Three hundred and fifty miles. That’s a road trip from Denver to Oklahoma City. It’s the length of over 6,000 football fields placed end to end. It’s the height of roughly 64 Mount Everests stacked on top of each other. It’s also the distance that Jesus and his family traveled to flee Bethlehem. Not by camel, horse, or any other mode of transportation. They traveled on foot.
They did the unthinkable to escape a ruthless authoritarian leader, King Herod, who ruled a Roman-occupied Judea from 37 BCE to 4 BCE. Shortly after Jesus’ birth, King Herod, driven by insecurity and the fear that Jesus would one day overthrow him, decreed that all boys aged two years and younger be killed. When Mary and Joseph caught wind of his devious plan, they took baby Jesus and escaped their home to Egypt. This is the story that inspired our “Refugee” commercial.
Their journey mirrors the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers today, who face fear, uncertainty, violence, and worse. Eventually, Jesus and his family returned home, but it’s more than likely that experience stuck with Jesus and shaped his compassion for others. He knew firsthand what it was like to be an outsider and the challenges that come with the territory.
Decades later, Jesus delivered one of his most famous sermons, where he famously spoke about “the least of these,” referring to people who were vulnerable, overlooked, and powerless in society. He reminds his audience that “If you do anything against these people, you do them against me.”
Here, we see Jesus’ empathy on full display. Not only did he advocate for others to be compassionate toward the least of these, but he also likened himself to them because he knew how they felt, how they lived. His experiences throughout his adult life reinforce that, but his early days as a refugee might’ve been where his radical empathy began.
Two thousand years later, his teachings are just as relevant now as they were then. How can we practice the same radical empathy that Jesus taught a millennium ago? And even when others don’t, how different would our society be if we did anyway?
Bible References: Matthew 2:13-15b
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