Immanuel
December 13, 2009 Third Sunday in Advent
Isaiah 7:10-17 10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. 16 But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah–he will bring the king of Assyria.”
The events of today’s Old Testament reading happened about 750 years before the birth of Jesus. It was a sad time in the history of Israel. The nation was divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. They were always fearful of invading armies. Isaiah was God’s representative in Judah. The king of Judah at this time was a fellow named Ahaz. Ahaz was worried that Israel was going to attack him. God instructed Isaiah to tell Ahaz that there would be no invasion. In order to convince the King, Isaiah told him he could ask for a sign. Ahaz, not wanting to believe Isaiah, said he would not ask for a sign. Isaiah said God would give one anyway: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Bible scholars continue to argue over what those words meant to the people of Isaiah’s day. But most agree that these words were a clear promise of the Messiah to come. And the verse the children shared, Matthew 1:23, tells us that the birth of Jesus is a fulfillment of these words from Isaiah. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.
This morning I do not want to spend our time talking about Old Testament History or the complexities of Biblical interpretation. Rather, I want you to consider with me today the one whose birth we are about to celebrate, Immanuel. Today is not a time to try and solve the mystery of the incarnation or the plausibility of a virgin birth. Today is a time of awe, a time of holy wonder, a time of simple faith that God is with us. Immanuel comes from three Hebrew words:
- IM means “with
- MANU means “us”
- EL is a shortened version of the word for God.
Immanuel literally means “God With Us.”
God is always with us, even if you and I become indifferent to His presence. He is not just a God of someday, somewhere out there in the future. He is God with us NOW. He is the one with you at the side of your hospital bed. He is the one there with you at the funeral home. He is with you in the classroom. He is at your computer desk. He is sitting there beside you when you eat lunch.
In my confirmation class, one of the questions I ask the students is “How you would act differently if you could see Jesus in the room with you right now?” You can imagine the responses: “I’d be more careful about what I said” or “I would try harder to be good.” The point of that exercise is to remind the students and mentors that Jesus is Immanuel, God With us, whether we can see Him or not. He is always with us.
Scripture is a record of God’s presence with us. But the way we best understand God is in that He became one of us. He took on our human nature with all of its quirks and weaknesses. He became one of us. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Our faith is built on Jesus becoming one of us, God with us. And there was a purpose in doing so. It was not just curiosity or boredom that brought Christ into this world. It was a desire to reconcile us to God by paying for our sins. He lived among us as one of us in every way, except that He did it without sin. That is why His life would be an acceptable offering for the sins of world.
You’ve heard all that before. You know it. You believe it. And yet there are times when you would like a sign from God to assure you that it is all true. “God with us” is easy to believe on an intellectual level. But where is God when innocent people are the victims of criminals? Where is God when the young die and the old endure prolonged suffering? Where was God when a man starts shooting fellow soldiers at Fort Hood or kills police officers in Seattle? Maybe you feel like crying out “Lord, give me a sign of your presence! Give me a bush that burns but is not consumed, like you gave to Moses. Give me a fleece that is wet with dew on a rock that is dry, like you gave to Gideon. Give me a shadow that goes backwards on the sundial, like you gave to Hezekiah. Give me a sign, Lord, so that I can understand and know that you are there!”
You may want a sign, but this kind of asking is without reason. You have been given signs even greater than a burning bush or a wet fleece or shadows moving backwards.
- Do you remember that faith that you had when you were a child? What happened to that faith, that complete and total trust in God and His goodness?
- What about that everlasting covenant that God made with you on the day of your Baptism? You received the sign of the cross on your forehead and heart, marking you as His own. He put His name on you and said you are His child.
- What happened to those deep convictions that you had about God when you knelt before His altar on the day of your confirmation, and received the blessing, “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ give you His Holy Spirit. The Spirit of wisdom and knowledge, of grace and of prayer, of power and of strength, of sanctification and the fear of God.” Didn’t you feel His presence in your life on that day?
- And what about all those times that you receive the true body and blood of your Lord in the Sacrament of the Altar? The very things given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins are yours in this holy meal.
You want a sign? Take your pick. They are all around you. And when you ponder these things, you will come to the conclusion that God has an awful lot invested in you, so much so that He is not going to walk away from you. The problem we all have is that we tend to wander away from Him. It is at those times, when we have wandered away from God, that we start asking “Where is God? Where is God in my life?” He never left us. We left Him.
In our culture it is common to carry pictures of those near and dear to us. We used to have them in a wallet or purse, but now we have them in our phones or pull them up on a website. It makes you feel a little closer to them, especially if you are separated from them by many miles or many years. The God who we sometimes think has forgotten us does not carry a purse or a wallet or a cell phone. He has something even better. He says to those in His family, See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands (Isaiah 49:16) Immanuel did that for us when He opened up His hands to allow the nails to be driven there, the nails that would hold Him to the cross as He paid for our sins.
Part of the awe and wonder we should feel when thinking about Immanuel is that He left the majesty and perfection of heaven to stoop down to our level, to come to this earth in order to accomplish our salvation. An overpowering sense of wonder should fill us as we kneel down to look at that little baby in the manger. We should be filled with respect, adoration and gratitude because He is Immanuel, God with us.
For this time, this moment, right now, don’t get caught up in trying to understand how God became man or why He chose to do so in such meager surroundings. Just enjoy it. This is Immanuel, God with us.
- The
