Jesus was a refugee - hegetsus.com

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We have seen numerous advertisements recently about how Jesus really isn't really like what people think He's like. The ads do their best to make Jesus relatable, while studiously avoiding anything that might be threatening or controversial about him. They present Jesus as plain vanilla, inoffensive, and non-threatening. The Gospel is conspicuously absent. Repentance is not mentioned, nor is sin.

Jesus is just a regular guy. He gets us...

So who's behind all this? Their website says, We’re also not affiliated with any particular church or denomination. There website also says, He Gets Us is an initiative of Servant Foundation.

So we were curious and started digging. 

According to nonprofitlight.com, the Servant Foundation is headed by Steve French, President and CEO. This non-profit is associated with and funded through The Signatry, which seems to be an organization that organizes and facilitates funds aggregation. Interestingly it also is also headed by Steve French, President and CEO. 

Turns out that we can trace it all the way back to Church of the Servant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. So hegetsus.com IS associated with a church, and with a denomination. Church of the Servant is a United Methodist church. 

Church of the Servant seems to be a pretty conventional church, at least as presented on their website. Lots of happy, smiling people doing happy smiling things, but really nothing of substance. In particular, there is no statement of faith, which almost every church features rather prominently. The Church of the Servant's website only tells us that if one wants to become a member, that person will then receive the statement of faith. 

So it seems that the Church of the Servant is also intended to present itself as plain vanilla, inoffensive, and non-threatening, just like hegetsus.com. So if we want to get a hint of the substance of Church of the Servant, it seems safe to assume that the messages found at hegetus.com are sourced from the church. 

So the article we wish to examine makes the claim that Jesus was a refugee. First, let's read the biblical account:

Matt 2:13-15: ...an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. 'Get up,' he said, 'take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.' So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.

Now let's define "refugee:"

A refugee, according to the Geneva Convention on Refugees is a person who is outside their country of citizenship because they have well-founded grounds for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and is unable to obtain sanctuary from their home country.

Refugees are part of a group that is being oppressed. They want to escape their bad situations, but they have nowhere go. However, Joseph and Mary were not part of a persecuted group. They we not being threatened. They did have a place to go. The definition simply doesn't fit. 

Therefore, they were not refugees, they were simply assassination targets. More specifically, they were warned in advance that they were going to be targeted. This makes them exiles:

1. The condition or period of being forced to live away from one's native country or home, especially as a punishment.
2. The condition or period of self-imposed absence from one's country or home.
3. One who lives away from one's native country, whether because of expulsion or voluntary absence.

The narrative of the below article is pretty conventional, until we get to the end. It says, ...the impact of being displaced always stuck with Jesus. We can see it in his compassion toward others... Is it really true that Jesus' life experience shaped His way of dealing with people? Well, it's possible, but the Bible doesn't tell us this. It's nothing more than speculation.

We think that Jesus was compassionate and merciful because His Father is compassionate an merciful:

Mk. 6:34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

2Co. 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion...

Ja. 5:11b The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Jn. 5:19 I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

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Most everyone knows the Christmas story. The star. The shepherds. The manger. The wise men. But one chapter in the story of Jesus’ birth is often neglected. Quite possibly because of its horrific nature. After the Magi from the East visited Mary and Joseph, King Herod requested they disclose where young Jesus resided. But being warned in a dream, the wise men departed a different way without telling the king of Jesus’ whereabouts. Enraged and threatened by a new potential ruler, Herod ordered all males 2 years old or younger to be killed.

With Herod’s henchmen bearing down on Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary fled with their young child to Egypt. Imagine the circumstances. Two young parents grab their toddler and whatever they can carry on their backs and flee the country. There was no safety for them in their homeland, so the only option was to seek foreign soil. 

We don’t know much about their time in Egypt, but one can only imagine that they probably ran from their home and tried to stay hidden as long as possible. Being young, poor, and Jewish, it’s unlikely Mary or Joseph spoke Egyptian. It’s possible the young family sought shelter and help from other Jewish communities scattered throughout Egypt. They might have even found and stayed in one of the synagogues that we know were in Egypt at the time.

After King Herod’s death, Joseph and Mary returned to Israel. But the impact of being displaced always stuck with Jesus. We can see it in his compassion toward others who were labeled outsiders — the Samaritans, the lepers, the tax collectors, and the sinners.

Scripture Reference: Matthew 2:13-15b