Hello,This is my first go at this kind of article
With all the news in the news we get on the EU referendum there are to aspects that come to your head, the economy and migration. With all the scaremongering in the media about migrates coming to the country and that effect it has on our life. Let us not forget the Jesus too was a refugee.
When the wise men arrived at Herod’s Palace to celebrate the birth of the King of Kings, Herod took the news badly and order a pre-emptive strike against the people of Bethlehem. Ordering the death of all Boy under the age of two.
Joseph was warned in a dream what was coming and he fled with his young family to Egypt.
It was not until Herod’s death that they return to the lands of Israel and even then their fear of Herod’s family kept them away from their original home in Judea.
The legacy of being a refugee and a newcomer to a place far from home is something that may have informed Jesus’s teaching. When he set off on his mission, he took up the life of a displaced person with no fixed abode. His followers mirrored his life by going out without a bag or a change of clothing, essentially to walk along the road like destitute refugees who had suddenly fled, relying on the generosity and hospitality of ordinary people they encounter on the way.
Therefore we should give thanks for what we have and help those in need where and when ever we can. I am new to Rochdale myself and although I do have a home here in some small way I can emphasise with the refugees that have been forced from their homes to new lands. Unlike myself I have found a warm welcome to my new home so we should in turn make them feel welcome. Rather than demonise them even before the arrived.
(Based on http://historicaljesusresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/jesus-was-refugee.html)
