December 22, 2013             David Timbs (Melbourne)     

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Immanuel: God – with – us
- The quiet time before Christmas

It is clear from the Gospel text this weekend that Matthew’s Community had difficulties with how Jesus actually fitted into the history of Israel and its relationship with God. There were also nasty rumours being spread about the legitimacy of Jesus' natural birth. A common tactic used by people to attack their opponents was to employ vile, slanderous innuendo particularly about their mothers and the circumstance of their birth. The word bastard comes to mind and it was circulating in some crude form even during the time of Matthew that the mother of Yehsu (Jesus) Miriam, a hairdresser, gave birth to an illigitimate son, Yeshu, by a soldier of the Roman occupation army. This kind of slander was common then as it flourishes even more now. Matthew and his community were acutely aware of this but responded in a calm, measured and reasonable way to put the lie to these assaults on the credibility of Jesus’ origins, the Gospel message he would later preach and the Community of those who followed him and who became, later, what is known the Church.

It cannot be stressed sufficiently that the stakes for the followers of Jesus were high both in relation to the legitimacy and authority of Jesus himself and those who gathered around him. It was all about their very identity, authority to proclaim and spread the Gospel and to provide a credible basis for it.

By the mid-80s AD, Christian Jews were in the process of separating from their old religious Tradition so emotions were high, recriminations, blame and bad feelings abounded. In this Gospel passage, Matthew both responds to his community’s uncertainties and offers a defence of the new direction into which their faith in Christ had lead them. He offers a deep insight into the mystery surrounding the conception of Jesus Christ and the legitimacy of his lineage as the son of David, the son of Abraham (1: 1).

Matthew intends to demonstrate that it is precisely through Joseph that Jesus stands directly and legitimately in the royal line of King David and in the faith of Abraham the father of the nation. That line was central to the Promise of God and to the salvation history of Israel. Jesus was, in Matthew’s story the genuine Messiah, the anointed, the one promised by God. Above all, and because of that, Matthew shows that Jesus was also legitimately the son of God and the fulfilment of God’s promise to Israel.

Matthew’s story is quite unlike that found in Luke which is a genuine infancy narrative. He concentrates on the miraculous nature of Jesus' conception and birth. Luke’s story consequently focuses on Mary. She is the principal character. It is Mary who has the divine revelation about her invitation to become the mother of God’s Son. It is she who is told about the destiny of her son and it is she who is called upon to name him, Jesus. Luke’s earlier story of Elizabeth stands out as a parallel to the Mary narrative. However, in Matthew’s account, Joseph is the central character. The angel appears to him in a dream, resolves his confusion and dilemma about Mary’s pregnancy and it is Joseph who is directed to name him Jesus.

A favourite literary device Matthew uses in his Gospel is to quote texts directly or indirectly from the Old Testament to support the claims he makes in relation to Jesus and the other principal characters. He does this here by quoting the famous text of Isaiah 7: 14. The child born to the young woman in that story bears the prophetic name, Immanuel, which broken up into its three parts, means God – with – us. Matthew takes up this name and uses it as a commentary on the wider meaning of the name given to Jesus by Joseph.

This is very important in the overall construction of Matthew’s Gospel narrative. Here he begins with an affirmation and a promise that Jesus will be the sure sign of the divine, enduring presence with the People: God – with – us. And at the very end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus reassures his disciples and proclaims, "I am with you always even to the end of the age." Matt 28: 20). The name Immanuel, then, provides the book ends of Matthew’s complete Gospel. The evangelist affirms that it is the same God who not only validates the birth and mission of the earthly Jesus but now does exactly the same on behalf of the Church in its age of mission and until the end of time.

This Christmas we could have no greater gift than to be assured that we live, breathe and glory in the ultimate comforting truth that, in Jesus, born in Bethlehem, God is truly with us. (Matthew 1: 18-25)

David Timbs, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

22/12/13