Why Immanuel came
Photograph by Trung Nhan Tran via Unsplash
Rev. John Zehring
The Prophet Isaiah (7:14) told of the Lord giving a sign: a young woman with child shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel. Immanuel is a Hebrew name formed from immanu (“with us”) and el (“God”). The idea that God is with us, expressed in the Psalms as “For Thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4 KJV) is perhaps the most important message in the Bible. In all our pondering about the nature and character of the Divine, is that not what we want to know, that God is with us?
For centuries, Christians have sung their plea for Immanuel to come…
“O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.”
Note that Emmanuel spelled with an E emanates from the Greek transliteration from the Hebrew – both spellings are correct. O come, O come, Emmanuel.
Why did Immanuel come? Why did God send him? What was his own understanding of why he came? If we gather all of Jesus’ statements which begin with the words “I came,” we arrive at an understanding of why Immanuel came. Consider a few of them:
“I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” (John 12:47). The first thing to notice is that Jesus prefaced his “I came” statement with why he did not come. He did not come to judge or to condemn, although far too often we have thought the Divine to be a judgmental or condemning God. No, said Jesus, that is not why he came, but rather to save the world. The word save is one of the most misunderstood words in the Bible and often one of the most misused. In Greek, the word Jesus spoke can be translated as “to be made whole.” Why did Immanuel come? So that you might be made whole. That is the positive flip to the negative of judgment and condemnation. It is for your wholeness that Immanuel came.
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10). When a person welcomes God’s spirit to dwell within and treats it as an honored guest, the quality of their life changes. Then, they see their life through the lenses of abundance rather than through the lenses of scarcity, and can say… “My cup runneth over. I have enough. I see in my life the abundance with which God has blessed me.”
“For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10). This “I came” statement occurs in a chapter where three things have gone lost. There was the lost son, the lost coin, and the shepherd who lost a sheep. These stories tell how people can get in the wrong place. It is a reminder of the heart of God, to seek out and to save those who have gotten in the wrong place. That should signal to us that we too should neither judge nor condemn, but rather reach out to those who are feeling far away from the Divine.
“For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37). This comes in Jesus’ conversation with Pilate, before his crucifixion. Pilate asked “What is truth?” The follower of Jesus would be inclined to answer that Jesus’ teachings are the truth, most especially Jesus’ two great commandments: to love God and to love neighbor.
Jesus came not to condemn but to make the world whole, so that you might have an abundant life, to seek out and save those who have gotten themselves in the wrong place, and to testify to God’s truth.
The centuries-old hymn “O come, O come, Emmanuel” has many verses that vary depending on the hymnal. One verse contains these words of longing:
“O come, Desire of nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease;
Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.”
A person singing this in Advent of 2025 might consider it a futile yearning. Bind all peoples in one heart and mind? The only thing people today are of one mind about is that these are the most divided times in recent history. One heart and mind would not apply to the United States. Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease? Consider the tragic killing by Israel of over 70,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, maiming of over 170,000 and the almost complete destruction of property in Gaza, the oppressive horror of war against Ukraine, or the strife faced by people in other places trying to cross borders to find a safe home. Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace? Nations rattle their nuclear sabers anew as the Doomsday Clock approaches seconds to midnight.
Today the state of the planet is perhaps more threatened and fragile than ever. So, does this mean that God has been impotent to bind all peoples in one heart and mind or to bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease? I have heard people say they wonder if they can believe in a God who allows so much evil to occur in our world. Perhaps like the Psalmist (10:1), they want to cry out “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” Note that even this wondering and cry did not cause the Psalmist to abandon his faith, as it should not cause our faith to weaken.
When Isaiah (9:6-7) wrote those words proclaimed in every Christmas pageant, you might see how they could be misunderstood to expect a political Messiah who would improve the people’s quality of life and fix things with the governing of their nation: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders… He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness…” The understanding, or misunderstanding, could be: Emmanuel, the Messiah, will teach those hated Romans a lesson and restore us to our rightful place of self-governance.
After performing miracles, Jesus frequently asked people not to tell anyone what he had done (see Luke 8:56; Matthew 17:9; Mark 7:36; Luke 5:14). Why didn’t he want the whole world to know? Why tell no one? Because, he might have said, “I’m not that kind of a Messiah. My kingdom is not of this world. I did not come to rule Israel as a political leader. You’re treating me like I’m here only to improve the quality of your statehood, and your economic and cultural life.” When we sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” we need to be careful not to expect Jesus to be our political deliverer. Rather, as he stated in his “I came” statements, he came not to condemn but to make the world whole, so that you might have an abundant life, to seek out and save those who have gotten themselves in the wrong place, and to testify to God’s truth.
Another understanding of why singing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is urgent and current might be found in a saying attributed to Teresa of Avila: “Christ has no body on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassionately on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours!” If we are indeed God’s ambassadors of peace, then fulfilling the plea of the carol is not God’s to do but ours. It falls to us, on God’s behalf and because of our love for God, to be God’s instruments of binding all peoples together, of laboring for strife and quarrels to cease, and to work to fill the whole world with heaven’s peace. The hymn we sing in Advent is not a petition to ask God to do these things, but for God to use us as God’s voice, hands, feet, and eyes to be God’s body on earth.
Rev. John Zehring worked in higher education for a couple decades and then served United Church of Christ congregations as a pastor in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine. He is the author of dozens of books. His most recent book from Judson Press is “Get Your Church Ready to Grow: A Guide to Building Attendance and Participation.”
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
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