Does It Even Matter if Jesus Was a Refugee?

December 12, 2019

2:22 PM

Caged Holy Family

The outdoor Nativity scene at Claremont United Methodist Church shows the Holy Family in cages. Claremont pastor the Rev. Karen Clark Ristine calls the display a theological statement about U.S. immigration policy. (Facebook Photo from Karen Clark Ristine)

Two immigration-related stories caught my attention this week as we move through this season of Advent together.

The first involved a United Methodist Church in California that drew quite a bit of attention with its nativity display. Outside of the building, the nativity provocatively featured the Holy Family, each separated and locked up in chain-link cages—an explicit critique of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy.

The second story involved an executive order from President Trump, giving states and cities the power to refuse refugees. The first county to consider this new authority was one in North Dakota where a larger-than-normal crowd gathered as the county commission discussed the matter. While the county narrowly approved the receipt of up to 25 refugees, allowing a resettlement program managed by Lutheran Social Services to continue, the virulent public sentiment against refugees was both new and shocking to several persons involved.

When I posted a link to the story about the nativity on the PNW Facebook page a few days ago, people responded with very different perspectives. While I’m rarely surprised by the reactions people arrive at, I was disturbed by some of the comments, two in particular. The first:

“They were not refugees; therefore, this is misleading and inaccurate.”

And the other:

“NO. That is a horrible way to depict our Jesus. Satan is certainly working overtime. Shame”

Political? Theological? Both?

The nativity display at Claremont UMC in California is clearly intended to make a statement, one the church’s pastor defined as “theological” rather than political. I suspect that honest people could disagree with that given the politically-evocative imagery.

Yet, it isn’t uncommon to hear criticism in local churches that a pastor has become “too political” even when their intent is faithful proclamation. One might ask: “What good is preaching that doesn’t intersect with the world?” And while I do believe that is possible to be “too political,” what it usually means is “I don’t agree with what they said.”

Sometimes what people are objecting to is that old, old story we call the Gospel.

Matthew’s Gospel relates that in a dream, an angel warns Joseph that the Holy Family is in danger, threatened by a paranoid King Herod (Matt:2:13). We learn a few verses later that Jesus spent years of his early childhood in Egypt, displaced by the violence. And even when the family returns from Egypt upon Herod’s death, they choose to resettle in Galilee for fear of Herod’s son Archelaus (Matt: 2:21-23).

If this doesn’t qualify Jesus as a refugee, what would?

For some people, it doesn’t matter that Jesus and his parents were refugees, just as it doesn’t matter that the Bible repeatedly demands that God’s people offer hospitality to the stranger.

“That means you must also love immigrants because you were immigrants in Egypt (Deut. 10:19).”

They have their minds made up—or made up for them.

Now, don’t get me wrong. We are all guilty of reading the Bible and interpreting the world around us in ways that reinforce our existing biases. But something different is at work here. As evidenced by the suddenly concerned citizens in North Dakota, and in the increased vitriol targeted online and in person at immigrants, refugees, and others identified as the “other,” knowledge gaps are being exploited to stoke fear and animosity.

The Many Blessings of a Diverse Church

Encountering different understandings is one of the blessings of being in a diverse church. As a global denomination, United Methodism has not adopted much of the xenophobia that is increasingly pervasive in our culture, yet. But that doesn’t mean that we can rest on our laurels, or that our members are immune to the toxic messaging at odds with the generosity and hospitality God calls us to. We all need help in uncovering the blind spots and flaws in our thinking.

So as we celebrate the arrival of the baby Jesus this year, let’s not shy away from the fact that He was a refugee once too. For if we are taking Jesus’ teaching seriously, should we not look for Christ precisely in the face of one fleeing danger and seeking sanctuary and hope (Matt 25:34-40)?

And if we find ourselves in places too monolithic, let’s challenge ourselves to start the new year stepping out of our comfort zones, whatever they might be.

You can find the official positions of The United Methodist Church on migration and several related resources gathered together on UMC.org.

Patrick Scriven

Patrick Scriven is a husband who married well, a father of three amazing girls, and a seminary educated layperson working professionally in the church. Scriven serves the Pacific Northwest Conference as Director of Communications and Young People’s Ministries. This post is republished with permission from the Pacific Northwest Conference website.

Comments (2)

Comment Feed

The Light of Christmas

It's so easy for us to sidetrack the Light of Christmas when we really need to keeping the Main Thing the main thing.

Skipper more than 4 years ago

Typical Liberal’s Convoluted Representation of Scripture

Patric Scriven misrepresents Jesus’ family as representative of the thousands of immigrants illegally crossing our borders in these times. Absolutely false. Jesus family was warned and guided and protected by God according to His own plan. They were certainly “vetted” by God himself and thus were surely not among the illegals who were rapists, murderers, thieves, or transporters of a plethora of deadly drugs.
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In these days, liberals want to admit tens of thousands of UN-VETTED illegals into our country, some of whom are rapists, murderers, thieves, or transporters of a variety of deadly drugs. Of course, not ALL of them, not even MOST of them, but SOME of them and without careful vetting, will do great harm to innocent Americans. Why do liberals want to unleash such pestilence on their fellow Americans?
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In these days, our schools in many places are turning out too many students with little or no education. They have no marketable skills, few life skills, lack basic communication skills which would allow them access to many opportunities of American life. Our schools are very over-crowded, including too many students with special needs – like language issues – and our curriculums are often “dumbed down” so that those slower students don’t feel so bad – another bright star of liberal logic.
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In these days, we have our own poor. Partly due to paying poor women to have children that they cannot afford, partly due to the march of technology which has left so many behind. Why would liberals want to allow throngs of unskilled labor to come in to compete with our own poor for the limited jobs for the unskilled? Our welfare and healthcare budgets are busting and the taxes paid to fund them continue to rise. Cities, counties and states are running deficits at the costs. Why?
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At the bottom line, there are no similarities between the story of Jesus in Egypt with our illegal immigration crisis in America today. Oh, and the CAGES? The popular pictures of kids in cages were taken during the OBAMA presidency - another typical liberal misrepresentation.

Reese more than 4 years ago