The Birth of God with Us
In the coming days, we will celebrate Christmas and the first coming of Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago. The Good News of Christmas - that our God became a human just like us - turned all of Creation right-side up and changes each of our lives. The Incarnation (Jesus coming to Earth as fully God and fully man) is why Christmas is so full of hope for you and I.
God came and lived with us and that same God is with us still.
Emmanuel, God with us, is still journeying with us today. That is why a 2,000 year old story is still relevant and still Good News for us today.
What is the Meaning of Emmanuel?
In Matthew 1, we are told that that coming of Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the coming of Emmanuel, which means God with us.
Rather than being a distant and uninterested God, as was often the case in ancient religions, Jesus was and is our God who is not only FOR us but also WITH us. And we believe that Jesus journeys with us through the difficult parts of our live even today. In this sermon from several years ago, Tim Mackie dives into the meaning of "God with us" in the Christmas story and looks at fun facts (like how "the branch of Jesse" and the town of "Nazareth" both come similar Hebrew words, which is an important word play related to Matthew 2:23).
In his sermon, Mackie highlights that Jesus journeying with us and embodying "Emmanuel" does not make everything magically better and perfect for Christians. In fact: "What Jesus comes to do is not solve everybody's problems. Jesus shows up and everything gets worse. He was born with a price on His head and He dies with a price on His head. And the only moment that changes everything is what happens at the end, which is Jesus' resurrection from the dead. And the Suffering Servant who's identified with all of our disappointments and all of our tragic dreams that get destroyed as we live through life...Jesus journeys right alongside us through all of that."
You can listen to the full message here.
Rather than magically fixing everything for us, Jesus journeys with us through the hard times and through the difficult seasons of life. It doesn't always make sense and can sometimes be frustrating to us, but Jesus is consistently walking through the valleys of the shadow of death with us rather than wiping out all the valleys in our life.
And this is an invitation to live life with Jesus.
Why "Philia" Love is Just as Important as "Agape" Love.
And this invitation to live life with Jesus is an invitation to a mutually-engaged relationship with Jesus. While agape love (Greek word for unconditional, sacrificial love) is essential to our salvation through Jesus, Dr. Allen Yeh points out in Majority World Theologies that in both the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem, humans are in relationship with God and engaged in philia love (Greek word for the love of friends).
Agape love is essential for our salvation but it is not the end goal. Reconciling each of us into a right and holy relationship with our Triune God is the end goal.
And if a mutually-engaged, "philia" love relationship is what we are striving for with Jesus, that means we must also strive for similar Christ-honoring relationships with friends, loved ones, and those we encounter through the life of the Church. If our relationships reflect our Triune God, then they will also be focused on a "two-way" form of love rather than simply a "one-way" form of love.
Simply put, our relationship with Jesus changes everything.
Christmas changed everything. And it still is changing all of Creation.
Merry Christmas friends!
