A Christmas Meditation
Source: Rod Decker, Th.D.
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
In proclaiming the baby soon to be born to be, indeed, God who was incarnated in a human body so as to be physically with us, Matthew quoted an OT text. You probably recognize it as Isaiah 7:14. In the context of Isaiah 7 the son who was born was named Immanuel by his mother. He also received a name with prophetic significance from his father: Mahel-Shalah-Hash-Baz. It was as common in Bible times as it is today for someone to be known by two names: just as Abram/Abraham, Saul/Paul, Simon/Cephas/Peter, and as I have been know over the years both as Rod/Rodney, but also as John-but only by my mother and my sister. You see Rodney was my father’s father’s name; I called him Grandpa, but he was Rodney Carpenter Decker. I suspect it was my father’s idea that I be named for his father. But my mother’s father was named John-John Easton Place, so she got to pick my middle name, and she always called me by that name, unless I was in trouble and then I was Rodney John.
In Isaiah, if we were interested in chapters 7 and 8, we might focus on the name this boy received from his father, Maher-Shalah-Hash-Baz. As interesting as that name is, it’s not the “Christmas name.” At Christmas we focus on the name given to this boy by his mother since that is the one that Matthew quotes in his account of Jesus’ birth. He was named Immanuel, which, Matthew tells us, means “God with us.” In Isaiah there was a boy born who served as a sign of God’s presence to reassure his people that God had not forgotten them and that he would deliver them from their enemies.
But Matthew, when he read and meditated on Isaiah 7, saw something far more than a sign of God’s presence. He recognized that the Immanuel born in his day-Jesus-was actually God himself incarnated and living with his people. Just as God provided for his OT people in Isaiah’s day, he also provided for his people by the birth of his Son.
This NT boy also had two names. He was named Jesus, Matthew tells us, because he would provide the perfect and final sacrifice for sin: “he will save his people from their sins.” As important as his salvation is, there is more than that. He was named not only Jesus, but also Immanuel, “God with us,” not this time just a sign of God’s presence, but God himself present with his people. That Immanuel, shortly after he died to provide for our salvation, rose from the dead. Do you remember what he promised his followers after the resurrection? At the beginning of Matthew we are told that Jesus was Immanuel, “God with us.” At the end of Matthew, Immanuel promises to be with his people forever. The promise of Immanuel at his birth is extended beyond the 30 years of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry, to span all of human history until one day we are with him forever. Christmas ought to prompt us to rejoice in Immanuel’s presence.