Where in this world can we go to be safe? We all think about it from time to time. I went to see my mother last week and happened to arrive in Dallas alongside a wall cloud. We took mom through torrential rain into a pizza restaurant. There the television weathercasters told us to take cover from the storm. Mom asked where we would go to be safe. Soon pictures preempted the football games to show images of devastation caused by the storms a short distance away. Sometimes the terror comes not from the clouds but from crowds of people who are trying to harm others.
Matthew’s story tells us our search for security is not new. After Jesus’ birth the terrible King Herod killed children because he feared that the “King of the Jews” would usurp his throne. Egypt was a safe haven for Jesus and his family for a season. When it came time to head home, where would they go? Matthew says Joseph decided not to go to the part of Israel where Archelaus, one of Herod’s sons reigned. So they went to Nazareth in Galilee and Jesus was called a Nazarene.
Not even Nazareth is safe today for followers of Christ. The day our tour stopped at the Baptist church in Nazareth, I remember that boys picked up rocks in the street. They did not throw them at us, but violence simmered just beneath the surface. Lost in much of the current dialogue about the Middle East is the plight of the Christians who are the most persecuted group of all. Like our brothers and sisters at the Baptist church in Nazareth, the Christians in Israel are mostly Arabs. So as we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and Israel, Houston and America, let us especially pray for the Christians in the Middle East, forgotten by most, scattered and decimated by the recent violence.
