Emmanuel - God with us

At this Christmas time, we remember that Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us. Jesus came to show what God is like as well as to die for the sins of the world. He told Thomas ‘if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father.’

If we stop and think what Jesus is like, we see someone with a huge heart for the lost and dying, someone who loved people, who helped and healed those whom society had little time for. 

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and illness among the people.  News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed; and he healed them. Matthew 4: 23 – 24.

Having met their needs, he then sat down and taught the crowd, the teaching now known as The Beatitudes. The first one was ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ Matthew 5: 3. Who were the ‘poor in spirit’? I believe, as Dallas Willard wrote, that the poor in spirit were this crowd of needy people – the sick, demon possessed, those in pain and paralysed. They had been blessed because the Kingdom had come to them. 

When John the Baptist, discouraged and in prison sent his disciples to ask Jesus if her was the one, he told them; ‘Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor’ Luke 7: 22.

The sign of the Kingdom (the King’s domain) and of the Messiah, the King was wonderful things happening and good news proclaimed to the poor.

As I have written before God gets a bad press. People are very quick to believe that God is an angry, vindictive God just itching to judge and condemn the world but nothing could be further from the truth. … God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4: 8 – 10.

Jesus was only ever angry with the religious leaders and temple authorities who should have

known better. Right from his birth they stubbornly refused to believe that Jesus was the longed for Messiah. They opposed him who came to bring life in all its fullness. Jesus never was angry, cross or irritated by the poor, ignorant and needy people. He had compassion on them but those who led the people astray into dead religion he condemned.

God is everything that is good and kind. He is gracious, merciful and he showed this by sending his son into the world to show the world just what he is like. Jesus is Emmanuel.

But now as Bill Johnson said: Its all about us becoming a generation who can authentically display who Jesus is. He is the desire of the nations. (Haggai 2: 7). He is what everybody wants they just don’t know it.  The more we represent Jesus as he genuinely is, the more desirable we become to the nations.  Our job is to destroy the works of the devil, just as Jesus did – heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons and cleanse lepers (Matthew 10: 8).

So this Christmas as the world turns albeit briefly to remember Jesus let’s be those who represent Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, to the world by doing the things he did and by bringing his presence wherever we go.

The power of One

When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man – and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. Mark 5: 15 – 17

The reaction of the local people to the casting out of the legion of demons from the demon possessed man is very interesting.  When they came and found the man ‘dressed and in his right mind’ they were not astonished or amazed but afraid.  This was not the normal reaction of the crowd when Jesus performed miracles. That was usually one of wonder and praise to God.  These people were afraid and when they saw what had happened to their pigs, they ‘pleaded’ with Jesus to leave.

They did have a bit of a point though. 2000 pigs had just gone helter skelter over the cliff and their livelihood with it. To lose 2000 porkers at one time would have been quite a blow to quite a few people, probably Gentiles, as they were the ones who kept pigs, the ultimate unclean animals.

Their only thought was the loss of their pigs in the lake. Jesus’ thought had been the delivering of a wretched demon-possessed man. In the big picture, his was the greater need. Jesus always went for the one, the individual. He told the parable of the lost sheep, where the shepherd left the 99 to go and look for the one.  Jesus wanted to know who had touched his garment in a heaving crowd of humanity when the lady plagued by bleeding reached out for her miracle.

Jesus’ concern for the individual is a wonderful encouragement for us as well. Sometimes, it can feel as if we are not making any difference in this world. There are so many needs and our contribution is so small.

Have you heard the story of a boy on a beach the day after a terrible storm?  The beach was covered in starfish, washed up by the storm, and one by one the boy was throwing them back into the sea. An old man came along and laughed at the boy, telling him that he was not making much difference throwing them one by one back into the ocean. The boy picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea and replied, ‘Well it made a difference to that one.’ He understood the need of the individual. 

I have been reading a book by a missionary to Burundi, one of the most heart breaking countries on earth, torn for years by civil war, brutality, terrible poverty and disease. One day when visiting South Africa the missionary and a friend took an orphan, dying of AIDS, on a long journey to fulfill a wish to swim in the ocean. He loved it but soon after he died. Was it worth it the missionary wondered?

You bet it was.  ‘The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25: 40.  We may not be able to fix the world’s problems but we can make a significant difference to the life of an individual.  We can sponsor a child, we can give to charity, we can pray for individuals and churches.

If everyone did that, we may find that some of the world’s problems, especially abject poverty, surely this generation’s greatest disgrace, would be lessened.