Jesus’ Exodus from Egypt

This week as we continue through our Exodus Way series, we get first official glimpse into the life of Jesus and as we do, I think it is important for us to spend out time today comparing how even just the beginning of Jesus life and ministry is a parallel to the life and history of the people of Israel. I believe by doing that it will really open up not just the connections in our summer series, but really open up how so many people could see the way that Jesus was the fulfillment of what God had been promising God’s people all along.

(As a side note, I usually try to use a combination of pictures and scripture on the screen but given all the parallels to Old Testament scripture it might end up being all quotes so you can see the connections.) To start off one of the many parallels that we will look at today is the holy family’s escape to Egypt. This part of the story reminds us of Abraham and later Joseph and his brother’s journey down to Egypt. Then we are immediately fast forwarded to the actual Exodus event where Pharaoh wants to kill the firstborn males to stop the growth of the Israelite population and the way that God does that back to Egypt. Only this time instead of Pharaoh causing this, it is Herod who is doing it to his own people so that he can stay in power. And while we didn’t look at this during our series, it is unfortunately not too dissimilar in the ways that the kings of Israel mistreated their own people and in their own ways became oppressors…aka they became Pharaoh like. In the end we see the way that Jesus is, even as an infant, living out the very history of his ancestors and the people he came to save. This is happening so much so that the gospel writer Matthew quotes Hosea in verse 15 and even though that quote from Hosea isn’t meant to be a prophecy about calling his son out of Egypt, it is Matthew’s way of very explicitly connecting what Jesus is about to do with the very history, the whole story of God’s engagement and promises, with the past and present people of Israel.

One of the commentaries that I read almost every single week, the Word Biblical Commentary, says this, “Again, in Matthew’s perspective, Jesus is understood as summarizing the whole experience of Israel as well as bringing it to fulfillment. Every strand of hope and trial in the OT is woven together in the eschatological appearance of the Promised One.” In other words, Jesus is presented as I said, as the entire history of God and Israel wrapped up into a single person, and that person is to bring about the completion of God’s promises as the Promised One and the hope of all people rest in his life, death and resurrection. Matthew and the other writers all do this to show us and remind us that the work of God isn’t done by accident or as a side thought, but that this is the way in which God has planned it all out. This is the right time and right place for the ultimate Exodus to begin. And to begin that with Matthew’s gospel we see Jesus having his own literal exodus event as he leaves Egypt as a child to enter into the Promised Land of Israel.

Alright, I know this is some heavy stuff so as we shift away from the fulfillment promises and parallels of Matthew and move into the ones in Mark, let’s take a deep breath and maybe a stretch.

Last week we were also in Mark’s gospel and we pick up right where we left off. Last week was the focus on John the Baptist and his preparing people for the coming of the Messiah the one who is the ultimate Exodus Way. If you were with us we actually focused on some parallels with people coming to the Jordan River and the significance of the river for the people. So imagine now that not only are the people being baptized in the very waters that mark the boundary of the entrance into the physical land they were promised, but now the person that John the Baptist has declared as the one to come after him is now here at the same river. Another parallel is not just the literal river itself but also a reminder of the river or the Red Sea that their ancestors passed through. Jesus is again reliving the very life of the people of Israel in his own life. So when I said last week that these promises and these memories of the ‘history’ of the people are more than a history they are very much a living part of it even if the actual event happened thousands of years ago. And the same goes for Jesus.

So Jesus is baptized and the beautiful part of that is that he is baptized the same as you and me and all those who were baptized that day in the Jordan River. The one who came to fulfill the promises of the kingdom of God not only represents the fulfillment of all scripture for all time, but he also lives a life just like a life that you and I have lived.

Then as Jesus comes out of the water he is claimed as God’s own son. The same way that God claimed the people of Israel as God’s son. We see that scripture in what we just saw and talked about the Matthew quote from Hosea 11:1 that God has called God’s son out of Egypt. We also see it in Exodus 4:22 where Moses is instructed to use the language of Israel as God’s son in trying to free God’s people from Pharaoh. This language of son or children is the same way that we see God claim us as God’s sons and daughters in the waters of baptism and it is the language Paul frequently uses in his letters to the different churches. While we often use this scripture as a way to show that God has publicly claimed Jesus as God’s son and therefore messiah, which it is, we also see the way that it parallels and connects us all to being a part of both an ancient, present, and future family of God.

Now that Jesus has left Egypt as we saw in Matthew and crossed the river through baptism, we now see that on the other side of the river is the wilderness where he is tested for 40 days. This testing in the wilderness is a direct connection to the 40 years that the Israelites were in the wilderness before they entered the Promised Land. While there the major parallel between these two events there is actually a very significant theological difference between the two.

If we jump back to Matthew to look at the specifics of Jesus’ temptation we will see the three tests that he undergoes and in all 3 tests he passes them. And if we were to look back at the wilderness journey of the Israelites, while God provides for them we see that they are not always able to be faithful to God. It is the faithfulness of Jesus that creates the way for which Jesus becomes the ultimate Exodus way. Jesus is able to do for us what we are not able to do for ourselves.

Jesus is the faithfulness that is needed and the only one who is able to do it, and through him we are able to follow his way, and by doing that we, and all the world, receive the promises and blessings of God. For if we look at the history of Israel we see that they are in an endless Exodus cycle. It isn’t until this chosen and promised time does Jesus come to become the perfect representation of Israel and therefore the ultimate way to journey from exile and wilderness into the Promised Land. In the weeks ahead we will continue to see how Jesus becomes the ultimate Exodus Way for us and for all nations and peoples of the world. That is good news for us all. Amen.