Immanuel (God With Us)

Matthew 1:18-25

Immanuel – 10/29/23

Purpose

1. Explore the cultural context surrounding Mary and Joseph.

2. Explore the theological significance of Christ’s birth.

Disclaimer: Today I’ll be talking about some adult content.

God had bent all time, guided the rising and falling of kingdoms, and wove the exceedingly precise circumstances into which Jesus Christ – the son of Abraham, the son of David – would be born. The genealogy that opens Matthew sets the stage for those exceedingly precise circumstances. And so many of those circumstances were prophesied hundreds, if not thousands of years earlier.

Our passage today begins a sequence of five stories, or pericopes, beginning with today’s passage and then the four stories in chapter 2. Each of these five pericopes have a dream with an angel offering guidance and each story points to a specific prophecy fulfilled in Christ.

These five pericopes are not just assembled so we would know the circumstances of Jesus’ birth and first years. Together they function as an apologetic. They show that Jesus is indeed the prophesied Messiah, and they show how a man from Nazareth could actually be the Messiah.

Matthew is countering the Jewish expectation of that day, that the Messiah would come from Judah, from Bethlehem in the south; that the Messiah’s appearance would be obvious and glorious.

But Jesus came from Nazareth, and Nazareth was a backwards, obscure, undesirable place. It would very much be like, if Jesus were born today, he would come out of Appalachia with a thick hillbilly accent. This is why Nathaniel, an eventual disciple of Jesus’, when he was first told the Messiah came from Nazareth, he said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46)

Matthew uses these five pericopes as a proof to every reader, particularly the Jewish reader, that something good did indeed come out of Nazareth – the greatest good that has ever graced this planet.

But first, Matthew reveals to the reader how David’s royal line applies to Jesus even though He was conceived outside of the royal lineage.

Read vs 18

Betrothal and Betrayal

When a man and woman are engaged today it lets everyone know that the couple has formally agreed to get married. It comes with its commitments, but it is not a commitment like marriage. Though it would be painful, it is ok to break off engagements.

Betrothal was a very different thing. Usually arranged by the parents, the man would pay the woman’s parents a bride price. It was a significant amount of wealth symbolizing and solidifying the commitment the man was making to the woman. In a culture where women were regarded as second-class citizens, this bride price symbolized and secured the woman’s value.

Betrothal was also a commitment far more profound than today’s engagement. In fact, look at verse 19; even though they were still betrothed, Joseph was Mary’s husband. And if they were to break their betrothal, verse 19 calls that divorce. So, the betrothal was a strong commitment, and a very public one too. Everyone in the town, or village, would have known about the betrothal.

Typically, once a betrothal was formalized, and the bride price paid, the husband would leave for about a year. During that time, he would usually prepare a house for his wife – perhaps even build one from scratch – while the wife would continue living with her parents. Then, after that period of time, the husband would come for his bride, a wedding ceremony would take place, and the bride and groom would go to their new home together. Only then would the marriage be consummated.

The events of our passage happen during the year of betrothal, when the full benefits of marriage were meant to be prepared for and excitedly anticipated.

So, when Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, when he saw her swollen belly, you can imagine how shattering it must have been. Not only does this destroy the relationship with Mary, it was a significant economic setback and a source of terrible public shame. Joseph’s manhood would be called into question, and Mary would be labeled a whore.

Unless she had been raped, according to Mosaic Law, an unfaithful betrothed woman should be treated as an adulteress.

If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones. -Deuteronomy 22:23-24

But the Roman Empire ruled the Jewish lands, and they had prohibited the Jews from putting people to death (which is why the Jews will eventually need the Romans to crucify Jesus). Mary cannot be executed – not that Joseph would have wanted that – so divorce was his only recourse.

Read vs 19

It’s important we understand what divorce was in those days. It will come up again later in Matthew.

The Jewish tradition for divorce during that time was far too easy. The husband would gather a few of the local leaders, perhaps the elders of Nazareth or the leaders at the local synagogue, and then publicly declare, “She is not my wife nor am I her husband” – words stolen from Habakkuk 2:2. If the woman committed adultery, the more public this ceremony would be in an effort to vindicate the man and shame the woman.

Afterwards a legal certificate of that public declaration, or a certificate of divorce, would be issued to the man. He would deliver it to his wife, and she would be obligated to leave the house with nothing. As a result, she would be left entirely destitute and labeled a social pariah.

None of this is derived from Biblical Law. Rather, this form of divorce emerged from the traditions and teachings of the religious leaders.1

But Joseph didn’t want to divorce Mary according to these traditions. For as verse 19 states, he was a just man. In other words, Joseph was careful to obey the law of God; not in a legalistic kind of way, but truly desiring to honor Yahweh. He was just.

And as a just man, desiring to follow God’s command, he had to divorce Mary. The implication of Deuteronomy 22 is that she was no longer eligible for betrothal and marriage.

But, because he was a just man, and just as God desires mercy over judgment (James 2:13), so too did Joseph. Though, by every earthly account, Mary deserved shame, Joseph wanted to do what he could to spare her further embarrassment. Thus, he decided to do this thing quietly.

All he needed were two officials. He could do it in a private place, away from the public eye. Certainly, word would get out, but he could mitigate the scandal as much as possible. Though he most certainly felt betrayed, he could still provide her the dignity of a secret divorce: mercy over judgment.

Notice how verse 20 begins, “As he considered these things…” This phrase implies Joseph made up his mind, that he would quietly divorce Mary, but it also implies that Joseph arrived at that conclusion after thoughtful consideration.

Joseph did not react in anger and immediately rush to a hasty and loud divorce. Upset as he must have been, he did not lash out at Mary. Instead, he took time to consider; and being that he had a dream, he was not planning to act until he slept on it.

What a demonstration of wisdom: slow to speak and slow to anger! James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes:

Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. -James 1:19-20

What righteousness might abound if we took time to listen and to consider, rather than react? Was not the righteousness of God produced when Joseph was slow to speak and slow to anger? Indeed, he was a just man.

Read vs 20

Heaven’s Purpose

God sent an angel to deliver a message to the sleeping Joseph. The angel addresses Joseph as “son of David.” It reminds us, the reader, what is at stake. Without Joseph, the unborn child would not belong to the royal line.

Do not fear. This is less a command to not be afraid of the angelic presence, and more an exhortation that what comes next will take great courage from Joseph. This will be no easy message to receive. Do not shrink back, do not be dismayed, do not fear.

Mary has not been unfaithful. God the Spirit has created that child in her.

In the book of Genesis, in the darkness and deep, there was the Holy Spirit, hovering.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. -Genesis 1:2

The Spirit’s hovering was not aimless, but filled with creative purpose. The Spirit brooded over the waters, overshadowing them, about to begin something brand new. Both Matthew and Luke echo those creative origins.

Listen to what the angelic messenger said to Mary.

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

-Luke 1:35

In the womb of the world, the overshadowing Holy Spirit wrought creation. In the womb of the virgin, the overshadowing Holy Spirit conceived a baby boy who would make all things new.

Read vs 21

Joseph has now been given two instructions. First, take Mary as a wife. Second, name the child Jesus.

Jesus, a derivative of the Old Testament name Joshua, literally means “Yahweh saves.” The name will accord with His purpose; like the angel says, “He will save His people from their sins.”

There is so much in that simple little statement! Jesus will not save from Rome, from oppression, from the sufferings and pains and tumults of this life. At least not yet. Rather, He will save from sins.

This was always the testimony of the prophets. Isaiah spoke of a messianic figure that God called, My Servant.

He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. -Isaiah 53:5-6

Jesus would claim this servant’s very purpose for Himself.

“Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” -Matthew 20:28

Notice how Jesus did not say that He came to give His life as a ransom for all, but for many. Who then? Who are the many? Who has he come to save?

Look again at what the angel tells Joseph in verse 21. He will save His people from their sins. Only Christ’s people will be saved from their sins.

Who are these people? Jesus tells us exactly who they are.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” -John 10:27-30

Anyone who hears the voice of Jesus and follows, these are His people, these are the ones He knows. These are the elect ones that the Father has given to the Son; eternally secured in Christ’s salvation. At the fulness of time and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God sent for His Son, born of a virgin, to redeem the elect from their sins.

But to the devout Jew, there is a problem here: Most Jews thought the Messiah would be a great man, a mighty militaristic king like David, imbued with miraculous powers, yes; but not the embodied Yahweh.

Saving people from their sins? That’s something only God can do.

“I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” -Isaiah 43:25

The people of God always understood that only God could save from sins.

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake. -Psalm 79:9

Matthew is blurring the lines. Was the Messiah a man, or is He God?

Read vs 22-23

Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 almost verbatim. What has happened to Mary is the very thing that had been prophesied hundreds and hundreds of years before. Defying all reason, by the power of God, the virgin has conceived a son.

They shall call His name Immanuel. This unborn child, this miraculous son, is Immanuel – God with us. Though there is no record of anyone calling Jesus this name, the church has always called Him Immanuel. There are even some churches that name themselves after Immanuel.

Immanuel. The Apostle John talks about the same sort of reality: that God came to be with us.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. -John 1:14

The question I asked earlier, “Was the Messiah a man, or is He God,” the answer is yes. Jesus, Immanuel, is fully God and fully man. Since the moment the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, God the Son is in every moment completely human: created, having a body, filled with human emotions, limited, lowly, dependent upon the Father.

But at the exact same time, and in every moment, Jesus of Nazareth is completely God: uncreated, a spirit, brimming with blazing holiness, high and lifted up, self-existent, limitless, eternal.

This is the doctrine of the hypostatic union. It is as much a mindbender as the doctrine of the Trinity. Things that appear to us to be self-contradictory, but in the realm of God they hold together with perfect unity.

How awesome is the hypostatic union, that Jesus is fully God and fully man! It is our salvation!

No human who ever lived was righteous, not even one. Everyone is a law breaker. Every person has used their life to become an offense to God, to choose worship of self over worship of God. And we are so tangled up with self-love and pride that we don’t even realize how deep the problem goes. We are totally depraved, corrupted to the core.

We have been constantly unfaithful to God. It’s like what God said to the prophet Jeremiah:

“For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore.”

-Jeremiah 2:20

We are all gripped by this wicked addiction: to repudiate God and serve ourselves. And when lost to our sins we ravenously chase down other lovers; we become an abhorrence to God. Such spiritual adultery earns for us the condemnation of death.

But God choses mercy over judgment; and in view of our worst, God gives us His best.

God sent forth His Son to be born into a human body. Jesus was never overcome by the lusts of the flesh, or by our pride, or our self-serving addictions. He lived perfectly, selflessly, humble, righteous, overflowing with compassion and love. He came to us, found us in our shame and nakedness, and He desires to clothe us in His righteousness.

But before we could put on His clothing, He had to put on ours. Like Paul writes, He became sin who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). To eradicate our sin and remove our condemnation, He placed His body where ours deserved to be: sentenced to death, killed on the criminal’s cross. He became our curse to remove our curse (Galatians 3:13). When He died, so also died the curse of our sin.

But the curse of death did not defeat Him, rather He rose in victory when He burst from the grave. Sin and death have been defeated. Now come to Christ by faith and become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Come be transformed into the image of Christ and receive His robes of righteousness! Come to Jesus and be saved!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

-2 Corinthians 5:17

God has come to be with us, that we could be with Him. And He makes all things new. This is why God became flesh, why he came to be with us in our mess, to save us from our sins and make us new. The two names of the Christ: Jesus, Immanuel; Yahweh saves, Yahweh with us. He saves us by being with us in the most gritty, most lowly, most intimate ways conceivable.

Jesus came to us and found us, so that we could come to Him and be found in Him!

Joseph’s dream is no dream. It is our reality. It is why we worship, why we spend our lives for one another, why we are here in this room. Jesus has saved us by coming to be with us.

Just as He is Immanuel at the opening of Matthew’s gospel, so also is He at the close. The very last words of Matthew:

“Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:20

Jesus was not Immanuel then, but not now. No! He is with us always. Even here, as we have gathered at Immanuel, Immanuel is with us. Jesus said:

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

-Matthew 18:20

Even now, Jesus our Immanuel is with us: The Spirit of Christ in our midst. You do not worship Christ in some far-off place, sitting on some distant throne. He is beside you, around us, dwelling in your heart. He sees you and hears you. He knows you by name. There is nothing in all creation that can separate you from His love.

Not even death can separate you from Christ. He loves you too much to let death take you. Though your body die, yet shall you live! You shall be with Him, and He with you, forevermore! Do not fear, Yahweh saves, death has no victory over you. You will wake up.

In a different way, Joseph woke up.

Read vs 24-25

Joseph obeyed the two commands spoken by the angel.

First, he saw out the betrothal and he married Mary. The shame would have been overwhelming. Everyone would have seen him as a cuckold. Synonyms for cuckold are sissy, coward, pushover, mama’s boy, etc. Mary would have been labeled a whore; Jesus a bastard.

But even this was in fulfilment of prophecy. Isaiah wrote that the Messiah would be despised and rejected by men (Isaiah 53:3). It was true for Jesus in birth and death. It was true for His family. It was true for Joseph. Even though he had an angelic dream, and even though ancient Jews placed more stock in dreams, it would still take tremendous faith to make such massive decisions based on things seen in a dream.

Joseph obeyed the second command as well; he named the boy Jesus. This would have happened at eight days old, when Jesus was circumcised. And this is also meant that Joseph formally adopted Jesus as his own son. At the moment Joseph named Jesus, He became the rightful heir of David’s throne.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken to the prophets.

Joseph heard through a dream. You have heard through God’s word. Joseph obeyed God at great cost to himself. Is there a cost to your obedience? Is there obedience?

What do you fear? Immanuel is with you and Jesus will save you.

1The Gale Group. (2008) Divorce. Jewish Virtual Library. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/divorce-2