Travelling Through The Times Of Our Lives

Matt 2: 13- End  John 4:29  Matt 28:7

A normally straight laced gentleman came up to me looking typically severe

“In your nativity play” he said wagging his finger under my nose “You missed out one of the most important biblical characters”

“Did I” I replied, not having a clue what he was talking about.

“Yes” he said “You made no mention of the flea”

“The flea?”

“Yes, it’s perfectly clear in scripture – “The Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said “Rise, take the child and his mother and flea to Egypt”

But what do you think this mysterious journey to Egypt is really all about?

It sounds quite a momentous thing to me and yet scripture tells us very little.

The Holy Family were on the run from Herod’s murderous campaign that is true – but there is no evidence that this extended beyond Bethlehem, so surely they could have sought refuge somewhere nearer, maybe more familiar and not requiring quite so much travelling for a Mother who had recently given birth.

There certainly seems to be something to do with the fulfilment of a prophetic word that meant this journey had to be made – but just what is that about?

When people get round to quizzing me on matters of faith a real snorter that I am asked is this:

“OK, I understand that Jesus brings salvation to all people and that all we have to do is respond to his love – but what about all the people who lived and died before Jesus ever came and what about the things in my life that I did before I really had an understanding of God’s love.

Let me take you from that question to one of the loveliest encounters in the Gospels. Jesus and the woman beside Jacob’s Well. As he rests from the heat of the day in a quiet village, he meets a woman who had lived a far from perfect life and to make matters worse she is a Samaritan who was therefore seen to be outside the bounds of God’s love.

Jesus takes time with her and frees her from the wounds of her past and she goes running off into the town to exclaim:

“Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

She had hit upon the essential  truth about Jesus – that in terms of your life and mine – he is something of a time traveller.

This is the true Christmas gift we have at our fingertips.

The child in the manger is one who can gather up every scrap of our existence and enfold it in his grace.

He comes at Christmas with a saving love that stretches back into our past and races ahead of us into our future and he does not offer this gift to a holy few but to all who would encounter him.

This morning He goes back to Egypt.

He goes to the place where God’s people had been slaves.

He goes to the place of their suffering and ill treatment.

 To the place where they must have wondered about the reality of God’s love for them.

With Mary and Joseph, he retraces the footsteps of their exodus to the promised land – which saw them become moulded into a people who knew they belonged to God because had experienced His saving love in demanding wilderness situations.

Similarly does he journey back into the past that is yours and mine.

Walking with us now amidst unresolved issues and painful memories of our slavery and wilderness times and gently guiding us to the threshold of our promised land – knowing we are his people despite the human frailties we still bear. Back into Egypt – symbolic of the way he redeems our past.

The he goes forward into Galilee.

In Matthew’s account of the first Easter Day, the women at the tomb hear the momentous news from the angels who greet them:

“He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee and there you will see him”.

Those words give me great heart and confidence for they suggest to me that everywhere I go in my future – He has gone ahead of me – He has blessed my way forward with his presence. It means we need have no fear.

We still do, of course, because we know this doesn’t mean ending up with an easy life  but  we know he goes ahead of us into those places.

At Christmas time he goes into Egypt to redeem our past.

At Easter time he goes into Galilee to redeem our future.

If we can claim that assurance for ourselves then we can relax into the love he gives in the present moment.

“Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did” said the woman by the well “Could this be the Christ”?

RH 30.12 .07