Read
11When the men went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they knelt down and worshiped him. They took out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh and gave them to him. 12Later they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went back home by another road.
The Escape to Egypt
13After the wise men had gone, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Hurry and take the child and his mother to Egypt! Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is looking for the child and wants to kill him.”
14That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt, 15 where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord's promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”
The Killing of the Children
16When Herod found out that the wise men from the east had tricked him, he was very angry. He gave orders for his men to kill all the boys who lived in or near Bethlehem and were two years old and younger. This was based on what he had learned from the wise men.
17So the Lord's promise came true, just as the prophet Jeremiah had said,
18 “In Ramah a voice was heard
crying and weeping loudly.
Rachel was mourning
for her children,
and she refused
to be comforted,
because they were dead.”
The Return from Egypt
19After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph while he was still in Egypt. 20The angel said, “Get up and take the child and his mother back to Israel. The people who wanted to kill him are now dead.”
21Joseph got up and left with them for Israel. 22But when he heard that Herod's son Archelaus was now ruler of Judea, he was afraid to go there. Then in a dream he was told to go to Galilee, 23 and they went to live there in the town of Nazareth. So the Lord's promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “He will be called a Nazarene.”
Reflect
The story of the first Christmas conjures up all sorts of images, not the least of which is the idyllic scene of the wise men kneeling at the manger of the Christ-child with their precious gifts.
The reality was more rustic. Jesus was born in a smelly cave if anywhere, with smelly and scruffy shepherds visiting, yes, but with … no wise men.
In this passage, Matthew tells us that the Magi (there’s nothing to indicate there was only three), in fact, came to Jesus when he was a toddler in a house in Bethlehem, just before Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus to Africa to escape Herod’s murderous rage.
Which is to say that the first Christmas, and Jesus’ early youth has a certain glory to it. But only to the extent that the incarnation is also filled with the muddiness of this world.
In a year that saw the largest refugee crisis hit Europe since the Second World War, it’s heartening to remember this, that Jesus and his family were also refugees, an impoverished family needing help as they travelled through great perils for their very survival.
This is where those gifts might have come in. There’s no record of what Mary and Joseph did with that gold, myrrh and frankincense, gifts of worship worth more money than they’d see in their lifetimes. But in God’s economy those valuable and sellable items seemed to arrive just in time for their emergency departure from Bethlehem.
The angel’s warning to Joseph was sudden. There was no time to save for such a journey, if saving was even possible for the impoverished family.
But, one way or another, God provided. And God still provides through the same ways; through gifts from the Father above and through open hands from his people below.
Respond
Dear Heavenly Father: Thank you for providing for all my needs, one way or another. Help me to be wise like those wise men and help me to, in turn, open my own hands to offer my own precious gifts to those who have great needs.
Thomas Froese
Thomas Froese is a storyteller and veteran journalist of 30 years. The Canadian author and columnist writes about news, travel and life, often from his experiences in the Arab World and Africa, where he lived for 15 years and where he still returns to teach literature. His work, which has garnered numerous honours, has appeared often in the Hamilton Spectator. Thomas also writes about fatherhood and family life. Find him at www.thomasfroese.com