Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text (Isaiah 7:14)
The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive a bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Prayer: O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Amen.
So here we are for our last Wednesday nigh in our Advent series, and the final of our four sermons on the well-known Advent hymn: O come, O come, Emmanuel.
The first week we looked at verse 4, O come, Key of David.
The second week we looked at verse 3, O Come, Dayspring.
The third week we looked at verse 2, O come, Rod of Jesse.
And now we come to verse 1, O come, Immanuel. And the verse goes like this:
O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice, rejoice! Immanuel Shall come to Thee, O Israel.
The original verse, on which this hymn is based goes like this:
O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations and their Salvation: Come and save us, O Lord our God.
Now of all the titles of Christ that we have looked at so far, the title of Christ, Immanuel, is probably the one which is most familiar to us.
Key of David, Dayspring, and Rod of Jesse are a bit more cryptic and foreign, but Immanuel is something that we’re bit more used to.
And the word Immanuel, comes from two words:
One word is Im: which means “with”. Now in Hebrew if you put “manu” on the end of the word “im” it means, “with us”. And then the word “El”, is word which means God. So literally it means, “With us God” or as we usually say “God with us”.
There are a lot of Hebrew names that end with the word “El”, like Michael, Samuel, Joel, Ezekiel. This “El” bit means “God.” Also a lot of Hebrew names end with “Jah” with means “the Lord”, like Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Zechariah. So the “Jah” bit on the end of the name means “the Lord”, from God’s holy name “Yahweh”.
The first place where this expression comes up is in Isaiah 7. Last week, we were reading Isaiah 11, which referred to the time of the evil king Ahaz. Isaiah 7 also refers to the time of the same king. Remember we learnt last week, that king Ahaz had sacrificed his children to the demons. To sacrifice children was something that was often done in ancient religions, but never in the Jewish religion. The only person who ever sacrifices his own son is God the Father himself. In Genesis 22, Abraham thinks of it as quite a normal thing to go off and sacrifice his son Isaac, but God sends an angel to stop him at the last moment. God never requires child sacrifices.
And so in the midst of all this corruption and idolatry, God comes and speaks to Ahaz, and asks him to choose a sign. But Ahaz puts on a bit of a show of false religion, and says, “I would never presume to dare to ask God to give me a sign.” This is an absolutely ridiculous thing, because God has already said he would give one. Ahaz doesn’t want a sign, even though God says that he’s going to give him one. And God then decides to give him one anyway, even though he knows that Ahaz won’t take any notice of it.
This is what we read:
Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And Isaiah said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.”
Now we all recognise the middle bit.
Just a couple of little notes: The word “virgin” is not the explicit word for virgin, but is a word which means a young, marriageable woman, whom we would assume to be a virgin. (The word in Hebrew is ‘almah). Now, when they translated the Old Testament they used the word “parthenos” which is the explicit word for a virgin, that is, a woman, whether she were young or old, who had never had intimate relations with a man.
The Hebrew word implies a young woman.
In Isaiah 8, we also read this:
And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hashbaz; for before the boy knows how to cry “My father” or “My mother,” the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.
The name of the boy, “Maher-shalal-hashbaz”, means “The spoil speeds, the prey hastens.”
Now some people have thought that this is a little fulfilment of the prophecy that we just heard.
But there’s some problems with saying this: There are some similarities between the two passages. Isaiah 7 says, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son…before the boy knows how to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread shall be deserted.” Isaiah 8 says, “I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son… Before the boy knows how to cry “My mother” and “My father” the wealth of Damascus shall be carried away.”
But the problem is, first of all, the prophetess, Isaiah’s wife, already had a son, called Shear-jashub, who we read bout in Isaiah 7:3, which means she probably doesn’t qualify to be a virgin or a young marriageable woman. She doesn’t qualify because she’s not a virgin or young, probably. Also, we notice that the prophecy in Isaiah 7 about the virgin conceiving and bearing a son, implies something extraordinary or miraculous. There’s nothing all that special about the birth of Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz.
It’s a little bit of a fulfilment of this prophecy, but at the same time, it’s not. And in the Old Testament it’s not really fulfilled, until Matthew says at the beginning of his Gospel where it says that the Virgin Mary and Jesus are the fulfilment of the prophecy. Now we could say, but the sign was given to king Ahaz, and King Ahaz was dead for many years! But really, the sign is given for the house of David, and Ahaz is a descendent and member of the family of David. In a sense, the sign is not just given to Ahaz, but to the whole family of David.
And in the beginning of Matthew we read that the angel came to Joseph and said,
“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (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 here not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Matthew makes a special point also to mention that Joseph, “knew her not”, to emphasise the fact that Mary was in fact a virgin, and therefore, the fact that she was a virgin and mother at the same time was the fulfilment of the prophecy, and also a great miracle.
But there’s also something very special about the word “God with us”, Immanuel.
In one sense it’s a scary thing for God to be with us. The verse says, “O Immanuel, our King and Lawgiver.”
We see when Jesus taught people he was Law-Giver. Even though it wasn’t the main purpose of his life, he still gave Law, as God in our midst, God with us.
He says, “You heard it said, “You shall not murder”. But I say to you…
You have heard it was said, “You shall not commit adultery”. But I say to you…
In the sermon on the mount, he comes as Law-giver. But as Moses came saying, “You shall not…”, Jesus came saying, “Blessed… Blessed… Blessed.” Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.”
But at the same time, Jesus is not just a law-giver to raise the bar that Moses set. He interpreted the law in such a way that people couldn’t escape from it. Many people thought, and still think today, that as long as you don’t do anything wrong, their all right. They think that they are a sinner, because they sin. But Jesus turns that all around, and shows them that the law doesn’t have to do first of all with your actions, but with your heart. Instead, you sin, because you are a sinner. Being a sinner means you have a condition, a disease, you are corrupted.
The verse also says, “O Immanuel, our king and Law-giver, the desire of all nations and their Salvation.”
Here we see the other side of Jesus’ work. Sinners have desire for an end of sin. People who know that they are sinners desire salvation. And so Jesus is called, Desire of Nations and their Salvation.
And this desire is something that we speak everytime we say, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins”. When Jesus teaches the Lord’s prayer, he teaches you to desire the Father, and to desire him, Jesus, and to desire the Holy Spirit. And Jesus does fulfil your desire, he does save you. He did die for you and rise for you. He does accomplish the Father’s will, he does send you the Father’s kingdom. He does give you your daily bread.
Now Matthew’s gospel, begins and ends with “God with us” Immanuel.
In Chapter 1, we see the birth of Jesus. But in Matthew 28, we read the following passage:
“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Listen to those words, “I am with you”.
And the funny thing about Matthew’s gospel, is that we don’t read about Jesus ascending into heaven. It just ends with him saying, “I am with you always to the end of the age.”
And this shows us something special, because Jesus has already left a legacy. He’s said, Baptise. He’s said, Take and eat, this is my body. And now he says, I am with you always.
Christ is still here. He is God with us. He is not God with us in our hearts, or God looking after us. But he is God with us in the flesh. St Paul says, the fullness of God dwelt in Christ bodily.
So God is with us, because the flesh, the risen body of Jesus is here. We don’t say God is with us, because the Holy Spirit is here. But we say that God is with us, because God has taken on human flesh, and God in the flesh is here, and he sends us the Holy Spirit.
A lot of churches, and especially most protestant churches, don’t believe that Jesus in here. They believe that he ascended into heaven, and he’s stuck there. We as Lutherans believe that he ascended into heaven in such a way that he could be with us always until the end of the age. It doesn’t say, my spirit will be with you always. It says, “I will be with you always.” And if Jesus says, “I” he means, “I”. And because of the ascension, his human body is able to be wherever he wants it to be, like when he visited St Paul on the road to Damascus and when he comforted St Stephen when he was being stoned to death. But also his human body is able to be present wherever he promises it to be, wherever his word is preached in its truth and purity and wherever the sacraments are administered according to his institution, according to what he said they were and what he said about them. The day of Pentecost was not a day where Jesus was up in the clouds doing his own thing, but he was there, in their midst, giving them the Holy Spirit.
Notice that the words say, “The virgin will conceive and bear a son.” A real human son, not a fake son. A real human boy! A real flesh and blood son. And his name will be called: God with us. Immanuel! It is a human being, Jesus Christ, who died and bled, who we call God. Thomas saw the wounds in Christ’s hands and feet and side, and he didn’t look up at the sky and say, “My Lord and my God”. He bowed down at the feet of Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God.”
And it’s no wonder that Jesus then says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Lord bless you for the last remaining days of Advent season, the time of desire, of longing, of hope, and may God bless you this Christmas as we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord, our Saviour from Sin, our desire, the Word who became flesh, and the man, the human being, who is God with us, Immanuel.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, we know that you have promised to be with us in the body, and to walk through our closed doors and stand in our midst, praying with us, and blessing us, preaching to us and giving us your Holy Spirit through your word and sacraments. We know you have promised these things and so we believe it. Send us the Holy Spirit, living and resurrected Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, our Lord, our God, our Immanuel, our Jesus, you who stand and pray with us. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment