Emmanuel: God with us – God within us
Rev. Jim Ryan, PhD — jimryan6885@gmail.com
Community blog: https://maryofmagdala-mke.org/blog
By the time Jesus was born the title, “Emmanuel,” had lived in the psyche and history of the Jewish people for 700 years. The first time it occurs is during the reign of King Ahaz and the ministry of the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14). On this 4th Sunday of Advent, this season of Prophets’ messages being fulfilled, I thought we could explore a little further and a little deeper into this relationship between Ahaz and Isaiah. I believe this will bring to light the eerily present circumstances to be found in a confrontation dating back 3,000 years.
Ahaz was a corrupt and evil head of government. He disregarded the ideals and the covenant faith of his people. These days we would call his behavior narcissistic. Instead of building strong bonds with Israel’s traditional friends and allies, he entered into an alliance with the Assyrians and their autocratic, authoritarian ways. By doing so he allowed sons of Israel to fight in Assyria’s wars and, in response, from their capital in Damascus, the Assyrians belittled and made light of him.
Ahaz loved the trappings and ornamentation of power. When visiting a temple in Damascus he was so impressed by an altar and its gold decorations that he ordered a similar altar be built in the temple in Jerusalem – committing yet one more sacrilege against the people’s faith.
Ahaz attacked educational institutions. He closed schools in which the people’s history and divine heritage was taught. Isaiah resorted to teaching his students in secret away from the King’s spies. Do you see what I mean that the story of Ahaz and Isaiah has an eerily present feel about it?
When invited to ask God for a sign, Ahaz pulled a classic politician’s trick. He said, in effect, that he was unworthy to ask God to do anything. Of course, what he was really saying was he refused to be put in the position of receiving a divine command that he would not carry out. Such was his inability to extend empathy to the people whose disgust with him had reached maximum limits.
Isaiah, perceiving the king’s intent, prophesied about the sign of a son who would be called, “Emmanuel” – God with us. Now here’s another facet of this story. Isaiah’s Emmanuel was to be the antidote to Ahaz, the antidote being Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah. Upon ascending to his reign, Hezekiah repudiated Ahaz, restored the Temple faith of the people, and reopened the schools. The fulfillment of the promise for a son who would do these things, then, was realized in Hezekiah.
Isn’t it interesting that 700 years later this figure of Emmanuel still resided in that same Jewish psyche, culture, and faith? As evidence of this, when it came to write the story of Jesus’ birth, the writer of the gospel of Matthew inserted, in the recounting of Joseph’s dream, this reference to Isaiah’s prophecy about Hezekiah (Mt. 1:18-24). Only the new Emmanuel is Jesus.
“God with us” is a perfect fit for the historic viewpoint of Jewish faith. “God with us” comfortably associates with God who is external. For example, keeping God’s covenant brings upon the people God’s favor. Disobeying God’s law brings upon a person and a people punishment and retribution – again, external signs of God’s presence. So, this baby whom Joseph is inspired in a dream to name Jesus, was a sign of God’s gift of the Word spoken from the beginning of creation.
However, Incarnation must be seen as so much more. From “God with us,” Jesus shows and teaches that what we have received, what actually represents the world-changing event of this birth, is the gift of “God within us.” Not until the depth and meaning of Jesus’ teaching sunk in did his followers acknowledge with St. Athanasius that the divine became human so that the human may become divine. This internal divinity makes obvious the responsibility the person of faith receives at baptism. You and I carry on a lifelong internal conversation, so long as we choose it, about love. Eternal conspiracies and evils of various kinds find their way into these conversations. And they must be overcome. It is an historic struggle as today’s scripture makes clear,
These struggles are very much with us and within us. Fortunately, our history includes people who have offered insights on victory over the struggle. Soon after the death of President John Kennedy, his brother Robert – RFK Sr. – encountered people who wanted him to speak out about the supposed conspiracies that surrounded the assassination. I recall Bobby responding with a line from Shakespeare. In Act 1, Scene 4 of Julius Caesar, Cassius was facing, in the person of Brutus, the deadly conspiracies that were attaching themselves to Rome’s daily life. Cassius said, “The fault, dear Brutus, is in ourselves.”
The internal conversations/struggles that battle within us continues today. Just as we must act externally to uphold, and in some cases restore, ideals of law, compassion, and inclusion, so we must be internally courageous to give witness to the “God within us.”
Daily, these days, we experience a federal government and its leaders, who treat the law as one option in a list of options. RFK Sr. had something to say about that also when he wrote, “Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.”
This is a time to act, externally and internally, to not grow numb to our anger. This is a time to celebrate “Emmanuel: God with us, God within us.” When faced with cruelty on the outside and fear on the inside to believe in God within us is to be solid on this conviction: We are better than this.
A Prayer (JR)
Giving and receiving, we are Christ.
Loving and caring, we are Christ.
Dying and rising, we are Christ.
Emmanuel, we are the stream that
brings life to the desert;
Glory and praise in our hearts and in
all creation.
Amen.
