Emmanuel - God With Us

“Lo! A virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be named Emmanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This is probably one of the most “famous” Christmas texts in the Old Testament. The Hebrew name, “Emmanuel” translates to: “God with us.” A lot has been made out of the fact that the Hebrew of the Old Testament doesn’t have a word for “virgin”—a better translation from the Hebrew would be “young woman” or “maiden.” But when Jewish scribes translated Isaiah into Greek 200 years before the birth of Jesus, they chose a Greek word that does specifically mean “virgin.” The question goes deeper than a miraculous birth and Jesus’ “genetics” if Mary was a virgin. The deeper question is: Is God with us? To what extent? Did God become one of us??

Christmas says, “Yes!” God came into our world—our human world, broken and messy, full of pain and joy, death and life. That is an “advent”—God “arrived” in Jesus Christ—and nothing is the same. However it’s understood, God reconciled us to God’s Self in Jesus, to bring peace, reveal and promise forgiveness, and embody mercy. Every time I wonder “Why?” I remind myself that the pain, violence, and sin of the world is not God’s intent for us nor is it at the heart of God creation of us. We need God with us. We need Christmas! A baby cannot accomplish anything, which shows us a deep thing about God, that God’s power is in weakness and humility. A death on a cross doesn’t accomplish anything—and yet! And yet it reveals the depths to which God is with us. Going where we will all go… to bring us back to life. Because we can’t do that ourselves. So God came into the world, into history, into humanity to open our hearts to God’s love, and raise us up into God’s life. Yes! God is with us!

Peace,

Pr. Christian