By Victor Ochieng
In the gospel of Matthew, we read that Jesus, together with his family, fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod the King who issued a charged to slay all male children who were two years and under in a bid to kill Jesus whom he’d been told was set to be King of the Jews. Whether Jesus’ citizenship status turned to that of a refugee while in Egypt is a bone of contention, with many people refraining from saying he was.
Rev. Al Sharpton, on his show, said Jesus was a refugee and he was badly mocked for that statement.
“Well, that’s not exactly accurate,” co-host Steve Doocy claimed.
“Well, according to the Bible, it’s really not,” agreed Carley Shimkus, who, instead of reading the Bible, read tweets to support his claim that Jesus wasn’t a refugee but that his family basically made a trip to Egypt to pay taxes.
“Who gave (Sharpton) his gift certificate to be a reverend?” said co-host Brian Kilmeade.
However, when you check out the word refugee in the Webster’s dictionary, you find out that it’s in agreement with Al Sharpton. Rev. Sharpton isn’t the first high-profile figure to say Jesus was a refugee. Pope Francis, while calling upon world religious leaders to be considerate to refugees fleeing to their countries, said Jesus was indeed a refugee.
“We believe that Jesus was a refugee, had to flee to save his life, with Saint Joseph and Mary, had to leave for Egypt,” said the Pointiff, as reported by Zenit. “He was a refugee. Let us pray to Our Lady who knows the pain of refugees.”
So, when Sharpton said it, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, especially when the internet claps back with truth in his support.
Besides Jesus having fled to Egypt, he also lived as a displaced person away from his ancestral home.
What can, therefore, be deduced from the statements of those claiming Jesus wasn’t a refugee is that they’re intentionally choosing what to practice; the things that they feel favor them. These are people who’re intent on justifying slavery, and killings among other sins.
Many leaders who’re leading stable countries are constantly looking for ways to lock out refugees, claiming refugees raise insecurity and take away jobs from natives. Some just do it out of fear knowing that accepting a large number of refugees has the potential of tilting the political scale at some point in the future.
Based on international statements issued by leaders, especially those of the European countries and now the U.S., it’s clear that if they’d lived during the time of Jesus, they could’ve locked out baby Jesus from entering their countries.
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