Jesus' Sojourn In Egypt

"Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His Mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." 
When he arose, he took the young Child and His Mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son"" (Matthew 2:13-15).

"But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt," (Matthew 2:19)

Nazareth was situated north, in Galilee, in the "hill country of Judea." Because Herod was hounding the newborn Child, the holy family had to flee from their village to a far away place. Egypt in the Bible was always a place of exile, idolatry, and degradation; to the family from Nazareth, it would no doubt have been the farthest journey they would have had to make from home; Egypt would have been the most foreign and outlandish country a first century Jew from Galilee would travel to.

Herod was mad for power. Like the Pharaoh "who did not know Joseph" in the Book of Exodus, who had also sought to destroy Moses, so was Herod after the same. Moses was saved by the reeds of the Nile river, and now that same Nile would prove itself to be the same safe conveyance for Jesus to a place of a very temporary refuge. The Nile had carried the two saviors to safety.

On the other hand, Egypt is sort of a symbol for the entire world. Egypt is a symbol of temporary residence, and change. Egypt, however corrupt, is still a fruitful and a well-watered oasis in the desert of madness. Whether God's people have escaped there as a result of a plague, or on account of a flight from a wicked Israelite king, or for refuge, Egypt in the Bible was always a sort of a spiritual recess, a desolate place to await the call of God with patience and endurance. God's people as "pilgrims and sojourners" would gaze longingly eastward to Jerusalem and intensely yearn to go back home.

Oftentimes, God communicates with His people through dreams and ecstatic visions. The place would light up with resplendent mystical light and the prophet would fall into a sort of an altered state of mind. For Joseph, God had used a dream to direct Him to a place of refuge from the bloodthirsty king. Joseph's was an angelic premonition. The message that was conveyed to him was "onward to Egypt!"

Joseph, therefore, "saddled his donkey and set her upon it" as the apocryphal legend phrases it, and came down to Egypt. There was a tradition that circulated in the ancient churches of Egypt that Joseph and Mary "came to the region of Hermopolis, and went into one of the Egyptian cities called Sotinen." The family must have tarried in Egypt for at least two years; they were afraid of Herod, and they were awaiting the vision of the angel.

Journey to Egypt had been a long night journey for the family. They became aliens in an alien land, exiled from their home, and all alone, with no one else to trust or turn to for support. For two years, what livelihood would Joseph have found for his family? The three must have taken up some lodgings and lived through it until things had quieted down.

Jesus and His family, like the Israelites of old, dwelt "as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it" (Acts 13:17). Egypt has always been that place where you just stay a while in order to grow to get out of it. Israel slaved for the Pharaohs for four hundred years, and God had sworn that He would one day deliver them. Now, Joseph and Mary, are awaiting the same promise of deliverance from Egypt, and settling back to Nazareth.

There is a mystical significance to Egypt. The Book of Revelation apocalyptically reveals the annihilation of wickedness of the earth: "And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified" (Revelation 11:8). Sodom is a symbol of sensual depravity, and Egypt, slavery. The world is enslaved to the sins of permissive lewdness and all manner of idolatry.

The Coptic Christians often tell me that when the holy family arrived in Egypt, all the idols of the Egyptians toppled and the temples were lying in complete ruins. I think there is a ring of truth to that, seeing that the coming of Christ is the end of all human idolatry.

The Chosen Twelve

Jesus chose for Himself them that were well pleasing: the good whom His Father in Heaven has given Him. This is the story of the carriers of the Gospel. They were twelve in number to correspond to the twelve tribes of Israel.

“And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles), that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach” (Mark 3:13-14).

Jesus chose those whom He simply wanted. He had determined them as fit to carry out His teachings to the farther parts of Judea. He had gone up to the mountain the same way as Moses had gone up to speak with God. The disciples were sent off from the mountain: hence they were apostles, the "sent out."

The mountain has always been a special place for Jesus: it is there that He delivered His Sermon on the Mount, it was on a mountain that He fed the vast multitudes, taught the people; He was also transfigured on a mountain, and delivered His Olivet Discourse. It was also a scene of His temptations. I could go on and on. The fact is that Jesus always stands atop a great mountain, dispensing His love and His divine powers on His saints for all times.

“I thank You Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight” (Luke 10:21).

The scribes and the Pharisees have taken and hidden the key of knowledge. But what was once hidden, Jesus had made manifest; what was once buried, Jesus had uncovered. It was to them that the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven was given, whereas only in parables would Jesus speak to the crowds. Jesus chose them at the most unexpected of places: the beach or the toll booth. Jesus revealed to them knowledge; Jesus commissioned them to preach His Gospel; Jesus appeared to them alive after being buried in the tomb; Jesus breathes on them the Holy Spirit; and blesses them as He parts from them in His glorious ascension. 

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word” (John 17:6).

The disciples had been energized by the ecstatic effervescence of God's mystical presence on earth. They had gained knowledge and now they were shouting it from the rooftops. They were the ones who had gazed on the glory of the Son of Man at the Mount of Transfiguration. They have heard and seen things such as never been heard and seen from the creation of the world till now. How blessed and felicitous were the disciples of Christ!

The twelve disciples are as colossal and titanic as the astrological zodiacs in the night sky. Their glory and their immortality far exceeds the stars. They were the first to see and hear and touch and taste of the Word of Life. 

Cross of Christ

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).

The history of the human race begins and ends with the cross. That was the moment wherein the two polar opposites of life and death in the human mind were merged.

The vertical cross-beam (Patibulum in Latin) is the earth and all its desires. Jesus was forced to carry that wooden cross-beam on His shoulders on His way to Golgotha. He had carried the entire weight of the world on His back.

The upright stake, already in place, is our upward ascent to heaven - it is rooted in the ground and it extends skyward. Jesus was the one that had conjoined the vertical beam with the horizontal stake - the merging of the two distinct realms - the heavenly and the earthly.

The blood and water that had gushed out is our very life, issuing from our experiences as Christians. Jesus's cry of dereliction ("Eloi Eloi, Lama Sabachthani" Matthew 27:46) signifies the human condition of alienation and abandonment. And His cry of death is our cries of being born into this new world - our birth and our beginning.

His death is our life and His resurrection is our transcendence of our life in this world to the life of infinity. This is all we need to know about our salvation.

"For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1st Corinthians 2:2)

Jesus Crucified

"And they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced" (Zachariah 12:10).

A great crowd had once gathered round Mount Golgotha to look upon the crucified Lord, "from the distance" (Mark 15:40). Jesus had cried his last and had expelled His divine life-force. at that point, He was left to die alone, albeit in a morbid spectacle.

In the eyes of the Romans, He was merely a social deviant, suffering a fitting punishment for subverting the Roman hegemony. In the eyes of compatriots, He was an affront and an intolerable nuissance, because He had challenged the status-quo. In the eyes of His once loyal followers, He was an utter failure who had failed to inaugurate the Kingdom of God on earth.

But in the eyes of His true followers, His death was the beginning of a new life. In any case, whoever they were, and whatever they had seen, "every eye" has "seen" the crucified one (Revelation 1:7).

The event of the crucifixion was a universal event. The entire world from thence has already seen the crucified Son of Man. And we are continually in the process of seeing it.

The cross was a symbol of imperial brutality fabricated to instill shock in the hearts of the future dissidents of the empire. It was a sadistic artifice to deter any individual who dares to think to challenge the empire and its whole policy. It was the epitome of death and violence.

Jesus took that which was shameful and violent and transformed it into a life-giving symbol of our redemption, our freedom, and our eternal resting place. In death, there is life, in life there is death. In reality, there is no such thing as death...there is nothing but life!

This truth clearly shines from the despised cross...