The True Exodus

“Out of Egypt I called My son”.

These are words familiar to many of us from Matthew’s gospel (clinging on as they do to the coattails of the nativity scenes), but their significance is often missed.

After informing us of Joseph, Mary and Jesus’ flight to Egypt to escape the wrath of a jealous and threatened King Herod the Great, Matthew says this getaway occurred in order to fulfill what was written by the prophet Hosea, or, more accurately, what Yahweh has spoken through the prophet Hosea. That is, the phrase “Out of Egypt I called My son” was, in some shape or form, fulfilled in Jesus’ exile to Egypt and return to the Holy Land.

The rather shallow (and unfortunately quite common) way of reading this is as a sort of Nostradamus-esque prediction which miraculously comes true in the life of Jesus. In this case, Hosea made the prediction, and Jesus’ flight to Egypt made it come to pass. Then we’re supposed to go, “Look! See! He is the Son of God! He made an 800 year old prediction come true!”

But, as appropriate as that way of reading certain prophetic passages might be, I don’t that is what Matthew intended. After all, the text in Hosea speaks not of what god will do, but what he has already done.

Therefore instead of being a mere prediction about some event in the early life of Jesus, by drawing on the prophecy of Hosea Matthew is making an important identification; an identification between Jesus and Israel, who, collectively, is the original “my son” of Hosea 11. Through this identification Israel’s history is becoming Jesus’ story in a symbolic way, which is really Matthew’s gospel in a nutshell. And though of course there are similarities between the two stories -- or the two sons -- it is the differences that make all the difference.

Israel was called out of Egypt to be Yahweh’s kingdom of priests. The god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob delivered the nation as part of his plan to deliver the world and thus uphold his promises of universal blessing to Abraham. Israel, however, failed to live up to the vocation of Yahweh’s chosen son.

But god did not give up, neither on Israel nor the world. In Jesus of Nazareth, he was once again calling his son out of a foreign land -- out of exile -- and setting him up to be a light to the world. Jesus would be Israel’s representative, and play to perfection its role as manifestation and herald of the kingdom of god. And so Matthew, through his quotation of Hosea 11:1, is in effect saying, “This is the deliverance out of Egypt, take two. Lights, camera, action!” The remainder of the gospel fleshes out this plotline - in familiar ways but also in fresh, surprising ways.

It is notable where Matthew stops his quotation (remember, he wasn’t reading Hosea 11:1; he was simply reading Hosea). The next part of Hosea goes on to describe Israel’s idolatry, and their unfaithfulness to the call. This is where Jesus’ story parts ways with Israel’s tainted history. Or perhaps, it is where Jesus’ story rights the wrongs of Israel’s history. At his baptism Jesus is affirmed as Yahweh’s chosen son, the one he is well pleased with. During the 40 days of wilderness trials he -- unlike Israel during their 40 years of wandering -- stays faithful to his sonship, and refuses to bow down to another for his own selfish ends.

There is one other interesting thing to take from the subsequent passage in Hosea that Matthew perhaps intended to echo, if only faintly. That Jesus is to be identified with Israel is quite clear, given their respective roles as Yahweh’s chosen son. But if we read the rest of Hosea in the light of Matthew’s gospel, there is also an identification between Jesus and the god of that passage.

In Hosea 11 Yahweh speaks of teaching Israel to walk, taking him by the arms, and healing him - all parental activities. Though Jesus doesn’t echo the words exactly, he certainly echoes the sentiment in Matthew 23, where he speaks longingly about wanting to gather the children of Israel as a mother-hen gathers her brood under her wing. But like the Israel of Hosea’s time, the children “would not return” to their father. Repentance -- a significant theme in Hosea as well as the ministry of Jesus -- was not forthcoming.

Another particularly striking catch word is “yoke”. In Hosea 11:4 Yahweh says he “came to them [i.e. Israel] as one who eases the yoke on their jaws”. In Matthew 11:29-30 Jesus bids all who would come to him to take his yoke which is easy, and so once again the “chosen son” is actually assuming the role of “father”.

But as with his identification with the Israel of Hosea, Jesus’ identification with the god of Hosea also diverges away from perfect similarity. As Yahweh struggles within himself between compassion and judgement (a struggle embodied by Jesus throughout his own ministry), he finally gives in to his compassion, affirming that “I am god and not man”. Here is where something new has occurred, for Jesus is both.

This is the wonder of Christmas - the fullest revelation of god is found in the form of a man. Jesus came not simply to make questionable predictions come true, but (in the inimitable words of my former teacher) to “reveal deity and heal humanity”. To reveal deity he had to identify with god; to heal humanity he had to identify with us. He did so from the very beginning, and took this identification right to the depths of human depravity as he hung on a cross, giving his life as a ransom for many.

God called his son Jesus out of Egypt so that the true exodus could come to pass; the deliverance from a life of sin and the deliverance to a life of Christlikeness, where god and neighbour become truly loved. The message of Christmas is that god’s son Jesus is the suffering servant, and this suffering servant is the Israel’s messiah and lord of the world. This is the good news that Matthew wanted his original readers to know, and it is the good news that continues to be made known to this day, with profound effects on all who receive it freely and obediently.