Prayer: O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appears. Amen.
Matthew 1:18: Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way: When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she will bare a son and you will call him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bare a Son and His name shall be called Emmanuel which means ‘God with us.’ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife but knew her not until she had borne a son. And he called His name Jesus.
For probably all of us, there is a certain amount of just plain excitement right about now. Plans and preparations for the holidays are almost done! Even as we try to stay away from too much commercialism, we do admit it’s kind of fun to buy a gift for someone we love, and to receive gifts from those who care about us.
But there is a risk involved that I’d like to mention. We all know about this risk. It’s the problem of expectations. How well will my gifts for others match up to what they were expecting? The younger and less mature we are, the bigger the problem. Little children are sometimes pretty honest. If they don’t get what they expect their faces fall and they might cry and fuss, while the rest of us look forward to when they’ll grow up a bit.
We grownups are, well, more grown up. We’ve learned to put a good face on it: “Why, thank you, sweetheart! This new….garbage disposal…is just what I needed.” “Oh, honey, you really shouldn’t have (really!) –I’ll be able to get a lot of use out of these nice new handkerchiefs.” That’s the risk. You get a gift from someone but the gift doesn’t match the expectation. “What a surprise” does not always mean I like what I got.
Now in a way, God took that risk at the first Christmas, and He is taking that risk this year as Christmas approaches once again. Will His gifts meet our expectations? Through a careful look at the familiar reading of the angel’s appearance to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1, we see our expectations may very well need to be adjusted so we can receive God’s gifts–God’s greatest gift–with joy. His gift is Himself–Emmanuel which means “God is with us.” But the name of the gift is Jesus. The angel said, “You will call His name Jesus. “And Joseph did as the angel commanded him and he took his wife and kept on not knowing her until she bore a son, and he called his name Jesus. God is with us! But His name is really quite a surprise. Why is this so? Why is the name “Jesus” a surprise?
Here’s the problem. No human being naturally expects it to be like that when “GOD is with us.” Think about Joseph first–poor confused Joseph. Mary’s pregnancy came as a complete surprise to him and he has only the natural, human way of thinking about it. Now Joseph is a righteous man; kind and loving. He’s committed to God’s truth about marriage and adultery and faithfulness. So he decides, for many of the right reasons, to do exactly the wrong thing because he had no idea that this is how God was going to be with His people! Only after an angel comes to him in a dream and directly adjusts his expectations is Joseph ready to accept this gift of “God with us.”
Think further with me about the Gospel of Matthew, and about how other people reacted to “God with us” in the form of Jesus. John the Baptist is caught off guard not once, but twice! When Jesus comes to him for baptism, John tries to prevent it. He knows that Jesus is mighty–the Mighty One whose sandals John himself is not fit to carry. John knows Jesus is the powerful Judge who on the Last Day will separate the righteous from the wicked, like wheat is separated from chaff. But when Jesus comes to be baptized, to stand in the water with the sinners who are confessing their sins, this does NOT meet John’s expectations about “God with us.”
And later from the depths of Herod’s prison in Matthew 11, we see the same problem in the heart of the Baptist. He asks Jesus, “Are you the Coming One, or shall we look for another?” John knew God would be with His people and he even announced the coming of Jesus himself–but like this?
Then there are the people in Jesus’ hometown. “Isn’t this the son of the carpenter? This is just Mary’s son!” And there are the religious leaders of Israel and even Jesus’ own most trusted disciples who are caught completely off guard. They were all waiting for, looking for, longing for God to be with His people. But like this? God with His people is Jesus? Surely when God comes to be with His people, wouldn’t it be more powerful? More victorious? John the Baptist is in prison. Jesus’ own ministry showed signs of weakness, of being opposed by His enemies. Then there is the talk from Jesus’ own lips about…a cross. Make no mistake. All of these people wanted the gift of “GOD with us.” But the name of this gift is Jesus. Is this the right gift?
Now many things have changed in the centuries since Jesus did not meet the expectations of people in the first century. But at least this much has not changed–human beings are still looking for Emmanuel, “GOD with us.” In moments of honest need, in times of the danger of war and terrorism and enemies hidden in our midst, we know we need God with us. When personal tragedy, depression, or sorrow wrap themselves around us, we instinctively cry out for God–to be with us.
But what do we mean by that? What kind of gift are we seeking? We are not so different from Joseph in the text, from Jesus’ contemporaries in the context. We want God to make things better. We want Him to come with power, in strong, obvious, self-evident ways. We’ve decided who our real enemies are and they are “out there.” We want God with us to save us from those enemies.
However, when it doesn’t happen that way, we wonder why and wonder if God is with us at all. That’s when we run the risk of missing the gifts God has given, the gifts of GOD with us….in Jesus. Because we were hoping for something better, something easier, something that meets our expectations. “God with us,” but His name is Jesus?
Yes, His name is Jesus. Now God’s Word has an opportunity to shape our thinking and change us and turn us so our hands are open to receive no other gifts than the ones God wants to give us. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, active in the Word of God we are considering today. The Spirit can turn our hearts and adjust our expectations and help us to want what God is offering–the gift of GOD with us …in Jesus. For God has His own unexpected ways of coming. And He has only promised to do this…in Jesus.
Jesus–He is an unexpected “quiet” God with us. Remember Joseph? It had already happened and he didn’t even know it. When he found out Mary was pregnant with “GOD with us” in her very womb, even then he needed a tutorial, a remedial lesson in how “GOD with us” comes.
Jesus–a “quiet” GOD with us. Yes, Jesus’ ministry was at times filled with works of power–healings, exorcisms as He drove back the power of Satan and brought God’s gracious rule again to the lives of Satan’s captives. But then He commanded them not to tell anyone, didn’t He?
Then there was Jesus’ ministry that could be resisted, even opposed. GOD was with His people but they could turn away from Him and hate Him and plot to kill Him. A very surprising GOD with us.
And they did kill Him. Because Jesus is not only a “quiet” God with us, He is unexpectedly a “substitute” God with us. The most unexpected, surprising thing of all is God with us on a cross, suffering, dying as “GOD with us,” as GOD for us, as Jesus in our place. Because He hasn’t come to save us from the enemies “out there” so much, as He has come to save us from ourselves–from our own sins; sins of wanting anything other than what God wants to give us. God gave us life as His creatures but we want to live as though we are the Creator. God gave us life with one another, to love and serve each other. But we want a life where others serve us and bow down to our whims and wants. God gave; He has given us so much, so many things! But rather than letting those good gifts point us to the God who gave them in love, we seek the gifts themselves and we claim them as our own and then we always want more. Oh yes, God is with us. We need Him to be with us, to save us from ourselves, to save us from our sins.
And that’s why “God with us” has this name–Jesus. Quietly, as our substitute, He dies. He pays a price. A ransom payment, Jesus Himself calls it–to buy us out of slavery, and to bring us back to God. He is a “substitute,” doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And that’s why God with us is a man–Jesus, one of us, to save us. This is God’s gift.
God is with us in Jesus–a “quiet” gift, a “substitute” gift…and still in our lives a kind of “hidden” gift. God is with us even today, as He has been with His people throughout the ages since Jesus first came into the world. Although God can certainly be with us in powerful, obvious ways whenever He decides to do that, He has not promised those kinds of gifts. Rather, He comes in “hidden” ways that may not meet our expectations until we let God’s Word shape us and turn us so we want the gifts God offers.
At the very end of this Gospel, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.” I am with you. “God with us” and what comes right before that promise? “Make disciples, by baptizing….and by teaching.” I will be with you wherever you are baptizing. Hidden in that simple water is the Word and promise of God. Jesus is there, joining us to Himself, keeping us His own, holding out this promise for us to believe.” “God, are You with me today?” ‘Yes, my child. You are baptized into Jesus.’ “God, my life is so hard. Were you ever there in the first place?” ‘Yes, My child. I came to you when you were baptized and I am with you always.’ This is His gift; “hidden” and seemingly simple. Baptism is the gift of “GOD with us”–Jesus.
And God, go with me today. Accompany me. Be with me. Are you with me, God? Yes, He is with us through His teaching, through His Word. Through all the words Jesus taught His disciples and we also are learning. His Word comes to us when we are poor in spirit. We know our sin but we can’t make it on our own. We need God to be with us. And His word says, “My child, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven.”
His Word comes to us when we begin our day and all the possibilities stretch out before us. We need God to be with us, and His word says, “Come, follow me.” His Word comes to us every day of our lives as baptized, believing Christians who need God to be with us. His Word says, “I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.” This Word is His gift, “hidden” and seemingly simple. But this is the gift of GOD with us–the Word of Jesus.
Can we learn to want the surprising gifts of “God with us”? Joseph did. The Word of God taught him and he turned away from his own expectations. He believed God was with his people through Jesus, conceived in the womb of Mary. Can we learn to want the surprising gifts of “GOD with us? Yes! By the power of that same Word, we can learn. Because God is with us quietly, as our substitute, coming to us in hidden ways: On a cross, in Holy Baptism, in God’s Word. Jesus, for He is “God with us,” He has saved us from our sins. And He will be with us to the very consummation of the age. Amen.
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