Jesus’ bedtime story
When Israel was a child, I loved him
And out of Egypt I called my son. Hosea 11:1
Read Matthew 2:13—23
It’s bed time for the little boy in Nazareth. He wants a story. By the time his parents have told him his own story, what happened to him before he was old enough to make a decision of his own, they’ll have re-told the story of Israel. There’ll be a Pharaoh figure, out to kill the little boys; Moses, leading Israel out of slavery; Joshua, leading them into the land of promise. They won’t leave out the fear, looking over their own shoulders for who may be tailing them, the stone in the shoe, the search for a drink of water, all the terrors of the displaced Middle Eastern refugee still. At some point, as this boy hears his own story, he’ll put in the refrain himself, ‘This is to fulfil.’ ‘This is to fulfil.’ ‘This is to fulfil.’ His own life will fulfil the story of Israel, and he will spend his life re-telling this story and in doing that he will bless and renew all the nations of the earth.
My Lord and Master, Son of God, I think upon the fearful flight and the stony journey that began your life. And the way you never did get free of what God’s people have had to endure. So much was endurance. So much put upon you. And you did it as the Son. You took it. You made Israel’s condition your own. You made the whole human condition your own. Why, this night, if I am prone to any form of self-pity, it will put me in my proper place to acknowledge that you have made my condition your own. You did not retreat from anything that comes to us as humans, and as lost humans, and as rebel humans who deserve no better. Because you came not only to fulfil Israel. You came to fulfil humanity. You came to fulfil God’s purpose. You came to fulfil me.