The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

Jesus Begins to Redeem Israel’s Story:  Mt.2:13 – 21

^2:13 Now when they had gone, behold, 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 going to search for the child to destroy him.’ ¹⁴ So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. ¹⁵ He 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 called My Son.’ ¹⁶ Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. ¹⁷ Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: ¹⁸ ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be comforted, because they were no more.’ ¹⁹ But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, ²⁰ ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the child’s life are dead.’ ²¹ So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

          In Jodi Picoult’s 2004 book, My Sister’s Keeper, now also a movie by the same name, a girl named Anna discovers that she was conceived by her parents to harvest a kidney for her older sister Kate.  Anna is a so-called ‘savior sibling’ to Kate, who has leukemia.  When Anna was in the womb, blood was drawn from the umbilical cord for a treatment Kate needed.  The treatment was only temporarily successful, however, and Kate relapsed.  As a child, Anna was willing to donate whatever bone marrow or bodily material Kate needed.  The plot takes some surprising turns, and after a tragic car accident, Anna, then brain-dead due to the accident, becomes a kidney donor to save her sister’s life.  

          Anna’s story is much like her sister Kate’s.  She begins life in the same womb, of course.  She is raised by the same parents.  But when it comes to health and medical procedures, Anna’s story is opposite Kate’s.  Anna is the donor and Kate is the recipient.  Anna gives her life and bodily substance to Kate, culminating in a final sacrifice.

          Jesus’ story is much like Israel’s story.  He begins life vulnerable to those in power in Israel (Mt.2:3), much like Israel as a nation began vulnerable to those in power in Egypt (Ex.1:8 – 10).  Jesus’ presence triggers a massacre of children and great weeping, just as Israel’s presence in Egypt triggered a massacre of children and great weeping (Ex.1:15 – 16).  The young Jesus came out of Egypt into the Promised Land (Mt.2:15, 19 – 21), just as the young nation Israel once came out of Egypt and into the Promised Land (Ex.14; Josh.1).  The parallel is striking, and Matthew is deliberately calling our attention to it.  This is why Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’  Even though Hosea was not making a prediction which Jesus ‘fulfilled’ in its particularity, Jesus was still ‘filling to the full’ Israel’s story in its broadest and deepest way.  This reflects God’s commitment to identify Himself with His people.  It also reflects how, after all the centuries between the Exodus and Jesus, the world’s opposition hadn’t changed that much.

          But when it came to spiritual health, Jesus is the donor, and Israel is the recipient, with the Gentiles to shortly follow thereafter.  To do so, he will, in some sense, live an opposite story as Israel.  He will succeed where they failed.  He will remain faithful to God where they were faithless.  Jesus will give his life and bodily substance to the whole world, culminating in a final sacrifice.  Jesus is the ‘younger sibling’ of all humanity in whom God took to Himself a human body, in order to become a spiritual ‘organ donor’ to the rest of us.  This is why his story resembles Israel’s story. 

          We look with anticipation on how his life will turn out!  As a practical application of what we’re reading, can you do something that symbolizes Jesus coming into the world of Israel’s sorrow?