Emmanuel – God is with us

Summary

The writer Matthew’s priority is not the birth, but rather the conception. Matthew is very concerned that we readers understand who it is that is being born, from where he comes, and who he is.

As the gospel writer Matthew tells us, Joseph was planning to quietly break his engagement with Mary to lessen the dishonor to her, and her family. While removing himself from her shame.

Yet, this is not what God wants.

God wants Jesus to be born of a woman, and raised within a family. God wants Jesus to live the life of a human, and not the life of a royal, but of one of the masses, one of the regular people. The world will come to know that he is different, that he comes from God through his words and actions. Though the angel shares with Joseph in his dream, that he is Emmanuel, God with us, the rest of the world will only discover that, will only come to believe this truth, in stages once he is older, but his parents needed to believe immediately.

Thankfully Joseph believed that truth once the angel had spoken to him in the dream and he took Mary as his wife, and upon the boy’s birth, named him Jesus.

When the angel speaks to Joseph in the dream he is reminding him of the words of Isaiah that we have also heard read this morning. “Look the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”

Jesus came to live amongst us, to live in us in order to create change. In God’s arrival amongst us, the world turned. In Jesus, God did the un-imaginable, God came to live amongst us, and even more to move and act in our midst.

Jesus was not only laid in the manger, but in our hearts. He did not only walk the dusty roads of Galilee, but the varied roads of our lives.

He was not hung upon the cross only for the first disciples, but burst from the tomb for people of every age and time.

You see, he was not simply Emmanuel for Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds, he is also Emmanuel for Mari and Jonas, and you and me, and for the entire world…though they may not notice him.

Jesus came to turn things around, to offer a new way, for us as humans, and for us as individuals. As the angel says to Joseph in his dream, “…you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

But, he didn’t just leave humanity then, nor does he just leave us now.

No, his name, Emmanuel is also a promise, God with us. God promises to be with us yet today. The Holy Spirit is present and active in our lives, and in the world, we can trust in God’s presence with us. We can hold fast to the name Emmanuel, for God is with us.

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