Jesus was a refugee.
After his Bethlehem birth, Joseph was startled to action in a dream, told to “rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” (Matthew 2: 13).
This means the first years of Jesus’ life were not spent in his homeland but in foreign Egypt. As God enfleshed grew up in the world, he first learned to walk, talk, and live as a refugee.
Like so many before him and after him, Jesus’ family fled to escape the murderous rage of those in power.
This takes means Christ has a special solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
For Jesus, Herod’s jealous rage would kill every male infant in Bethlehem’s region, hoping to strike down Israel’s true king. For Ukraine, Putin’s jealous rage hopes to restore a past kingdom to vain glory and take what belongs to another.
When Ukrainian families are separated from loved ones at the border, unsure of where they will go and what they will do, they are living a reality which our savior’s earthly family knew all too well.
As families pack their bags in the middle of the night to flee to neighboring countries, Jesus knows what this is like.
And as other countries welcome their Ukrainian neighbors, offering food, places to sleep, toys for their children, sim cards for their phones, they are mirroring the hospitality of our God as well who is “father to the fatherless, a defender of widows” (Psalm 68:5).
In the chaos and the brokenness of this blooming war, let us not forget that before he was Jesus of Nazareth, our savior was Jesus the refugee—child of Bethlehem yet a sojourner in Egypt.
He cannot found standing off in pious detachment from this conflict but in the middle of it, standing with those who are suffering and working through the hands which are helping.
One day he’ll come to bring an end to all wars, and all refugee crises once and for all.
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen.
( Prayer For Peace, the Book of Common Prayer)
P.S. If you’re looking for ways to help Ukrainians, here’s a great webpage with various organizations to give to.