Guest Post: Jesus as Refugee

I’m so very grateful that my niece shared a Facebook post by Fr. James Martin.  It is a very thoughtful piece, that speaks especially to Christians on the issue of tolerance.  It’s a little longer than I normally post, but worth the read.  You can find Fr. Martin’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin/

 

December 26, 2016 at 7:20pm · 

Evening meditation: Your Internally Displaced, Homeless, Refugee, Poor, Low-Class, Jewish, Palestinian, Uneducated, Possibly Illiterate, Dark- Skinned Savior

Remember that the person whose birth we celebrate at Christmas was born to an internally displaced couple, that is, people who were forced to be on the move within their own country. At the time of the boy's birth, perhaps for a few days or weeks, Mary and Joseph were also homeless. With no place to stay, they found shelter in either a stable or a cave. Soon, they would become full-fledged refugees, that is, people crossing the border of another country, in this case Egypt, out of fear of, in this case, violence. Remember that when we're talking about IDs, Mary and Joseph had none. And when we're talking about borders, Mary and Joseph crossed one. Twice, actually. On their way into Egypt and then when they returned to Galilee. Overall, they knew what it was like to be seeking shelter far from home.

The boy was a Jew. As were Mary and Joseph. As was the boy's entire extended family. As, by the way, were all the apostles. They lived in what was called Palestine by the Romans, who occupied the territory. So Mary, Joseph and Jesus all knew political oppression.

They knew poverty, too. Joseph's trade was, most likely in the eyes of those at the time, seen as "low class." The Greek used by the Gospels to describe his profession is "tekton," which is more accurately translated not as carpenter, but craftsman, handyman, or even day laborer. The occupation probably didn't garner much respect, and was seen as ranking below the peasantry, since the "tekton" didn't have the benefit of a plot of land.

The family was from a minuscule town. Nazareth was both poor and small, with only about 200 to 400 inhabitants in Jesus's time. Jesus's hometown, in other words, could have likely fit into your local church. The Apostle Nathanael mocks it when he hears where Jesus is from. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?," he says. Some scholars believe this was a saying popular at the time, perhaps a common put down Jesus's place of origin, and Jesus.

While Jesus may been able to read (many scholars believe that when he quoted Scripture, he was not reading it, but doing it from memory--in his oral culture) it is almost certain that neither Mary or Joseph could. None of the three could be considered "educated." Indeed, most scholars believe Jesus was probably illiterate.

Jesus also would have looked nothing like what we see on 99% Christmas cards, or 99% of Christmas creches, or 99% of Christmas movies. Nor would Mary and Joseph. Nor would Elizabeth, Zechariah, Anna, Simeon, John the Baptist, or any figures from the stories of his birth.

It's impossible to know exactly what they looked like, but they were surely much darker skinned than what we see in 99% of portraits. A few years ago, scientists reconstructed the face of a man from around Jesus's time, using remains of several people from first-century Palestine (seen here). Somewhat ridiculously, the reconstruction was touted as the "Face of Jesus," which is like digging up skulls from a Mount Vernon graveyard from around the time of George Washington, using them as the basis for reconstruction, and saying, this is the "Face of George Washington."

But it's not so ridiculous in that the facial reconstruction reminds us what people of Jesus's time and his family's ethnicity looked like in general. And, again, it is much closer to the look of people in the modern Middle Eastern than modern Europe or the United States. He certainly wasn't white.

So to recap:

Internally displaced.
Homeless for a time.
Full-fledged refugee.
Poor.
Low-class occupation.
Jewish.
Palestinian.
Uneducated.
Possibly illiterate.
Dark skinned.

In other words, a lot of the categories people tend to demonize today. So when discussions about anyone from any of those categories come up, and you wonder about the Christian thing to do, remember who Jesus Christ really was.

 

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Moral Courage

I am intrigued by the stories courage, like stories of the recipients of the Medal of Honor.  I am awestruck at the selfless acts of heroism of these brave men – and one woman, Mary Edwards Walker, who was awarded the MOH during the Civil War.[1] Their humility is incredible – they say they were just doing their duty, and that the real heroes are those who did not come home.[2]

And I am awed by the firemen who ran into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 – “Pounding up the stairs while we were running down.”[3]  And by the Chinese man staring down a tank in Tiananmen Square in 1984.[4]  Not many of us have the opportunity to risk our lives in a noble effort.  Thankfully, the demonstration of that kind of physical courage passes most of us by.

However, we each one of us often have the opportunities to show moral courage. 

Check out the definition of courage.[5]  It does not say that courage is the absence of fear.  It is keeping your self-control in the face of danger.

Most of us, thankfully, will not be called upon to run into burning buildings to show our courage.  There are other opportunities to demonstrate courage, as there is more than one kind of courage.

Mark Twain has said, “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”[6]

Moral courage means doing the right thing even at the risk of inconvenience, ridicule, punishment, loss of job or security or social status, etc.  Moral courage requires that we rise above the apathy, complacency, hatred, cynicism, and even religious differences.  Doing the right thing means listening to our conscience, that quiet voice within. 

Let’s consider for ourselves:  which would be more natural and instinctive for each of us, to react instinctively to rescue a person from an overturned car, or to stand up at a meeting and speak calmly and clearly and unpopularly?  To dive into a lake to save a struggling child in the water, or to stand calmly, without raising our voice, while a crowd yells, mocks, threatens and laughs at me?

I hope, with the help of my God, to have that moral courage when the situation appears. 

I hope we all would. 

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[1] http://www.history.com/news/the-medal-of-honor-6-surprising-facts

[2] For frequent stories of MOH recipients on Facebook, see https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=national%20medal%20of%20honor%20museum%20foundation

[3] Tom Paxton song, The Bravest.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEGjzuGI71w

[4] http://qz.com/90764/what-happened-to-tank-man-chinas-most-famous-tiananmen-square-protester/

[5] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/courage

[6] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/14591-it-is-curious-that-physical-courage-should-be-so-common

1968

48 years ago, New Year’s, 1969, I reflected on the year just past which I then believed, and still believe today, we survived the greatest internal threat to our system of representative government since the Civil War, 1861-1865.

Those of us around in 1968 lived through the assassination of the preeminent civil rights leader (Martin Luther King, Jr.) and a presidential candidate (Robert F. Kennedy).  We were in the midst of a very unpopular war in Viet Nam, and had witnessed the Tet Offensive that spring.  There was civil unrest in the inner cities.  The Democratic National Convention that year in Chicago was filled with riots, protests and conflicts between protesters and the Chicago Police Department.  That preceded another hotly contested and very close race for President of the United States.  Richard Nixon easily carried the Electoral College, but won the popular vote by only 1.1 percent, or about 812,000 votes out of over 70 million votes cast.[1]  Antiwar and civil rights protests dominated the news cycles back then. 

But 1968 also was the year of the Apollo 8 was the first manned vehicle to orbit the moon and left us the first “Earthrise” photo, and a memorable Christmas Eve message.[2]  That photo allowed the inhabitants of Earth, for the first time, to see our planet in one photo.  How very small and beautiful it looks!  How fragile.

Our Nation survived the trauma of 1968, but it took years, ending the Viet Nam War and the resignation of a President.  Many would maintain that our society still struggles with residual issues from that dark time.

The lesson I have taken from 1968 is that our system of governing is resilient.  We can “Take a licking and keep on ticking” as that watch commercial from the 1960’s used to say.[3] 

But, to say that we survived 1968 is NOT to say that we will always overcome obstacles to our system.  We must be ever vigilant.  We must jealously guard the rights of each resident of our great nation as provided in the Constitution.

For me, tolerance of another’s point of view means to stand with that person who respectfully and lawfully maintains his or her position. 

Our Country has survived crises in the past.  We can again today and in the future.  But we cannot delegate our responsibility to others.  In large ways and small, we must each stand together as one people.

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[1] http://presidentelect.org/e1968.html   

[2] https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html

[3] http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/takes-a-licking-and-keeps-on-ticking/