Jesus Sojourned

What Did Jesus Do?

“Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt”…And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt.
Matthew 2.13-14

A true Israelite, Jesus had his own sojourn to Egypt. A true son of Abraham, Jesus would be led back to the Promised Land (Though it would not require a trip of forty years as it did those whom God had delivered from Pharaoh!). But, the true Son of God, Jesus sojourned an immensely greater distance when He left the Father’s side and “went down,” not from Bethlehem to Egypt, but from Heaven to Earth, from the right hand of God into the arms of His mother Mary. And, most gloriously, the true Son of Man, Jesus also ascended, returning, not merely to Canaan, which, though it was the land of the Promise, is not Israel’s, or our, home, but back to Heaven, where all our sojourning will end, and we too will be at the Father’s side.

Sojourners are folks who pass through, staying for a while, but not permanently, because, well, they are not at home. Jesus truly had “no place to lay his head,” at least not for long, because He was only sojourning on Earth. He had no need to set up any sort of permanent residence because He always knew He was going to return to His home with the Father. In the eleventh chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews we read of our ancestors in faith who, like Jesus were all sojourners who acknowledged that they were “strangers and exiles on earth,” perpetually “seeking a homeland.” (Hebrews 11.13-14) Their desire was for a “better country---a heavenly one.” And because they so desired and so sought for that home with the Father, the LORD was pleased to prepare for them a city the like of none on Earth. (See Revelation 21)

All the heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 died as sojourners, they never made it home. That is, until Jesus came and sojourned and Himself completed the trip home for us all. Jesus, the only way to the Father (John 14.6), has, like a path finding pioneer, blazed the trail for all who sojourn by faith, the faith of the Bible, to make their way home through Him.

So, as beautiful and lavish as the world the Father has given us is, we need to remember it is not our home, and we should not let ourselves grow so attached to it that we would ever lose our longing to continue our sojourn in faith until, in and through Jesus, we are finally brought home to our Father. Keep thinking of yourself as a stranger and exile in the world. Keep seeking. Keep looking and longing for the better land. And keep encouraging others to join you in sojourning in faith. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4