Emmanuel: God with us

One of my favourite names for Jesus is from Isaiah, "Emmanuel". This, as Matthew's Gospel explains (Matthew 1: 23) means "God with us". I like the name Emmanuel because I find comfort in its meaning. I believe that in Jesus' coming, God comes to live among us. That is good news. It means that even when life is dreadful we are not alone. God is with us, God has come, is always coming and will come to save. I realise that I would not find the idea of 'God with us' comforting if I did not believe that 'God is love'.

What if your concept of God is of an entirely vengeful, destructive being, always looking for ways to punish people? Or if that is your gut feeling about God, so that when something bad happens in your life you think, 'what have I done to deserve this?'

During WW2 Nazi military uniform belt buckles had a design of an eagle symbol perched on a swastika. Over this was inscribed the words, 'Gott mit uns', the German for 'God with us'. I did an internet search to check out the buckle design and then wished I hadn't. Among other depressing finds I discovered how easily I could buy a new replica of such a buckle, not to mention many other similar artefacts such as Nazi flags. It would seem there is a big demand for such stuff. This is not good news, any more than the name 'Son of God' was good news for Jesus' people under the oppression of the Roman empire when 'Son of God' was a name for Caesar, the Emperor.

The Nazi use of 'Gott mit uns' had been used in Prussia from the 17th century and the German Empire from 1870 - 1918. The Russian Empire's imperial motto was also 'God with us'. It is a common human failing for any tribe, state or empire to fall prey to the seductive idea that God is on 'our side' not 'their side'. You can find many examples of this thinking in the history of the British Empire. To invoke the idea that 'God is with us' but 'God is not with them' so whatever atrocities 'our side' commits are justified is a  common practice throughout world history. And yes, you can even find these ideas in the Bible - but that is a discussion for another post.

The point of identifying Jesus as revealing 'God with us' is that Jesus' life and teaching showed that God is with us in the sense of coming among us for the benefit all people, not just those we might call "people like us".

    Emmanuel, God-with-us,

        come to us, abide with us.