Jesus Sojourned for the Sake of Salvation (Friday, Week 3 of Advent 2011)

What Did Jesus Do?

Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt.
Matthew 2:14

Traveling seems to have a way of cementing memories in the mind. For example, I can recall lying in the back seat of my parents’ car, in what must have been the middle of the night because is was dark as pitch, as our family headed off for a vacation at Lake George. That trip was more than fifty years ago, but I can still smell the skunk who perfumed the New York Thruway that night. What did I have for supper last night? Sorry, can’t tell you, I don’t remember. But travel makes for vivid memories.

Now, some travel, like our family vacation long ago, is for pleasure. Sometimes a trip is strictly business. And, in extreme situations, it might be a matter of life and death that prompts a father to pack up the family in the car, or on the back of the donkey, and head quickly out of town under cover of darkness. Such was the case when Joseph, at the urging of one of God’s angels, hustled his wife and infant son out of Bethlehem to Egypt; Jesus sojourned for the sake of salvation—both ours and his own!

The flight to Egypt was not leisurely. The rest stops were few and far between. There were no day-trips to take to see the sites along the way. And no one back in Nazareth, Joseph and Mary’s hometown, received a postcard of the pyramids from them saying, “Having a wonderful time, wish you were here!” Salvation demanded secrecy. For, you see, Herod did not at all like the idea of a regime change in Israel. He was in charge of the kingdom, at least as in charge as he could be given the fact of the Roman occupation of Palestine, and, though it would be wrong to say he enjoyed ruling his people because he was so fearful of an assassination plot or coup to ever sit comfortably on his throne, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

When word reached him that a new King of the Jews had been born, Herod instantly begin to plan for the elimination of the would-be usurper. (Matthew 2:3) But someone was looking out for the child and his family. The true ruler of Israel was not about to permit his Son to fall into the hands of a megalomaniac such as Herod. Israel’s God had long planned for the salvation of Israel, and for the Gentiles as well. And a sojourn for the sake of salvation wasn’t unheard of. More than a thousand years earlier the LORD had orchestrated the flight of Jacob and his family from famine and death in the land of promise. Though innocent infants fell victim to Herod’s insane rage, the voice of Rachel, weeping for her children, was heard. Salvation was coming, and would arrive from, of all places, Egypt. Yet, for the sake of salvation, the Savior had to sojourn, had to escape from death to life (It would not be the last time that he would do so!), had to fulfill the word’s Hosea prophesied, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” (Hosea 11:1)

It remains true that, for the sake of salvation, sojourning is necessary. No one who simply stays put in this life can avoid sin and death. Our “escape route” does not require flight to Egypt. In fact, it is not a place at all, but a person, whom we must flee to. Sadly, many search about vainly for a lifetime, and never come to the One who alone can save. But, the truth is, for the ones who are in fact being saved, the Lord himself undertakes to come to us. You see, the trip from Israel to Egypt was but one small step along the way for him who traveled from heaven to earth for the sake of salvation.

One of the best things about Advent is the opportunity it gives us to consider just where we are with respect to the matter of salvation. With barely a week remaining until Christmas, there is still time for us to fly from the one who seeks our destruction, and come to the One who sojourned for our salvation. Jesus sojourned an almost inconceivable distance for us. Christmas is a great time, if we have never before taken the step, to come to Jesus. For those of us who have already come to the Savior, this is the perfect time to ready ourselves for his return, for Jesus has yet one more trip to make from heaven to earth, and we would do well to be prepared to rise and go with him on the most memorable journey of all!

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenminitries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4