Milford, Brockville, Egypt, Kingston, Pembroke, Bloomfield, Wilton, Boston and Houghton, New York, have something in common. I have lived there. Each place represents some of the chapters in my life.
Our different addresses help tell the story of our lives. Some of the places bring memories of hardship, pain, conflict, or loss. Other places may remind us of happy times, growth and development, success, freedom and security. Whatever the memory, we discover that the places where we lived are tied to life memories.
Three places caught my attention in Matthew 2: Bethlehem, Egypt and Nazareth. All three of these places housed Jesus and his family. All three places experienced a transformation through the presence of Jesus.
The Magi arrived in Jerusalem and went to King Herod looking for the new born king. The constellation in the sky communicated a message to the Magi that something of significance was happening in the East. A king had been born. He was a king worthy of their praise and worship. They desired to pay tribute to this new born king.
Their query about a newborn King sent King Herod into a desperate search. King Herod could not stand to hear the word ‘king’ if it was not attached to his name. Even a newborn who was thought to someday be king was a dangerous threat. Anyone born to be king would not be allowed to live.
Herod did not know where to look for the newborn king but he knew who to ask. So it was that he approached the religious scholars of the day. They identified the place from their knowledge of the scriptures. It was a little village located 9km south of Jerusalem. The place was Bethlehem.
King David had been born in Bethlehem but it was country, a place for shepherds and common folk. King David had left Bethlehem behind. He chose to make Jerusalem the city of significance. Bethlehem remained a small insignificant town separated from the places of importance.
Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem changed all that. The insignificant town became a place of significance. Jesus’ presence brought a prominence that remains to this day. Today, millions – it is not an exaggeration to say several billion of the earth’s six billion people— see Bethlehem as a significant place. Why? Because Jesus, the Messiah, the saviour of the world was born in this little town south of Jerusalem.
The next place was Egypt. Egypt represented slavery, hardship and loss for the people of Israel. They had entered Egypt as a privileged people. Their position within the land deteriorated. Freedom, prestige, power, independence had been lost. Day after day, the sons and daughters of Israel endured the hardship of slavery to a powerful nation intent on using this displaced people for their own purposes.
The sons and daughters of Abraham cried out to God. God heard and brought deliverance through Moses. Egypt, the land of slavery, was a land to avoid.
Then Jesus entered into the picture. Instead of a land of slavery, and loss, Egypt became a haven, a place of protection for God’s Son. When the Magi failed to report back to Herod, the King went on a rampage. Herod’s first plan to locate and kill Jesus failed, so he concocted a more brutal plan. If he could not discover where the newborn king was living in Bethlehem, he would kill all the babies two and under. No other King – even if the King came from God himself – would be allowed to live.
King Herod carried out his ugly plan. But he still failed. In spite of all the pain he inflicted, Herod failed to kill the one born to be King. Mary, Joseph and Jesus had found a place of refuge in the land of Egypt. At the right time God would bring his son back from the land of Egypt.
On arriving back in Judea, Joseph and Mary discovered that Herod’s son Archelaus was ruler of that area. The region of Judea, which included Bethlehem and Jerusalem, was not safe. God intervened again. Mary and Joseph were instructed to head north into the Galilee area. They settled in the city of Nazareth.
The region of Galilee, where Nazareth was located, was separated from Judea by Samaria. The physical separation also represented a religious and political separation. All the significant action took place in the south. The people of Galilee were viewed with distain by the people of the south.
Before New Testament times, the Galilee region was part of the ten tribes who had separated from Judea and the line of David. The people were led into spiritual darkness through the worship of false gods by a rebellious leadership. Renewal movement began in the south, not the rebellious north.
Jesus’ home in Nazareth changed all that. The place of rebellion and spiritual darkness became the source of light coming through Jesus the Messiah. The radical transformation from a place of darkness to a source of light was predicted by the Prophet Isaiah. He wrote through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus: “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:16; cf. Isaiah 9: 1,2).
What a fantastic transformation for this region viewed so dismissively by the powerful and the religious. It took place because Jesus made his home in the region. Jesus grew and developed in Nazareth. When the time was right, he began the ministry God had called him to do in that region. His teachings and the power of the Holy Spirit working through him beamed God’s light into the world in a fresh and powerful way.
Cyndi told me of a T.V. show called “Trading Spaces.” It seems a budget is allotted and two teams of people do a redecorating job in a room of the other team’s place. The goal is to take what is drab and unattractive and turn the space into a welcoming living space.
This morning you may find yourself struggling in an uncomfortable living space. It could be a space where you are feeling insignificant. Along with those feelings, you also have feelings of being ignored and under-appreciated.
Maybe you are in a space that has the reputation of Egypt, a space of hardship, slavery (maybe the slavery is an addiction or debt) or place of grief and loss.
You could be a space of rebellion and darkness. Your search for happiness and satisfaction has been in all the wrong places.
Whatever the space you find yourself in today, Jesus is able to transform your space. The insignificant Bethlehem became a place of significance. Egypt was transformed from a place of loss and slavery to a space of safety – a haven where Jesus could live. The region of Zebulon where Nazareth was located became a source of light rather than darkness. The place of stubborn rebellion against God became the place from which God’s light began to shine. What kind of space are you in today?
How does transformation take place? The transformation begins with Jesus. Allow him to work on those spaces in your life characterized by feelings of insignificance. Embrace him. Make room for him, time for being with him, learning about him. As you allow the influence of his presence to grow in your life, he will turn your feelings of insignificance into the realization that you are loved and appreciated and cared for. This new realization will enable you to love and appreciate and care for others through the power of Jesus.
Invite him into the hardships of your life – the places of loss – the places of slavery. Seek his help, his empowerment and his deliverance. Allow him to lead. As you follow him, you will find yourself in a new space – a space of safety, security, and hope.
If you are living in a place of rebellion and darkness, invite Jesus to transform your rebellion and darkness into obedience to his will. Follow him. Allow his light to reveal the darkness in your life and bring transformation.
If you are in a good space today, give thanks and make sure you look to Jesus as the source of every good gift.
Jesus came to transform our spaces. He did so by trading spaces. On the cross he entered into our insignificance, our hardships and losses, our rebellion and darkness. Through his death and resurrection he overcame the darkness. He overcame death. He overcame our rebellion. He made it possible for us to experience the transforming love of God.
Take a moment to give thanks for Jesus’ willingness to transform your spaces. Take time to reaffirm and remember that Jesus is and will be present in your life to accomplish what is good and right for you.
If you have been living in darkness and rebellion, if there are issues between you and Jesus, take time to invite Jesus in, seek his forgiveness and know his gracious transforming love. Commit yourself or recommit yourself to him. Determine to allow him to be Lord of your Life.
Prayer: Father, thank you for the opportunity to trade spaces with your Son. I ask you to take my places of insignificance and use them to give birth to new hope. Take my places of pain and sorrow and loss and transform them into a haven of safety. Take my rebellion and darkness and transform it into a training ground for obedience and a new call upon my life to do your will. Thank you, Father, for loving me so much you were willing to take those undesirable spaces in my life and transform them through your power and grace. Amen.