounding the incarnation is complete without considering the “flight into Egypt.” Jesus accepted refugee status to understand the plight of humanity. While we do not know the exact timeline, we do know that Joseph, warned in a dream took Mary and Jesus by night and fled; the implication being that Herod represented an existential threat to Joseph and his little family. Scripture offers no details regarding life in Egypt. I think we can safely assume that it would have been difficult, living in a foreign land among the Jewish diaspora. Jesus might very well feel more akin with the huddled masses seeking entry into the U.S. than with me and my comfortable life here in Lubbock. After all, like many of them, He fled to secure a better future.