rick morley

“Have you accepted Emmanuel as your Lord and Savior?”

“I’ve given my heart to Emmanuel.”

“I pray in Emmanuel’s name.”

When’s the last time you heard one of these statements?

Yeah, me neither.

If you told someone that you oriented your life to follow the teachings of Emmanuel, and worshipped Emmanuel every weekend – wouldn’t most people assume that you were part of some weird, fringe religion?

Who?

And yet, “Emmanuel” is indeed a secondary title for Jesus, according to the Gospel of Matthew and as originally quoted from the Prophet Isaiah.

It’s just that “Emmanuel” is used as an ‘insider’ nickname for Jesus. Only Christians ‘in-the-know’ would use “Emmanuel” with any frequency. We use it when we want to be poetic. Or musical. Or we want an interesting name for a parish church.

Go ahead and walk into a Sunday School of most any church in America and ask them to tell you about the death and resurrection of Emmanuel. I guarantee 95% of the students look at your with crossed-eyes.

Huh?

And, the thing is, this confusion seems to find its genesis right there in the pages of scripture.

In the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew the angel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her that she will bear a child, and to name him “Jesus.” Then Matthew uses the prophesy of Isaiah to serve as the underpinning of this holy event, and he quotes the section of the “virgin/ young woman” who bears a child and names him “Emmanuel.”

One might think that Matthew would have foregone this final detail, because it sounds like within a matter of a few verses this child is given two names.

Now, the names are important. “Jesus” is the name that we use, but it is the Latin form of the Hebrew name “Yeshua,” or “Joshua.”

It means “God Saves.”

And, it’s also the name of the man who took over Moses’ mission, and who ended up ushering in the People of God to the Promised Land.

Do you see that? Jesus shares his name with the man who finished the task of bringing God’s People from slavery and death in Egypt into the Promised Life that God had in store for them.

Let that sink in a minute.

And, “Emmanuel,” of course, means “God with us.” In Isaiah 7, it’s the name of the sign that is given to the embattled King Ahaz that everything was going to be ok, even though it didn’t look like it.

God’s message to Ahaz: Fear not. I am with you.

Gosh, where have we heard that before?

Matthew sets up the Incarnation of Jesus to be an event which collects all the holy hopes and dreams that God’s People ever had. He’s not just given two names, he embodies the promises that God makes with his people.

God is with us. And, God is bringing us from slavery and death into a Kingdom of life and freedom.

Oh, can that day come any quicker?

In Matthew 11 the disciples of John the Baptist confront Jesus wanting to know if he was “the one.” Was Jesus ‘it,’ or should they keep waiting for someone else?

It’s an interesting encounter to say the least. The disciples of Jesus had barely figured out who Jesus really was, and here’s another man’s disciples who seem to have put two and two together.

But, the deeper point here is that they were ‘waiting’ to begin with. And, they were willing to wait longer if need be.

They were waiting for the “one.”

Why? What had tipped them off that something was coming? And what did they think that ‘something’ was going to look like when it got there?

The best clue lies in Jesus’ answer to them: “Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”

Big stuff was happening. Crazy big stuff.

And, it’s what they were looking for.

Because what had tipped them off that ‘something’ big was coming was the prophesy of Isaiah. Seven hundred years before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah had foretold that the Kingdom of God would come crashing to earth and bring peace, justice, and righteousness.

Throughout this year’s Advent observations we’ve been treated to various section’s of Isaiah’s prophesies. And this Sunday, in the 35th chapter we find this: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way.”

In other words, anything that is a ‘little off’ or askew in anyway will be made right. The broken will be made whole. The sick will be made whole. The corners of creation that are dry will be made cool.

“A highway shall be there.”
I love the next verse: “it shall be for God’s people;
no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.”

Translation: Even if you’re a dunce that can’t even figure the GPS out, you don’t have to worry because you can’t miss it.

I love that. Mostly because I’m terrible with directions.

Not even I will be able to mess it up.

And, I won’t even need Google maps.

Jesus, John the Baptist, and the church over these past 2,000 years has interpreted Isaiah’s words of wholeness and holiness to be about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.

When Jesus came via Bethlehem, he made Isaiah’s vision manifest. And, when Jesus comes again, we’ll know the highway all the better. And, we’ll travel the “way” without fear of lion or jackal. There will be cool water at every turn.

And all things that are broken will be made whole. All people who are broken will be made whole.

What began with Jesus’ first advent, will be made all the more complete with his second.

Which, is why since the days of John the Baptist’s disciples, the prayer of faithful Christians has been: Come, Lord Jesus. O come, O come Emmanuel. Bring us your peace, your light, your way.

And while we wait still, we have no need to wait for “another.” We know who we’re waiting for.