Several years ago the Lord laid it on my heart to meditate on the name Emmanuel. Before that time, I usually only thought of the name Emmanuel during the advent season. Though I knew that Emmanuel means God with us, and I appreciated this meaning and truth, I had never taken the time to dwell on what it meant for Jesus to be our Emmanuel.
Here is the driving force of the story of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and the heart of the gospel: our God wants to be with us.
From the very beginning, God created us to be with Him and like Him. Though we sinned, and our sin marred His image in us and separated us from Him, He did not give up. He gave the Israelites laws to follow, and he put His presence in the midst of them, in the Holy of Holies. But the Israelites were unable to keep the commandments – the commandments only served to show how far away from God they really were. We could not approach God, so He approached us.
Jesus, who was and is God, left His throne and clothed himself in humanity, with all its frailty. He became Emmanuel – God with us. He did not put himself in the place of power and authority he deserved; rather, he was born into poverty and raised in a town that was a joke to the rest of Israel. This was no accident; He chose the exact circumstances of His birth. He allowed himself to experience poverty, pain, hunger, sorrow, temptation, and so much more, in part so that he could truly experience humanity. Not only this, but on the cross He bore the full weight of our sin and (can you imagine this?) felt our very separation from His father as he cried out, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?”
He knows, in every way, what it is to be human. Today Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, but we have not been left without an Emmanuel. Our Lord poured out his Holy Spirit upon us. Emmanuel no longer walks around in a body of flesh, but has taken up residence in our hearts and in the midst of the Church. He knows our hearts, and we are told that even when we don't know how to pray, He prays for us with groans we cannot understand. What is more, He pleads for us to the Father as our advocate.
As wonderful as it is to have the Holy Spirit, our current arrangement is by no means perfect. This is no secret to God! He dwells in perfect community within Himself and has clear understanding of what we are missing out on. We feel the dull ache of desire to be with Him, but he feels it ever so fully. Because of His kindness to humanity, He is allowing the world to continue as it is, so that more people may be saved. Someday, though, Christ will return. We will have a new Heaven and a new Earth. We will dwell with Him, and He with us.
In the meantime, let’s not give up hope. Our Emmanuel has never left us, and He will never give up on us. We are His desire, and he has pursued us relentlessly. He knows us, He stands in solidarity with us, He advocates for us. Every hope, every blessing, every bit of encouragement, is found in Him. He was, is, and will be, God With Us.
Note: This article was originally published in The Ecumenical Family
