Matthew 1:18-23 What does “Emmanuel” mean and why does it matter?
What is a crisis? A crisis is an earthquake or a wildfire heading to your house. A crisis is a drought in a poor African country. A crisis is a phone call at 2 o’ clock in the morning informing you that your son had been in a car accident. But these are all examples of a crisis. They are not a definition of a crisis. I looked up the meaning of the word crisis and I found the following, interesting definition:
“A Crisis is a phase in a sequence of events wherein the direction of all future events are determined…for better or for worse”
There you have it. ‘n Crisis is something so dramatic that it determines the direction of future events in your life. And this direction can either lead to a better or a worse destination. You lose your job. This event determines many other things. Where you now will have to live, what you will eat and whether you will go on vacation or not. And if you listen to people who have lost their jobs you will hear two kinds of stories. Some will tell you that they lost their self confidence and their career and never fully recovered. Others will tell you that it was tough, but it made the person who lost his job more creative and appreciative of his/her family. It somehow made the person more experienced and richer. Crises are never pleasant to go through but sometimes somehow they have good consequences. They often do.
If your wife tells you she is pregnant…be honest…you always experience it as kind of a crisis. It determines so many future events in your life and marriage thereafter. Now, not that I would know but I reckon if its your fiancé that tells you she is pregnant it might be an even bigger crisis. And if this girl whom you love tells you she is pregnant and you know that you haven’t had any sexual relations with her, it’s an even bigger crisis. And this is what Joseph had. The trouble with Christmas stories from the Bible is that we romantize them. The fact that Joseph in this mornings’ passage was dealing with probably the biggest crisis in his life, can easily go unnoticed to us.
But it is true that if there ever were a crisis that sent Joseph’s life and our lives in a good direction…it was this one! Why is this? What has this crisis taught Joseph? Wat can it teach us?
You see there is one word in this passage that carries a heavy load of meaning with it. It is the word “Emmanuel”. This word and the meaning it carried turned this crisis into something beautiful. It emboldened Joseph to make something good of this. Basically, this word means three things, things that have a significant impact on all future events in your life if you embrace them…
Jesus is God
Two times in this passage it is mentioned that what was growing in Mary’s womb came from elsewhere. The baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This was very clearly pointing to the fact that that this Jesus was God.
Now Matthew writes for a Jewish audience. They knew Isaiah 7:14 very well. It is a passage that speaks of Emmanuel, “God with us”. But they understood it symbolically. The Jews was the religion in their time least open to the idea that a human being could be God. The eastern religions understood god as an impersonal force that can permeate everything. They were open to the idea that this force could somehow taken hold of a person, giving him godlike qualities. There were western religions that believed in personal gods with limited powers. The Greek gods for instance were humanlike figures. So also, they could be open to this idea. But the Jews believed God is personal and infinite. They had no room for a God limited by the things that limit human beings like space and time. So, Matthew, trying to win over his Jewish audience has a hard sell here. But He had no choice because he understood it to be the truth and part and parcel of the gospel message. He simply would not have mentioned this notion if there was any way to side step it.
He is not the only bible writer that does this. John says it in his gospel about Jesus as do Mark and Luke. Paul writes in Colossians that “In Him the fullness of God dwells”. The apostle Peter makes the same statement about Jesus in 2 Peter 1:1. But its not only that others said this about Jesus. Jesus said this about Himself. Many times. Jesus forgave sins, something only God could do in Jewish understanding. Jesus said that He will come again to judge-again something only God could do in Jewish theology. In the gospel of John Jesus calls himself “I am” and says that who sees him, sees the Father!
Now if Jesus is really who He says He is, it is suppose to be kind of a crisis in our lives. As in something that has a profound impact on everything that happens in your future. We must either orientate our lives around Who He is and what he done or write him of as a lunatic that went around telling people He is God. He himself leaves you no middle ground on this. Everywhere people encountered Jesus we read that they had one of these two reactions. They either worshipped or despised Him (some doubted). Jesus is like the white ball on a pool table, he sends some in the one and some in the other direction.
If Jesus is who He says He is, it requires you to think differently about many things. Like miracles. If Jesus is God, why do we try and ignore or explain away him turning water into wine and blind eyes into seeing eyes and dead alive? If He really is God who could become human, it means that it isn’t impossible that He can do things in your life that you didn’t think was possible.
There are basically two kinds of gods in our world that the world offers you. There are the far-off gods that waits that you perform good enough so that you can ascend up to their level. We can call them moralistic gods. Then there is the gods that doesn’t give a damn about what you do. We can call them relativistic gods. But there is but one God that is so holy that he simply cannot leave sin unattended to and a God that at the same time loves his children so much that he cannot leave them to deal with sin on their own. And it is this God that became a human being. He is Jesus. You never have to doubt that Jesus is God.
Jesus is a Human Being
Jesus is the ideal that became a reality. When He was born on earth, it was not like He ceased to be God. But He did discard the glory and the privileges attached to being God. He limited Himself in this sense. He didn’t wear a human mask. He didn’t attend a brief human bootcamp and then went back. He had the full human experience from cradle to grave.
Hebrews 2:17 says: Our Lord, can have empathy with our weaknesses. Hy was tempted. He knew loss. He was lied to and denied. His life was threatened, and He knew danger. In Gethsemane He even experienced the pain of unanswered prayer. He even experienced on the cross how it feels like when God forsake you. There is absolutely nothing you can experience on earth that Jesus has not experienced from the inside out. NOTHING.
One of the reasons Joseph couldn’t opt out was that Jesus needed a fallible human father to fulfill his mission.
Jesus has come Close
Emmanuel means three things. First, it means that Jesus is God. He can save us. Secondly it means that Jesus is human. He can understand us. But thirdly it means that He is extremely close to us. The goal of the incarnation, Jesus becoming human was not only that we should know there is a God and what He is like. It was also so that we might know He loves us. He wants to be our friend, not only our Creator. In the Old Testament when people met God it was usually a terrifying ordeal. In the New Testament when people met Jesus it was a comforting, healing and wonderful ordeal. It gave people hope rather than scare them.
Think about it. Jesus did not come to earth as a military general. He didn’t come to earth as a powerful king nor as a learned professor. This all would have created distance between him and ordinary people like us. He came to earth as a baby. Have you seen how a baby opens even hardened individuals up and turn them into smiling, loving persons? Shepherds and wise men alike! There is no human form more accessible and vulnerable and non-threatening than a baby. By coming in the form of a baby, he came extremely close to us.
Jesus wants a relationship with you. What does that mean? Basically, two things. It is impossible to have a good relationship with somebody without communication. And you will find that the more you speak to someone honestly from your heart, the better the relationship tends to become. Also, the better you listen to what that person is saying to you, the stronger the relationship will get. Talk to Jesus. As unashamed and easily as you would talk to a baby. Tell Him what goes on in your heart and see how your relationship with Him will grow. Listen every day what his Word and Spirit whispers to you.
Secondly every relationship requires an amount of courage. To have a good relationship with somebody will require of you to do things that you are afraid to do simply because you trust this person. Your friend wants you to try riding a motorcycle with him because he loves it and wants you to share in the joy. You are afraid and try it. You either love it and become a motorcycle rider like him or you don’t. But you trusting and being courageous will strengthen the bond regardless. This kind of courage is required to have a deeper relationship with Jesus. And rest assured He was just as courageous, actually more so. He came and engaged with the world we live in every day. A world much more broken and unsafe than the one He came from. So, its not like He is asking something of you that He doesn’t bring to the party.
It’s this courage that makes Joseph a very special man. Most of us, when confronted by a crisis do not act courageous at all. Joseph acted bravely when he got introduced to Emmanuel. He was courageous enough to sacrifice his reputation for obedience. If he married Mary, his friends would have thought he was immoral or that is wife was immoral. Joseph was brave enough to decide that who Jesus is, is more important than who he is in the eyes of other people. Are we still willing to become less so that Jesus can become more?
Joseph was also courageous enough to give over control. One of the most fundamental privileges a father had was to decide on the name of his Son. One of the other rights men enjoyed was to call of engagements. Joseph, in submission to God’s will, forsook both of these rights. There are few things as scary as not being in control. We crave control because it makes us feel safe. It takes courage to hand over control to God. But if Jesus is really who He says He is, it is exactly the kind of courage we owe Him. We cannot call Him our King and then live just as we want to. We are obliged to surrender.
And then something that one can easily miss. Joseph was courageous enough to admit that He was a sinner. In verse 21 the Goal of Jesus’ incarnation is stated. It says that he came to earth to redeem sinners. How do we know that Joseph was courageous enough to admit that he was a sinner? Because he was courageous enough to tell people that he wanted out. The way in which he told his story didn’t make him the hero but God. If you are not courageous enough to admit that you are a sinner that desperately need God’s redemption, then Jesus has no business with you because this is why He came to earth. Just go and look at how far Jesus went for sinners that admit they are sinners. He passed people who thought they have enough merit to go and reach those very people who knew that God was their only hope.
Close
“But it is the spirit of some Christians-alas they are many- whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle class Christian friends, and bring up their own children in nice middle class Christian ways, and who leave the marginalized of the community, Christian and non-Christian as best as they can.
The Christian spirit does not shine in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor-spending and being spent-to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others-and not just their own friends-in what ever way they see a need.
I didn’t want to use this quote because it puts me to shame. My life looks much more like the middle class Christian described in the first quote than it looks like the second quote’s Christian. I spend most of my time with people that are more or less like me and I try to make my family fit in with the middle class I consider myself part off.
But praise be to God! By the grace of God and the longer I follow His ways, the more I am crossing boundaries I never thought I would. I am sometimes astounded by how the Lord can make even me less concerned with how well I fit in.
And suddenly I realized, it really was no different with Joseph. He was a carpenter who wanted to come by abiding by the standards of his community. But when Jesus entered his life, he got a courage that took him to extraordinary decisions and places. Maybe he returned to being an ordinary carpenter after that. Legend has it that he died early. But even if that is true, even that one act of obedience gave us a way deeper understanding of Jesus as we would have.
You have crossed paths with this Jesus. Its a crisis. One that can change the whole direction of your life for the better.
May God give us the grace to call the baby in the manger our Saviour!
Amen