Flight to Egypt

Matthew 2:13-15

13  Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take

the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to

search for the child, to destroy him.”  14  Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and

went to Egypt  15  and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken

by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

What does Bethlehem have to do with Nazareth? Matthew and Luke speak of both towns in relation to

Jesus’ birth and childhood. Bethlehem was a short distance from Jerusalem. The economy of this village

included providing lambs for the pilgrims visiting the temple for Passover.

Nazareth was in a region called “Galilee,” roughly 100 miles north of Jerusalem. While Nazareth was a

Jewish village centered around its synagogue, it was in an area with a large number of Gentiles (non-

Jews). Observant Jews in Galilee would travel to Jerusalem for the great festivals at the temple. (More

about this next week.)

Jesus is born in Bethlehem although his mother is from Nazareth. His human father, Joseph, was also

living in Nazareth but had roots and (probably) family in Bethlehem. The young couple are in Bethlehem,

not Nazareth, at the time of Jesus’ birth. Mary is far from her family in Galilee. Tradition holds that

Mary’s father was named Joachim (Spanish: Joaquim) and her mother was Anne (from “Hannah,” Saint

Anne or Santa Ana in Catholic tradition). But her parents were not in Bethlehem nor were there any of

her aunts or sisters to help with the new baby.

The visit of the Magi to King Herod in Jerusalem resulted in an edict to find and kill all male children in

nearby Bethlehem under the age of two (Matthew 2:16). At the time, the little family is living in a house

in Bethlehem according to Matthew. This means that displaced Mary had found a modicum of peace

and normalcy in raising her son, Jesus. Joseph, a skilled woodworker, would have had no problem

finding employment and supporting his wife and son.

But now everything changes. Joseph is warned in a dream that he must leave Bethlehem and take his

family to safety in Egypt. Mary’s world is surely shattered. She must abandon the little home she had

been making for two years, leave almost everything behind, and flee to a foreign country to save her

son.

It is a sad episode that foreshadows the irrational and unrelenting opposition that Jesus would later

have in his ministry to the people of Israel.

This is the second sorrow of Mary.

Journaling Questions

1. Did your family have to move when you were young? How does such dislocation affect us? How

does it make us sad?

2. This story reflects the fact that children were not seen as valuable or precious in the Roman

world. Have things changed today? How?