Jesus, Refugee

by Dave Bennion · 2008-12-25 21:32:00 UTC
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I'm not a person of faith.  In fact, I'm a confirmed atheist.  But I was raised in a very religious family, in a very religious community.  And I've found over the years since I left religious life that some scriptural stories still hold a certain narrative power for me that I suspect they may never lose.

The stories of Jesus' birth fall into that category.

Jesus' mother traveled a great distance to give birth to him in a strange place, where she and her child were not welcome.

Soon afterwards, Mary and Joseph were forced to flee with their infant son into Egypt to escape King Herod's soldiers, who were trying to find and kill Jesus on account of the prophecies that foretold his coming.  Herod felt Jesus would pose a political threat to him.

Jesus was a refugee. 

He and his family were persecuted for their imputed political opinion, their ethnicity and religion, or all three.  Jesus, then, would have had a lot in common with some of the asylum-seekers currently awaiting deportation in jails around the United States.

I'd like to think the stories his parents told him of his experiences as a child would have had some impact on his teachings later in life.  As one who had been rejected by his government and chased from his homeland, he would have special insight into the life of the refugee, the migrant, the prisoner.

I like to think about this when I read Matthew 25:34-40:

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Dave Bennion
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