Jesus - Emmanuel – Is With You in the Weeds
Reflections on the true meaning of Christmas
It’s easy to get caught up in cultural traditions and forget the true meaning of Christmas: God became flesh to dwell among us. Jesus entered into a world of darkness and declared: “I am the light of the world”. Who could make such a claim, and live a life of perfection to back it up? And what does that mean for you today?
In the last episode of our holiday miniseries, Keeping Your Sanity Over the Holidays, John and Shay explain the gospel message: God knows your griefs and wants to be WITH YOU, and moves towards you in your sinfulness, darkness, and brokenness. You are not alone - you have a friend in Jesus!
Does God Suffer?
Humans experience suffering of many kinds, but you may wonder if God suffers too. Unlike all other religions, Christianity says that God himself has suffered. The Bible teaches that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have existed from all eternity and had a close relationship with each other even before the world was created – in fact, the origin of all love is the love between the members of the Trinity.
This trinitarian belief means that not only did Jesus suffer on the cross, but when God gave us his son voluntarily to be a sacrifice for our sin, he experienced excruciating pain as well. Because Jesus entered into this world, you and I can have hope in the midst of our suffering.
With all the hustle and bustle of the season, we can sometimes forget the radical claim that the Bible makes about Jesus. We see the baby in the manger and forget that God himself became flesh and dwelt among us.
The message of Christmas is that Jesus is God with us. But is that true?
The Remarkable Claims of Jesus
The promise in Matthew 1:23 is actually a quote from Isaiah, given some 700 years before Jesus was born. It says, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel - which means God with us.” When people wonder where the Bible explicitly teaches that Jesus is God – well, it tells us that at almost every point:
Matthew said that his name is to be Emmanuel which means God with us.
John tells us in his gospel that in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
When Peter speaks to the elders in Ephesus and says God purchased the church with his own blood, he’s talking about Jesus.
Jesus himself said things that no other good man or teacher had ever said before. In a controversy with religious leaders he said, “I tell you the truth. Before Abraham was born, I AM.” (John 8:58) When Jesus claimed I AM for himself, the elders planned to stone him – they knew what his staggering claim meant!
What should grab your attention is not just that Jesus claimed to be God. Many people have done that. The issue is that the authors of the Bible and his followers believed it to be true – and in some cases, were willing to die for their faith.
The Jewish people of Jesus’ day were educated! They knew the Old Testament well; they knew the God of the Bible was so holy that they dared not speak his name. They were the last people on earth who would believe any human being could be God. But they saw in Jesus a beauty and perfection that they had never seen before.
John Stott makes a profound observation: the disciples lived in close contact with Jesus for about three years. They ate and traveled together. They experienced the cramped spaces of the same boat. They even had a common bank account. The disciples got on one another's nerves. They quarreled, but they never found in Jesus the sins they found in themselves.
Christianity Is Unique
Christianity says no matter who you are or what you’ve done you can be accepted by God through Jesus Christ. Every other religion says that you have to approach God and meet certain requirements to be accepted by him. Christianity says God came to us and all you have to do is trust him.
Sometimes Christianity is inaccurately described as exclusive. But the message of God with us is the most inclusive message there is. If salvation is something you earn by following a set of rules and principles like other religions teach, then it’s really just for good people. But Christianity offers hope for the worst of sinners – people who have no hope of earning salvation on their own.
You may have unanswered questions about the Bible - we all do! But the evidence that Jesus was God is irrefutable. Sometimes we just don’t want to believe because we want to keep sinning. We think following God would be the end of us. But if you give your life to God, he won’t disappoint you.
If Jesus’ Claims Are True
If Jesus is God, as he claimed to be, what are the implications of that for us?
He wants to have a relationship with you – to be your Lord and Savior
Your soul won’t rest until you find your rest in him
God may shout to you in your pain until he gets your attention
True peace and eternal purpose can only be found in Jesus
The greatest joy is to follow him and be obedient to him
If you walk in the light as he is in the light, then you will not walk in darkness
But it also means that if Jesus is God – the King of Kings - then you can’t have just a seasonal relationship with him. You can’t take Jesus off the shelf in December and then put him back in January. You are called to pursue him year-round through prayer, worship, and the study of his word.
You can’t take Jesus off the shelf in December and then put him back in January. You are called to pursue him year-round through prayer, worship, and the study of his word.
If Jesus is Emmanuel - God with us - then it also means he is with you in your suffering. Jesus experienced suffering, he experienced loneliness, he experienced poverty, he experienced rejection, he experienced the death of loved ones. And he is with you when you do as well.
A Suffering Savior
Are you facing hardship? Are you brokenhearted, crushed, or in despair? Jesus says: I know. I care. I love you, and I promise to be with you and give you the grace to make it through.
Only the God who became flesh can say something like that because he too experienced suffering. He promises one day he’s going to make this world right. He came first to forgive us our sin but someday he’s going to come and wipe away every tear. But in the meantime he promises to be with us. And that is enough.
The redemptive theme song throughout all of Scripture, why God is willing to sacrifice so much to redeem us, is so that he will be our God, and we will be his people. That’s how the story ends! United with our Lord and Savior in the presence of God for all of eternity. If you are looking for hope this Christmas season, focus on the beauty and wonder of what it means that Jesus - Emmanuel - is WITH YOU in the weeds of life.
The WYITW team wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
You won’t want to miss our NEW SERIES that begins January 8th: Surviving and Thriving After Trauma. Stay tuned for more great content on topics you care about in 2025!