The Christmas Story is Not About Refugees, Immigrants, or the Homeless....It is About How God Became Flesh

The Flight Into Egypt, by Vittore Carpaccio (1466-1525).

  In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And all went to be registered, each to his own town.  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.  Luke 2:1-7

  Now when they [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, 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.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.  Matthew 2:13-15

  Around this time of year, for the past several years, somebody or somebodies begin proclaiming Jesus was either homeless, a refugee, or an immigrant.  I find such statements are made by either the ignorant or those with a political agenda, as the point of these statements is to in fact drive a certain political or social schema.  We should help the homeless because Jesus was homeless. We should let refugees and immigrants into whatever country or territory because Jesus Christ was a refugee or an immigrant.  These statements are all false.  Let us examine the evidence for each of these statements.

  “Jesus was homeless”.  This is a false statement, and the only reasoning I find for such a statement is the fact he was born in a stable.  However, Mary and Joseph were not residing in a barn because they were homeless.  Luke tells us that Caesar Augustus decreed “all the world should be registered”.  Some translations of Luke’s gospel say “taxed” or a “census be taken” or “enrolled” and “the world” is of course the whole Roman Empire.  Upon this decree, everyone in the Empire was required, by law, to travel to their hometown to be counted as part of a census.  This was not a one-time registration but a recurring census that took place every 14 years.  This one was probably, however, the first one to take place in Palestine, because until then Jews had been exempt from military service. The census was designed to register young men for service in the Roman Army.  Population was counted by family and tribe, which is why everyone had to return to their hometown for registration.  Due to this, many people had crowded into Bethlehem, and probably many descendants of David (Joseph and Mary were both children of David).  The journey from Galilee to Bethlehem is some 70 miles, and by the time Joseph arrived with a very pregnant Mary, all the inns were full.  The only place left to stay was the stable where animals were kept.  Jesus was not homeless because he was born in a stable.  He was born in a stable because his parents were victims of bureaucracy.  When the Wise Men arrived some months later, Mary, Joseph and Jesus were living in a house in Bethlehem.

  “Jesus was a refugee”.  While technically this could be a true statement, it is made for false reasons.  I assume this statement comes from the fact that Joseph with Mary and Jesus had to flee to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill Jesus. In fact, Herod killed every baby boy under the age of 2 years old in an attempt to eliminate Jesus.  In this sense, one could say Jesus was a refugee, but not in the sense the term is normally used. Modern refugees, especially the ones concerning the “Jesus was a refugee” political statement, are not fleeing a despot who is killing people to eliminate the rightful king.  These refugees are fleeing either war or natural disaster, a regime that is killing everyone who dares defy it, or simply because there is better economic opportunity elsewhere. The angel did not tell Joseph to flee to Egypt with Jesus and Mary because there was an impending war, or because an earthquake was about to hit Bethlehem, or because Joseph could get higher-paying carpentry work in Egypt.  They had to flee, in the middle of the night no less, because Herod wanted none but himself to have the title “King of the Jews”, and because this was a desperate attempt by Satan to destroy the Messiah.

   “Jesus was an immigrant”. Though the reasoning behind this is related to the refugee statement, it is as untrue as the idea Jesus was homeless.  Though I am unsure of the reason, I presume the logic for this statement is the flight to Egypt.  Someone who is an immigrant leaves one country to permanently reside in another country, usually for better economic opportunity.  Unlike refugees, immigrants usually are not fleeing wars or disasters.  As stated above, Joseph did not flee with Jesus and Mary into Egypt because he wanted a better job, or because Egypt had a better education system than Palestine.  They fled because Herod wanted to kill Jesus and massacred all baby boys he could find to be certain he slayed the correct child.  Also, unlike most immigrants, Jesus’ stay in Egypt was not permanent.  Joseph received another message from the angel saying Herod was dead and they could go home.  Herod died not long after Slaughter of the Innocents, so Jesus’ time in Egypt could have been as short as a few weeks or months.  Jesus was not an immigrant because his (earthly) father did not take him somewhere for a better opportunity, and when the danger was past, the family returned home. 

   Jesus was not homeless, he had a home but his family was required by law to travel to another place for tax and census purposes.  He was not an immigrant or a refugee because he had to flee his homeland. Jesus was God in human flesh and therefore a special child who was born to free people from their sins.  Because of this, all the powers of darkness in this world were organized against him. Statements like this are nearly as bad as those in the pro-life movement who claim Jesus was an unplanned pregnancy.  We would all of us do well, to not twist Biblical truth into our own social or political agenda.