Jesus the Migrant

Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head ~ Luke 9:58

Migration is not an uncommon biblical theme. In the Old Testament Abraham and Sarah are commanded to migrate from the land of Ur to the land of Canaan. (Genesis 12:1-2). The Israelites had their own migrant experience for over 40 years and God wanted them to recall this always, He said: “You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33-34).

Before Christ’s birth, Mary his mother was running from pillar to post to find a safe place to deliver the child. Every door of civilization had been shut on them for them to be led to the stable. And so, Jesus Christ entered our world amidst strife and terror. He spent his infancy hidden in Egypt as a refugee and a migrant. The Gospels narrate the hard journey to Bethlehem, the lack of welcome, the birth among the animals of the stable. Not to mention the persecution of Herod, the massacre of the innocents, and the flight to Egypt. John the Apostle writes “He came to what was his own, but his own did not accept him” (John 1: 11). Jesus understood what it was to be a migrant.

Pause here for a moment and walk back on the experience of closed doors. God closes doors sometimes to protect us from danger, He may not always open another door but He always does it for our good. But when we shut doors on our fellow beings, we begin to play God and in doing so we choose whom to keep in and whom to keep out. We take justice into our own hands and measure how much justice someone deserves, and how less we ought to mete it out to someone else.

When Jesus looks at the displaced migrant today, walking home hundreds of kilometers in the blazing heat, barefoot, without food and water He genuinely understands their predicament, for He too was born under such circumstances. From Bethlehem to Egypt to Galilee, these weren’t small distances especially when you consider it was made on the back of a gentle donkey or by walk. He never knew when or where His next meal would come from, and that is why when He would speak to scores of people later as an adult, He encourages them saying “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6). He was speaking from His own experience, with the assurance and faith that God would feed Him.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus was depicted as an itinerant mover, a teacher, and healer in transit through Judea and Samaria to share the message of love, and salvation for all. He owned no place of His own and leaned on the generosity of others for His own needs and that of His disciples.

Today any discussion on migrants tends to refer to them as they, the term itself is loaded with derogatory references as the other. But make no mistake, they are the ones who make our city and lives, they wash our dishes, press our clothes, fix our cars, wait on us at eat-outs, fix our water filters at home and work, drive us to work and even ferry our favorite meals to our homes through a few clicks on our mobiles. They do things we don’t want to and because of them, our life is better.

In 1 Peter 2:11, the Apostle terms all Christians as “foreigners and exiles.” Just as God reminded the Israelites that they were once migrants and pilgrims God reminds us we who are passing through this world are migrants too. The situation in our land today does not reflect God’s true justice. However, Jesus in his words made it explicitly clear that we as His followers cannot claim to love God and be indifferent to the needs of our neighbor. We cannot shut the door on the plight of those in need. When we open our doors to a stranger, we open it to the work of God through us, as we read in Hebrews 13: 2 “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” So, what do we do? Reach out our hand to them in aid, uphold them in prayer, and if the situation arises welcome them with open arms. For in the face of each migrant we find the ‘image’ of God. Let us recognize that little bit of Jesus in every migrant, just as there was the migrant in Jesus.

-Ps. Anand Peacock