Problems and their causes do come to the end!

Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 

After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:I called my son out of Egypt.

After Herod’s death, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel. But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he left for the region of Galilee. There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the prophets were to be fulfilled: 'He will be called a Nazarene.’

Food for Thought!

We meditated on this text yesterday. And today we have it again for meditation.  Why? Well, there's a point we didn't touch; in other words, there's still food for thought in this gospel.  Yesterday we focused our meditation on problems and problem causes. We forgot to mention that both our problems and their causes do come to the end. In today's gospel reading we are comforted to learn that "those who wanted to kill the child are dead."

Yes, our problems and their causes do die. Our problems are not forever; our Herodes do die, and we continue alive. This is the good news from today's gospel reading. The first part of the gospel reading talks of Joseph and Mary and Jesus going into Egypt. The second part of the same gospel talks of Joseph, Mary and Jesus coming out of Egypt.

Our life is like this: we are on our way to Egypt or on our way out of Egypt.  I don't know where you're right now, if on your way to Egypt, in Egypt or getting out of Egypt. You must be somewhere.  Or you are about to get into a crisis,  or you're in a crisis right now, or you just came from one. In all these moments, today's gospel reminds us that our crises and their causes do come to the end.

Did you notice that twice the gospel says all Jesus' ordeals happened for the scriptures to be fulfilled? In other words, bad as it was for Jesus to be hated and sought to be killed by Herodes, there was a hand of God behind it all; it all had been foretold by the prophets. How would scripture - "I called my Son out of Egypt" - be fulfilled if Jesus had not been in Egypt? How would Jesus come out of Egypt if he had not been there? And how would he be there if he had not been forced to go there?

Yes, the sufferings of Jesus was all intended for something good for us all. Jesus did not suffer in vain; he did not die for nothing. Jesus suffered it all for you and me to learn to live through our own suffering and death. That's why we do well to remember during our own ordeals that God is in it, and that it is God who has either permitted us or lead us into the crisis or problem, "so that scriptures may be fulfilled" just as he did with Jesus Christ his most loved son, our Lord and Saviour, who lives for ever and ever. Amen.