Sermon on Matthew 1:12-25, Christmas Eve, "The Gift of Two Names"

Who is Jesus? That’s the most important question that we can ever ask, and should be asking this Christmas. We’ll find the answer in reflecting on God’s Christmas gift to us tonight: the Gift of Two Names—Jesus and Immanuel. Those two names will help tell us Who is Jesus?

Matthew 1 is Jesus’ genealogy. His earthly family tree. A genealogy has a rather monotonous rhythm: “so and so the father of so and so the father of so and so…” and so on, down through all the names. But there are a couple of key places where the cadence is broken, like this one: “Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.  The cadence doesn’t end with the predictable “Joseph, the father of Jesus”—because Jesus is not the son of Joseph, but as the angel told them, He would be the Son of God. The Virgin birth! Jesus the Son of God, the Son of Mary. Joseph, her betrothed (legal) husband is only Jesus’ adoptive father, not his natural father; the relationship had not yet been consummated. So this break in the cadence focuses on Jesus’ miraculous birth. And the other amazing fact revealed by this human genealogy of Jesus is that He is the son of sinners! Everyone in His human tree was a sinner. God came so close to us in the incarnation of Jesus, that He became human flesh and blood—like us in every way, except without sin (Hebrews 2:17; 4:15). If Jesus had been a sinner, He would have been no help us. But because He is sinless, He is able to save us from sin. So Who is Jesus? He is Son of the Virgin Mary, and Son of sinners, yet born without sin, conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew’s Christmas story continues with the naming of Jesus, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). “Jesus” is English for the Hebrew name, “Yeshua.” It means “Yahweh (the LORD) saves.” The child’s name is Yeshua—or Jesus—because this Son will save his people from their sins. Jesus will forgive all sin—and Oh do we need it! Oh God, do we need it! We are so incomplete without forgiveness! We have economic, political, relationship or family problems, health problems, financial problems—and yet if all these problems vanished today, our lives still wouldn’t be perfect. Even if we were healthy, wealthy and wise and at peace, the biggest piece of our life is missing if we don’t know God and have His forgiveness. When we realize that Jesus is the Son of sinners, we must also realize our first and foremost need is to be saved from our sin problem.

Sin is not just an accidental byproduct of our existence. It’s not just a “bum fact of life.” Sin is the insidious, piercing reality that ruins our lives and ultimately leads every person inevitably to their grave. It’s the selfishness, the arrogance, the jealousy, the anger and greed and spoils our life and relationships. And there is no cure for sin, except in Jesus, the Son of Mary, Son of sinners—the One whose name teaches us: “He will save His people from their sins.”  It’s a lesson we often would rather not learn! We don’t need any special invitation to participate in the Christmas beauty and decorations and songs, gifts, and fun—we are naturally drawn to all those shiny things. But we do need the repeated special invitation to celebrate CHRIST at the center of CHRISTmas, and the reminder that Christmas is about God sending us a Savior from sin. God sending us Jesus, who saves us from our sin, should inspire our joy, our music, and celebration. It should be the main deal—not a side melody. Without Jesus, all the trappings of Christmas are empty. Without the reason for the season. Without the miracle of God sent for our rescue. A lesson we often hide from, to focus on lighter things.

There’s an old Pogo cartoon that hits the nail on the head. “I have met the enemy and he is me!” Every political, social, or psychological problem is the result of our fallen sinful condition. That’s why Jesus didn’t come as an economist, a sociologist, or as a family therapist, life coach, or any of the other versions we might prefer instead. A fake Jesus of these varieties is much easier to set aside, ignore, or marginalize. But the real Jesus of Scripture is compelling and unavoidable. He cannot be pushed aside, as every human heart cries out to know God, and can only find God truly in Him. Jesus identifies the sin problem in us, and tells us He’s done something about it!

His name says it all: He is Jesus, “because he will save his people from their sins.” I experience joy and peace when I recognize that I can’t bring my life to a successful conclusion. I just can’t. And I’ve tried. God, I’ve tried! My biggest problem is me, and so I need a Savior to rescue me from my sins. If we come to Jesus for any other reason—maybe hoping for success or popularity or wealth or a better job or better health—we will be disappointed. Jesus has more important problems to solve than our unpopularity or our failures. Those are just symptoms. Jesus lays down his life to save us from the sin alienating us from God and from each other and threatening to destroy us. He fixes our sin problem.

The first Christmas gift is the Name Jesus. Now on to the second Christmas gift, the Name Immanuel!  Matthew’s Gospel continues: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet [Is 7:14]: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us’” (Mt 1:22–23). “God with us” is what Matthew’s Gospel is all about. It appears here, in the beginning. Then in the middle, “Where two or three gather in my name, there I am in their midst” (Mt 18:20). And then in Matthew’s last verse. Jesus says in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Beginning, middle , and end, Matthew’s Gospel echoes this chord: “God with us!” If the name of Jesus—“He will save them from their sins” is the first Christmas gift in Matthew’s Gospel, then the name Immanuel—“God with us” is the second Christmas gift in Matthew’s Gospel.

Jesus, the Son of Mary, is not only our Savior from sin. Jesus, the Son of Mary, is Immanuel God with us—up close and personal. The famous St. Patrick, the real one, from history—the Christian missionary to the Irish—has a hymn or poem that is attributed to him. And one of the verses goes like this:

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I don’t think we often think of “God with us” in such an all-encompassing way as St. Patrick puts it here. But Immanuel is God with us—up close and personal—entering our muck and mire, our chaos and our deep confusion. Even when we are forgetful of His presence, He is faithful at our side, in quiet or in danger, in the hearts of all who love me, in the mouth of friend and stranger.

But if at our best we have been forgetful of God’s presence, we must not forget that at our worst, on the day of deepest darkness in human history, we tried to push God’s presence completely away. On that day we all grabbed hold of Immanuel, nailed him to a cross and cried out, “Leave us alone! Leave us alone!” How often we fail to realize that unconfessed, unrepented sin, is a cry for God to leave us alone. And our every sin demands just that—for us to be left alone by God, forever. What a terrible thought!  But on the other side of Good Friday, Immanuel lives! Immanuel’s journey was from the cradle to the cross, and through and out of the empty tomb! Jesus is God with us to save us from our sins, not to leave us in our lost and sinful state, pushing God away. He is God with us to give His true love to us, and pull us close to Him.

Jesus the Son of sinners came to destroy the power of sin, by obeying God’s commandments to the letter and in the Spirit. He came to destroy the power of sin by the power of obedient love. He came to reverse the curse of sin by crushing the serpent’s head; and dying from his poisonous bite—but showing forth God’s power and life by rising from the dead. Through and through, Jesus has destroyed the power of sin, so that His risen life might be ours. That we could know the goodness and truth of life in Him. So that our identity could be transformed from sons and daughters of sinners, to sons and daughters of God. So that our identity could be transformed from the broken, guilty, and shameful humanity held under the power of sin, to servants of the Most High God, dressed in garments of wholeness, innocence, and honor. Dressed in the righteous robes of Jesus, given to us by faith. Beginning, middle, and end, Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us” to complete this transformation in us.

Christmas marks God’s will to stake out His claim for fallen humanity, by sending His Son to be joined to us—the Son of Sinners. But for Immanuel, God with us, to redeem that claim, He went all the way to the cross and empty tomb for us. So that our two Christmas gifts would be Jesus—He will save His people from their sins, and Immanuel—God with us. This is the Christmas answer to our most important question: Who is Jesus? In His beloved Name, Amen!