Refugees

Jesus the Refugee

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A re-post to reiterate: Jesus was a refugee with his parents and for those who claim to be Christ followers must consider and act on the implications of what it means to be a refuge provider. This is a parable I wrote to offer space for reflecting on the implications that the entire Christian message is centered around our need for refuge and the God who enters into solidarity with those who are need in refuge to the extent of becoming a refugee.

A Parable:

The Holy Trinity sat one day in heaven, lamenting over the brokenness of humanity in the world. Seeing people continuously try to overcome evil with evil, violence with violence, sadness with sadness, grief with grief, they came up with what seemed to be the only plausible plan. Jesus, the son, would go to earth, God in the flesh, and would live a life that demonstrated God’s desire for love and peace, and would preach that message to anyone who had ears to hear. Together, God, Son, and Spirit agreed on the plan and summoned a council of angels to roll it out, but many were the objections by the angels who offered keen insights and warnings of what would happen if such a plan were carried out.

The first chimed in:“Lord, you have already sent messengers. In fact, you have sent them over and over again. You gave instructions to insure well-being through your prophets who proclaimed things like ‘do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.’ But your own people persecuted and cast out the prophets and even killed some of them.”

Then another worried messenger offered his opinion: “They will see you as a foreigner, especially when they hear you claim to be the Son of God. Have they not turned deaf ears to your commandments to care for aliens and strangers in their land even though they themselves were once aliens and strangers in Egypt? Did you not send your prophets to teach them? ‘For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.’ And ‘You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.’ And ‘You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry.’ And ‘When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.’ ‘The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.’”

“That’s true,” shouted another. “They ignored all of these instructions, preferring their own way: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.’”

Then, with a solemn voice, one of the head angels, trembling, made the suggestion that all the angels feared: “And what, my Lord, if they deny your message and deny your identity, and even…and even…I almost dare not say it, but what if they attempt to kill the Son rather than seeing his message as a proclamation of God’s love, mercy, and kindness?”

“Silence!” God’s voice shook the heavens. “Though I do not need to explain myself to you, I will instruct you, for your arguments are as feeble as theirs. Do you not know that I promised my people a way. Have you not heard that I AM the everlasting God? Do you not know that death has no hold on me. It is not only probable, but it is certain that some will scorn my Son and his message of good news, of love and of peace and well-being to all humankind, and yes, they WILL put him to death, the very one who has shown him kindness. But as I look upon the weary, the downtrodden, those oppressed by evils they are too wrapped up in to even be aware of, I see them as a poor soul, robbed and beaten by the side of the road by terrorists, left wounded and wondering if they will make it. All others, even my own people, continue to turn a blind eye to this one, passing by with mere nods of feigned sympathy or even unfelt platitudes of pity while fearing for their own safety or not wanting to give of their own resources seeing the sacrifice as too great and the victim as unworthy. But I cannot see any as unworthy, for I created them all and love them all. I have promised to heal their brokenness and I always keep my promises, even at the cost of my own Son’s life.”

“But…” one of the braver angels sheepishly whispered, “what if they DO kill him?”

“Then I will raise him from the dead and will demonstrate my power over evil and over death. And those who have witnessed it will surely live as he lived, seeing that I am the one true God and that mercy triumphs over judgment. They will finally understand just what I meant when I spoke through the prophets. They will begin to love even those who may in fact be a threat to them. And Jesus himself will warn them of this. Jesus will tell them, “‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’ And he will remind them that true love is shown even to enemies. He will declare in no uncertain terms: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

“But, should you not wait until a better time, Lord?” cleverly offered an always-wait-till-later-because-it’s-too-Dore – Mary Joseph Jesus Egyptrisky-now kind of angel. “If you send him now, you know that he will have to flee his own land, his own birthplace due to the terrorist killing all sons in Israel now. He will be a refugee. He may even have to flee to Egypt—the Son of God a refugee before he is even two years old!”

“It has already been decided, and I will go,” said Jesus quietly but firmly. “I will be a refugee, and I will find refuge. I will show that God’s love goes beyond the fear of such danger and speaks truth and brings peace where only terror had reigned before. I will enter into the most difficult of circumstances to show that no threats of personal safety will thwart God’s love. And my followers will be called to do the same. The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion– to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.”

“Yes,” affirmed the Spirit, “I will guide and lead them to live out this message, not just to speak it. Through Jesus, I will utter hard commandments–almost as difficult to preach as to live out–but they will be God’s commandments and will be without exception. Those who follow this Way of Jesus, will live as he lived. They will show kindness even to strangers and refugees, and love, even to enemies. They will clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and visit even prisoners of the vilest offenses to share God’s love.”

Finally, the leader of all the angels replied, “Your will is our command. It is a risky venture, but so it has been from the beginning. We will do our part. Let’s hope your followers will do theirs!”

A Risky Venture: The Refugee God

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I’ll just offer this parable that has been going through my head over the past months, even before the Paris and other bombings and acts of terror (which spread across the globe, not just Europe).

A Parable:

The Holy Trinity sat one day in heaven, lamenting over the brokenness of humanity in the world. Seeing people continuously try to overcome evil with evil, violence with violence, sadness with sadness, grief with grief, they came up with what seemed to be the only plausible plan. Jesus, the son, would go to earth, God in the flesh, and would live a life that demonstrated God’s desire for love and peace, and would preach that message to anyone who had ears to hear. Together, God, Son, and Spirit agreed on the plan and summoned a council of angels to roll it out, but many were the objections by the angels who offered keen insights and warnings of what would happen if such a plan were carried out.

The first chimed in:“Lord, you have already sent messengers. In fact, you have sent them over and over again. You gave instructions to insure well-being through your prophets who proclaimed things like ‘do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.’ But your own people persecuted and cast out the prophets and even killed some of them.”

Then another worried messenger offered his opinion: “They will see you as a foreigner, especially when they hear you claim to be the Son of God. Have they not turned deaf ears to your commandments to care for aliens and strangers in their land even though they themselves were once aliens and strangers in Egypt? Did you not send your prophets to teach them? ‘For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.’ And ‘You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.’ And ‘You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry.’ And ‘When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.’ ‘The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.’”

“That’s true,” shouted another. “They ignored all of these instructions, preferring their own way: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.’”

Then, with a solemn voice, one of the head angels, trembling, made the suggestion that all the angels feared: “And what, my Lord, if they deny your message and deny your identity, and even…and even…I almost dare not say it, but what if they attempt to kill the Son rather than seeing his message as a proclamation of God’s love, mercy, and kindness?”

“Silence!” God’s voice shook the heavens. “Though I do not need to explain myself to you, I will instruct you, for your arguments are as feeble as theirs. Do you not know that I promised my people a way. Have you not heard that I AM the everlasting God? Do you not know that death has no hold on me. It is not only probable, but it is certain that some will scorn my Son and his message of good news, of love and of peace and well-being to all humankind, and yes, they WILL put him to death, the very one who has shown him kindness. But as I look upon the weary, the downtrodden, those oppressed by evils they are too wrapped up in to even be aware of, I see them as a poor soul, robbed and beaten by the side of the road by terrorists, left wounded and wondering if they will make it. All others, even my own people, continue to turn a blind eye to this one, passing by with mere nods of feigned sympathy or even unfelt platitudes of pity while fearing for their own safety or not wanting to give of their own resources seeing the sacrifice as too great and the victim as unworthy. But I cannot see any as unworthy, for I created them all and love them all. I have promised to heal their brokenness and I always keep my promises, even at the cost of my own Son’s life.”

“But…” one of the braver angels sheepishly whispered, “what if they DO kill him?”

“Then I will raise him from the dead and will demonstrate my power over evil and over death. And those who have witnessed it will surely live as he lived, seeing that I am the one true God and that mercy triumphs over judgment. They will finally understand just what I meant when I spoke through the prophets. They will begin to love even those who may in fact be a threat to them. And Jesus himself will warn them of this. Jesus will tell them, “‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’ And he will remind them that true love is shown even to enemies. He will declare in no uncertain terms: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

“But, should you not wait until a better time, Lord?” cleverly offered an always-wait-till-later-because-it’s-too-Dore - Mary Joseph Jesus Egyptrisky-now kind of angel. “If you send him now, you know that he will have to flee his own land, his own birthplace due to the terrorist killing all sons in Israel now. He will be a refugee. He may even have to flee to Egypt—the Son of God a refugee before he is even two years old!”

“It has already been decided, and I will go,” said Jesus quietly but firmly. “I will be a refugee, and I will find refuge. I will show that God’s love goes beyond the fear of such danger and speaks truth and brings peace where only terror had reigned before. I will enter into the most difficult of circumstances to show that no threats of personal safety will thwart God’s love. And my followers will be called to do the same. The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion– to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.”

“Yes,” affirmed the Spirit, “I will guide and lead them to live out this message, not just to speak it. Through Jesus, I will utter hard commandments–almost as difficult to preach as to live out–but they will be God’s commandments and will be without exception. Those who follow this Way of Jesus, will live as he lived. They will show kindness even to strangers and refugees, and love, even to enemies. They will clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and visit even prisoners of the vilest offenses to share God’s love.”

Finally, the leader of all the angels replied, “Your will is our command. It is a risky venture, but so it has been from the beginning. We will do our part. Let’s hope your followers will do theirs!”