He Moved to Our Neighborhood

READ: MATTHEW 1:18-25; JOHN 1:1-18; 3:16-17

One of the greatest mysteries for the church to comprehend is the nature of Jesus. In the incarnation—that is, the event in which God became human— something happened that theologians call the hypostatic union. This refers to the union of two natures in one person: Jesus is one-hundred-percent human and one-hundred-percent divine. He is fully human and fully God. To save the world, God did not simply appear from heaven and announce what was going to be done. But in Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, God was born into the world like any other human being.

If you read the account of Jesus’s birth in Matthew’s Gospel, you will notice that the author presents Jesus as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Jesus is Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). It’s as if Matthew is saying, this child who has been born in Bethlehem, He is human, but He is also God.

One thing that the event of the incarnation teaches us is that God planned, decided, and executed the project of drawing near to human beings in Jesus. It’s as if Jesus moved to our neighborhood. And when Jesus died and rose again, He broke down the wall that separated us from God (Matthew 27:50-51; Ephesians 2:11-18). In this way, God drew near to human beings, and He made the way for us to draw near to Him as He calls us to Himself. Today, if we’ve put our trust in Jesus, we can say that He is close to us, not only when we are aware that we need Him, but always.

In Matthew 28:20, Jesus says to His followers, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” From the beginning to the end of his Gospel, Matthew is trying to communicate something to us: God is with us in Jesus! In this week of Advent, when we await the birth and coming of our Lord Jesus, let us remember that, in the midst of feasts, loneliness, gifts, sorrows, banquets, and need, Jesus is our eternal companion. God never abandons us!

Jesus, thank You for being Immanuel, God living with us. Thank You for dying for our sins so we could be in Your eternal company—You are with us at all times, and You never abandon us. Today, help us notice and rest in Your company in our lives. Amen. • Samir Eljagh

• Have you ever thought about how Jesus became human because He loves you and wants to be with you? How does this make you feel? Is it hard to believe it’s true? You can always ask God to help you know for sure that what He says about Himself, and about you, is true. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

“And they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). Matthew 1:23 (NIV)