For many of us, Christmas is a travel season. It might be that people travel to you, or it might be that you have traveled to others. Many times it’s families that get back together. Sometimes it is a gathering of relatives in a larger group. Our situation isn’t normal, but it is a reality for many others. With our children scattered to the four corners of the earth, we celebrated Christmas together with some friends (who were in the same situation). With modern technology, we were able to be together with our family for a couple of hours on Christmas morning – which was an amazing gift made possible by today’s technology. We live in a day that lets it be possible to have time with family tho we are thousands of miles away from each other.
Before the mid-20th century, there was little
opportunity to be with family if they were not in the same locality. That is the story of this eleventh day of
Advent. First, the Scripture:
Matthew 2:13-15,
Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream
and said, "Get up, 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."
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to
Egypt,
and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had
been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called
my son."
Matthew 2 records the visit of the Magi, which is called “the
Epiphany” in the Church’s liturgy. The
Magi – even before Jesus’ earthly ministry began – were Gentiles seeking the
Messiah. You’ll recall, that they had
gone first to the court of Herod to inquire of a newborn King. Herod asked the Jewish teachers where the
Messiah was to be born and was told Bethlehem – the place where King David had been
born. The Magi returned home “by
another way”, which, I believe, means they understood that the baby they
had given gifts to was the promised Messiah – they believed and went home “by
another way”, which is much more than a geographical notation. They went home “by another way” because
having met the Christ, the Messiah, and their lives were changed.
Joseph also leaves Bethlehem “by another way”. Once again, an angel of the Lord visited
Joseph in a dream and warned him of the slaughter Herod had planned for all
male babies two years old and under. “Then
Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt”, (Matthew
2:14). The tradition of the Church says,
“The town to which the Holy Family fled was called Fostat. It was three
hundred miles from Bethlehem. A church has been erected there, on the site of
the house where the Holy Family lived during their exile. The little town where
the Holy Family stayed in Egypt was not far from Heliopolis, a city in which —
when Jesus, Mary, and Joseph passed through it — statues of pagan gods crashed
to the ground. Both Fostat and Heliopolis are not far from Cairo in Egypt.”
Egypt was a fitting place to flee from Herod. It was outside of his jurisdiction, and there
were plenty of other Jewish people residing in Egypt – thus a Synagogue was
there. We don’t know with any exactness
of how long they lived in Egypt. The calendar
we now use corrected the time of the dating of B.C. to A.D., in such a way that
Herod died in 4 B.C. Many think that
Jesus was born around 6 A.D. What we do
know is that once Herod died, Joseph, once again, gets two dreams telling him
to return to Israel.
“When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to
Joseph in Egypt and said,
"Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of
Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead."
Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land
of Israel.
But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his
father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he
went away to the district of Galilee.
There he made his home in a town called Nazareth so
that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He
will be called a Nazorean."
Perhaps you noticed, that all of this geography travels is
to make a point; namely, that God was providentially watching over the Holy
Family, and Jesus was fulfilling prophecy, even as a baby. Three times Joseph received directions on
what to do via dreams. Three times the result
was purposeful: “so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be
fulfilled”. The Lord directed them to
go “by another way” over and over again.
Perhaps we can stop and “muse” a little on the significance
of this in our lives. For many people,
life consists of random coincidental things.
Nazareth, like Mary & Joseph also, is anonymous to anyone outside of
their town. At this time, scholars
estimate that Nazareth had less than 500 citizens. The family returned from Egypt and settled in
a backwater place where Jesus would grow up around family and friends in
anonymity. Later on, when Jesus began
his public ministry and began to call his disciples, one disciple – “Nathanael
said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
We ought to remember, that there are no coincidences and there
are no random life occurrences. God is
the great mover in our lives and it’s not unusual that he moves us “by another
way”.
Peace
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