God With Us
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:
Previously, I mentioned that one of the resounding message of Christmas is that God is for us (Click here for the previous message). God for us! O, that is a happy thought, but it is still a distant thought. It tells me of God’s support, it assures me of His sympathy, but at Christmas, God went further. He not only showed sympathy with us, He showed solidarity with us. In the encounter with the angel, Joseph is reminded of the ancient promise announced by the prophet, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us”.
Immanuel! God with us! Unlike the ogre in the popular story of “Puss in Boots” who assumes any form he likes, the incarnation of Christ was not some magical illusion. It was God becoming man with all the limitations and frailties of Adam, but without the sin of Adam. As Immanuel, God in Christ identified with man. Jesus hungered, wept, and thirsted. He was tempted, and felt pain. It is hard to worship a concept, and Christ revealed God as more than a concept. But Immanuel meant more than simply identification with humanity. It was also God’s intervention on behalf of sinful men. God in Christ assumed the problem of man. The problem of man became the problem of God. Like a father makes the problem of a child their own personal matter, God made our problem, His problem, and Christmas was not only God for us, but God with us.
Yet there is something more to Immanuel than identification and intervention. I think that is what makes Christmas so significant to you and me today. Immanuel was an answer to the human heart’s isolation. Frank Boreham in his essay, “Our Desert Islands” writes, “We each one are hopelessly cut off isolated and insulated. Each separate “I” is without counterpart in all eternity. No man can enter into the soul of another man. He further quotes, “In the chief matters of life we are alone – we dream alone, we suffer alone, and we die alone.” We all yearn for understanding. Recently, I read the pen of a teenager describe the feelings that are universal - “I feel all alone. I have many people surrounding me but I am all alone. No one seems to understand me.” Ultimately our hearts are lonely. There are some things that we realize that no one will ever understand. Not even our most intimate friend. And Immanuel, God with us, was an answer to this plague of the loneliness of the human heart. The last words of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew are, “Lo I am with you always even to the end of the age.”
God with us! God identifying with man. God intervening for man. But the greatest of all, Immanuel is God’s perpetual presence with man. And on that those who trust will find a never failing friend. Space will not permit to recount all the events in his life, but it is worth reading the biography of David Livingstone who staked his whole life on this promise of God’s presence. His prayer was “Send me anywhere, just go with me.” And in his heart he heard the words of Christ, “Lo I am with you always even to the end of the age. And, his journal records, “It is the word of a gentleman of the most strict and sacred honor, so there’s the end to it!” Through all the lonely journey’s, hostile natives, physical hardships, and the emotional pain of losing his wife, it was this promise, “God with us” that became his anchor in life.
Every Christmas heralds the message that in the darkest dungeons, in the loneliest times, in the deepest recesses of our heart, there is one who understands, and promises to us His perpetual presence. “It is the word of a gentleman of the most strict and sacred honor, so there’s the end to it.”
Danesh Manik
Previously, I mentioned that one of the resounding message of Christmas is that God is for us (Click here for the previous message). God for us! O, that is a happy thought, but it is still a distant thought. It tells me of God’s support, it assures me of His sympathy, but at Christmas, God went further. He not only showed sympathy with us, He showed solidarity with us. In the encounter with the angel, Joseph is reminded of the ancient promise announced by the prophet, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us”.
Immanuel! God with us! Unlike the ogre in the popular story of “Puss in Boots” who assumes any form he likes, the incarnation of Christ was not some magical illusion. It was God becoming man with all the limitations and frailties of Adam, but without the sin of Adam. As Immanuel, God in Christ identified with man. Jesus hungered, wept, and thirsted. He was tempted, and felt pain. It is hard to worship a concept, and Christ revealed God as more than a concept. But Immanuel meant more than simply identification with humanity. It was also God’s intervention on behalf of sinful men. God in Christ assumed the problem of man. The problem of man became the problem of God. Like a father makes the problem of a child their own personal matter, God made our problem, His problem, and Christmas was not only God for us, but God with us.
Yet there is something more to Immanuel than identification and intervention. I think that is what makes Christmas so significant to you and me today. Immanuel was an answer to the human heart’s isolation. Frank Boreham in his essay, “Our Desert Islands” writes, “We each one are hopelessly cut off isolated and insulated. Each separate “I” is without counterpart in all eternity. No man can enter into the soul of another man. He further quotes, “In the chief matters of life we are alone – we dream alone, we suffer alone, and we die alone.” We all yearn for understanding. Recently, I read the pen of a teenager describe the feelings that are universal - “I feel all alone. I have many people surrounding me but I am all alone. No one seems to understand me.” Ultimately our hearts are lonely. There are some things that we realize that no one will ever understand. Not even our most intimate friend. And Immanuel, God with us, was an answer to this plague of the loneliness of the human heart. The last words of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew are, “Lo I am with you always even to the end of the age.”
God with us! God identifying with man. God intervening for man. But the greatest of all, Immanuel is God’s perpetual presence with man. And on that those who trust will find a never failing friend. Space will not permit to recount all the events in his life, but it is worth reading the biography of David Livingstone who staked his whole life on this promise of God’s presence. His prayer was “Send me anywhere, just go with me.” And in his heart he heard the words of Christ, “Lo I am with you always even to the end of the age. And, his journal records, “It is the word of a gentleman of the most strict and sacred honor, so there’s the end to it!” Through all the lonely journey’s, hostile natives, physical hardships, and the emotional pain of losing his wife, it was this promise, “God with us” that became his anchor in life.
Every Christmas heralds the message that in the darkest dungeons, in the loneliest times, in the deepest recesses of our heart, there is one who understands, and promises to us His perpetual presence. “It is the word of a gentleman of the most strict and sacred honor, so there’s the end to it.”
Danesh Manik
posted by Danesh Manik | 1:20 PM
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