Gifts of Christmas: Emmanuel

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Isaiah 7:10-16:

There are lots of things for which religion is used, and one of them is to explain suffering, with the corresponding side of that of giving hope. And different religions give different answers, but there is one thing that separates Christianity from everyone else is the fact that we believe the answers are found not in ideas, but in a person, and that person is of course Jesus. Whom we also refer to, especially in this time of the year as Emmanuel, which means God with us. And so that is the final gift that we celebrate receiving from God through Christ. Just a quick recap, the first gift was reconciliation, that through Christ we are invited into right relationship with God and with each other. And the second gift was the freedom we receive through the Christ, of being freed from the slavery to sin and death, and into forgiveness and eternal life, but also the freedom to stop thinking about ourselves and instead to become servants to the world, just as Christ did. And that leaves us with the greatest gift which is that Christ himself is the Word made flesh, as the gospel of John says, also known as the incarnation. God come to dwell amongst us, our Emmanuel. And we first here of this from that passage we heard today from the prophet Isaiah.

Now it is from Isaiah that we get most, but not all, of the things that we take as telling of the coming of Christ, but let me just say that these are particularly Christian understandings. Within Judaism they were not necessarily viewed as messianic predictions. Especially for Isaiah, he was not prophesying about some time in the distant future, but about the here and now, and that is true for this passage. As Isaiah is talking about this young woman, it’s a woman that is actually there. There is lots of speculation about who she is, with guesses that she is Isaiah’s wife, or perhaps Ahaz’s wife, or another member of the royal court, but she could just be a pregnant woman walking by that Isaiah is using as an example. Because the whole point of this interchange is about trust. Ahaz, the king, doesn’t trust God, or at least he’s not showing that trust. God tells him to ask for a sign about what’s happening, to see a sign of reassurance, but Ahaz refuses, and also tries to wrap that refusal in religious language, sort of ironic.

But Isaiah then tells Ahaz, that while he doesn’t trust God, here is this pregnant woman who will name her child Immanuel, which means God is with us, although that translation isn’t given until a few verses later. But you can tell it’s about God because the last letters are el. We might be more familiar now with synagogues, named Beth el, which means house of God. The woman names her child “God is with us,” even though destruction is about to come upon the land. The fact that he will eat curds and honey is because there is nothing else to eat. And yet this young woman, and Isaiah does not use the term virgin, making no reference to marital status or sexual experience, trusts God. What Isaiah is saying, which is a common motif throughout the prophets to the people in power, is that military might and political alliances will not save you. What you need to do is to trust God who keeps God’s promises, and unlike Ahaz, this woman is doing that with her soon to be born baby, and pregnancy, the birth of a child is always a sign of hope, because it’s about new generations. And so, this women is trusting in God, trusting in God’s promises, trusting in the hope to be found only in God in delivering this child, and Ahaz does not. And in that we need to hear Isaiah’s words on their own terms, and then take them as we have interpreted them in the light of Christ, and other prophetic utterances about the coming Messiah and hope.

And so, we might wonder how this passage got interpreted to the way we now understand it, and that comes because of a translation. In what is known as the Septuagint, which was a Greek translation done of the Hebrew Bible, which was probably made in the 3rd century BCE. That translation into the Greek, which was widely used  by the authors of the New Testament, made a couple of significant changes. The first is that rather than being a specific young woman, as it appears in the Hebrew, instead it says “the virgin”, specifically using that term rather than young woman, and it’s not clear who is being referred to, and then it is not the girl who names the child, but it says “you shall name him Immanuel.” Since the prophesy is being made to Ahaz, it appears that Ahaz will be the one to name the child. This certainly changes many understandings, including Ahaz’s unfaithfulness in comparison as found in the Hebrew.

So now it’s a virgin who will give birth, and someone else will name the child indicating that God is with us. And then we get one more change, which is crucial to this understanding, and that is found in the first chapter of Matthew, and you will find this in today’s scripture insert. In that selection, Joseph is told in a dream that he should take Mary as his wife, even though she is pregnant, as the child is from the Holy Spirit, and that he is to name the child Jesus, which means “God saves” or “God is salvation.” And then because prophecy is so important to Matthew, much more than the other gospel writers, he adds “all this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” Do you notice the change made here? Now it is not the mother, or the father, or the king, who name this child but the people who come to understand who the child is, as the son of God, or the incarnation of God, will name him Emmanuel. Or as Jesus says in John, “those who have seen me have seen the father.” Christ is Emmanuel, which means God with us. (SLIDE 3) Matthew will complete this loop and understanding of Jesus as God with us as the very last line, the last line of Matthew, has Jesus tell the disciples “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” God is always with us, which God also tells Isaiah.

But here is the heart of the matter, and why I do think that an understanding of Jesus as Emmanuel is important and correct. Because it’s not that God has not been with the people. Think of the story of the Exodus. As the people are wandering in the wilderness is God with the people? Yes. God appears as a cloud during the day and as a pillar of fire during the night to guide them. Then when they build the ark, it contains the throne upon which God is supposed to sit, and in the Temple, in the holy of holies, where the Ark resides, it’s where God’s presence is said to be found. So, God is there, but at a distance, and why? Because the people told Moses that’s what they wanted. They told Moses that while it was fine for him to go and talk to God, they didn’t want to hear from God directly anymore because they were too afraid. So, Moses became their conduit. They sought to keep God at an arm’s distance, as we sort of heard last week when we heard about the vulnerability of hope. And it’s really hard to be reconciled with God when you keep God at a distance. And it’s really hard to accept the forgiveness that God offers when you are afraid of God, and want to keep God at a distance. And it’s really hard to accept the freedom to follow God when you want to keep God at a distance. Now it’s not that everyone did, as we could come up with some counter examples, like Isaiah, although he initially resists the call, which I can understand. But they are sort of the exceptions that prove the rule.

And so, what is the first thing that the angels tend to say to people when they come to make announcements about the coming of Jesus? Do not be afraid. Don’t keep trying to keep God at a distance, because God is coming here to be in relationship with you. God is coming here to be close to you. God is coming here to dwell with you and to be present for you. To give all of us the freedom to choose to follow, but not just to follow, but to be close to God, to choose to have life abundant now, and life abundant with God forever. That’s what it means for Christ to be our Immanuel, that God is with us always, even to the end of the age. And so, of the gifts we receive because of the gift of Jesus, the greatest is that of God’s abiding presence, and because of that, all the other gifts we could name, which are more than just the ones we have covered, are possible. Because it is we and all the saints that have gone before us who have named Jesus as our Immanuel. So, fear not, as we make these final steps towards Bethlehem, because what Jesus’s birth means for us is that he is our Immanuel, God’s presence for us today, tomorrow and forever more. Amen.