1 st January: New Year’s Day

“Out of Egypt have I called my son”

In our very mobile society it has become fashionable to describe the event of the flight into Egypt as revealing Jesus as a refugee, and there is some relevance in this. But to do so misses the main point which Matthew is making about Jesus. For him, almost certainly writing for a Jewish-Christian community, the main point he is making throughout the Gospel is that Jesus is the New Moses.

Martin Buber, in his seminal work Moses: The Revelation and the Covenant, ¹ makes the point in his introduction that “What is important about the God of Moses is the association of qualities and activities which is peculiar to Him. He is the one who brings his own out, He is their leader and advance guard; prince of the people, legislator ad sender of a great message.” ² The nature of the Hebrew God is thus revealed in His interaction with Moses.

Matthew sees many parallels between Moses and Jesus. Like the Pentateuch, Matthew’s gospel divides into five sections and Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than the other Synoptic writers. The link with Moses begins with the genealogy in Chapter 1, which has parallel with the birth of Moses, as seen in Midrashic accounts of the birth of Moses (cf. Josephus’ Antiquities). This is even clearer in Chapter 2, where both Jesus and Moses are rescued from slaughter and live in Egypt. The theme continues throughout the Gospel. Jesus and Moses fast for 40 days and command the stones. Moses is shown the land of Canaan, while Jesus is shown all the kingdoms of the world. The Sermon on the Mount is a new version of the Ten Commandments. Whereas Moses issues the Torah, Jesus becomes the great interpreter of the law and its fulfilment. The feeding of the five thousand reflects the mana in the wilderness and the theme continues right through to the end of the Gospel (28:26) where Jesus like Moses gives instructions to his disciples from a mountain (Deuteronomy 32:48). Matthew is saying “Someone greater than Moses is here and the nature of God is fully revealed.” In Jesus, God is fully revealed. Matthew also is familiar with rabbinic interpretations of Scripture, not least in Jesus’ debate with the Pharisees.

With this background let us see what we learn from today’s Gospel This is story of murder and flight and in some ways reflects the passion narrative in Matthew, with the plotting against Jesus by the Jews and his crucifixion.

Matthew depicts Jesus as the new Moses, whose life is threatened by the king as was Moses by Pharaoh. While it was well known that Herod was a cruel tyrant, there is no known account of Herod massacring children, which clearly points us back again to Moses. There may be a hint here that Jesus had learned to become a magician who had learned his skills in Egypt but he returned as a child, which refutes this suggestion.

The quotation from Hosea also reflects the story of the Exodus ‘Out of Egypt’, which concerns Israel. By going into Egypt, Jesus recapitulates the stories of Moses and Joseph. Jesus completes and fulfils all that Moses offered. The new Israel has arrived. The true fulfilment of the Exodus lies in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Matthew quotes Jeremiah 31:15. Rachel, the mother of the two tribes of Judaism, is weeping over her descendants being moved into exile. The traditional tomb of Rachel is at Ramoth, which lies between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. But Matthew has a further reason. Jeremiah is the prophet associated with the destruction of Jerusalem in 386 bce. It was from there that the Jews went to exile in Babylon, but he relates it to the later destruction of 70 ce, which he sees at a judgement on the Jews for rejecting Jesus.

The death of Herod permits the return from Egypt. Then, in v. 23, Matthew gives a quotation from the prophets, which is not found in the Old Testament “He will be called a Nazarene”. Possibly Matthew is engaged in a subtle wordplay here. This was an early title of Jesus and in Acts (24:5) the early Christians are called Nazarenes, so it is possible that the Christians to whom Matthew was writing called themselves Nazarenes, or it was a term of abuse used by Jews against Christians. Here again is a hint of the Passion narrative.

“Out of Egypt have I called my son.” In Hosea this clearly applies to Israel, but Mathew applies it to the new Israel and the new Moses. He not only fulfils the Law, but is the final deliverer of his people. The Church as the New Israel is called out from safety and security into the risky wilderness and makes the journey of the pilgrim people of God. When Moses encounters God at the burning bush and asks who he is, God replies (in Buber’s translation) “I shall be present as I will be present”, ³ which in some way echoes the final verse of Matthew’s Gospel “I am with you always.” But the God revealed in Moses and in Jesus is not under our control; quite the reverse. Jesus, the new Moses shows us that there is a total cost in being called out as disciples. Life never stands still, God is always going ahead of us, calling us on. We are called to follow wherever Jesus leads us. Faith implies a risky and uncertain way of life. We are called to follow wherever God will lead us. Not only is Jesus the new Moses, He completes all that Moses pointed to and becomes the divine presence in our midst. It has been wisely said that in our very secular age, the choice facing the Church is that between the ghetto and the wilderness. Jesus, the new Moses, is calling us out into the wilderness where, as his faithful followers, we can move away from the securities we so easily cling to and find new life and hope. The God of Moses and Jesus reveals to us the God of the Bible. Isaac Watts in his hymn There is a Land of Pure Delight may have been reflecting on the afterlife but it can also be seen as the way of Faith that we should follow:

Could we but climb where Moses stood,

And view the landscape o’er,

Not Jordan’s stream, nor death’s cold flood,

Should fright us from the shore!