What is the meaning of our hosannas to the newborn Jesus if we, at the same time, stand silent before the Herods of our day?
Transcript:
Part of the reason I wrote the Juniper Bog is that frogs get a bad rap in the bible. Frogs are mentioned in the bible a total of 15 times; 14 of those times they are literally, a plague. The 15th occurrence is in the Revelation 16:13 where unclean spirits are described as looking like frogs. And trust me, it’s ugly.
But during the pandemic, we watched Life in Color on Netflix. Narrated by David Attenborough, it is a documentary about the many ways animals use color in their lives, and frogs were the headlining act.
And that got me thinking about how much we miss when we don’t look beyond our initial impression of an animal or a person.
Take fugitives for example. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word, fugitive? Maybe it’s Harrison Ford running from a literal trainwreck or hiding in a St. Patrick’s Day parade. But chances are, the word fugitive, all by itself, has a negative connotation. We have laws that forbid concealing people from arrest, concealing an escaped prisoner, fleeing to avoid giving testimony or avoiding prosecution, and they are all detailed in the U.S. Code under the heading: Fugitives from Justice.
But according to Webster, a fugitive is merely “running away or intending flight” and the first example given is, “a fugitive slave.” Which gives me pause. If someone is being harshly treated, abused, held against their will, and they escape, and run, ought we label them as a “fugitive?”
Today’s Gospel is often referred to as the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt. Flight. They have fled Bethlehem as recommended by an angel, in a dream, to Joseph. They are fleeing because Herod has issued an edict that all baby boys under the age of two should be killed; his strategy? If Jesus was a baby boy, and all the baby boys were killed, surely Jesus, who threatened Herod, even as an infant, would be killed as well.
To protect Jesus, Joseph takes Mary and Jesus and flees to Egypt. They were, by definition, fugitives. We tend to focus on the joyful reaction of angels and shepherds and magi to the birth of Jesus, but the truth is that Jesus birth so frightened grown men in power, that the plot to kill him began while he was still an infant.
And this makes sense because when the Good News of Jesus Christ , including his birth, is proclaimed in the world, it brings fear and loathing to those whose lives are focused on the accumulation and maintenance of power.
And that brings me to fulfillment.
Matthew views Jesus’ escape to and return from Egypt as a fulfillment of Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt I called my son” (2:15). It also hearkens back to the first exodus, with Israel being identified as God’s son.
In verse 18 Matthew cites Jeremiah 31:15 to express the horror of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents. We dare not imagine the blood-curdling screams and inconsolable sobbing throughout the region as little boys were mercilessly killed. Yet the use of this text signals a glimpse of hope. In Jeremiah’s day, as the Israelites were taken into captivity, on leaving Jerusalem they would have passed by Ramah, a town six miles to the north, on the way to Babylon. Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob and mother of Israel, wept over this national tragedy. If we continue on in Jeremiah 31, however, we will hear God’s words of comfort, his new covenant with Israel, and his commitment to his people’s salvation.
The third citation, “He will be called a Nazorean” (2:23), claims that Joseph’s decision to settle his family in Nazareth was also prophetically anticipated. Oddly, these exact words cannot be found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Could this be why Matthew uses “through the prophets” in th
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