Isaiah is the great prophet of the Advent season. We have heard from him every Sunday of Advent. Today, we hear him announce that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall name him Emmanuel. It is such an important prophecy that we hear it quoted in today’s gospel. The hope that one day prayers would be answered and prophesy fulfilled would sustain the faith of God’s children through many a crisis as the centuries ticked by. It is hope that sustains us during our darkest times, isn’t it? I feel so sorry for people who have no hope. Isaiah’s message gave them hope. But, he was entrusted with the message, not the time for its fulfillment. Little could his audience or their descendants know they would be waiting, hoping and praying for more than 700 years before these events would come to pass. Remember, God’s ways are not our ways, nor is his time our time.
Perhaps they waited too long. By the time Jesus was born in the flesh, many of God’s people had forgotten that he was coming. They had stopped looking for the day of his arrival – had ceased to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of God. That might explain why so many people rejected Jesus. Of course, they were also expecting someone far grander – someone of noble blood born of wealthy parents in the finest of circumstances – a true descendent of King David. Joseph and Mary and the little town of Nazareth just didn’t fit the bill.
But Joseph remembered. What if Joseph had not obeyed the angel of God, who spoke to him in his dreams? Even today, an unwed pregnancy raises eyebrows. In a small town like Nazareth, where everyone knew everyone, such a scandal was the kiss of death. How could Joseph be with her if she had already been with someone else? But, even in his doubt, he, a righteous man, unwilling to expose Mary to shame, wishes to keep the whole affair quiet so as to prevent any harm coming to the mother or her unborn child. Had he done otherwise, Mary and the baby could both have been stoned to death. So, how could Joseph do this?
“Do not be afraid.” That’s how. With those four words – repeated again and again by an angel of the Lord, our hope of heaven was born. The angel told Joseph to not give into these fears of what others might say or think or do. And, Joseph remembered when an angel had spoken these similar words of reassurance to Abraham when he asked how he, an old man, could have a son, and to Zechariah when he received news of his wife, Elizabeth’s, miraculous pregnancy. An angel would utter these words again, telling Mary, “Do not be afraid.” After Jesus’ birth, the angels would use these same words as they beckoned the shepherds to come in from the fields, following the light of the star, to adore at the Christ child’s crib.
These same words are spoken to us each time we face life’s challenges, difficult decisions or even our own sinfulness. Jesus being born among us means we no longer have to be afraid – either to live or even to die, for he truly is “God with us.”
If you are paying attention, however, you will notice that the angel did not instruct Joseph to name Mary’s child Emmanuel. No, he told him to name the child “Jesus” – Joshua in Hebrew – a name that means “God saves.” The Jews chose names not only because of the meaning of the name itself, but because of the tradition associated with the name. So, in naming the child Jesus, the angel calls us to look back to the first Joshua to find the meaning of his name. The name Joshua takes us back to the Exodus, to the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt, and the establishment and the fulfillment of their life in the Promised Land. We all know that the two most important people of the Exodus are Moses and Joshua. Moses began the exodus and Joshua finished it. Therefore, to understand who Jesus was and what he means to us we look at his name and the tradition associated with it.
The gospel writers told the story of Jesus with frequent parallels to the story of the Exodus and particularly Moses. For example, Hebrew legend says that Moses’ father received a visitation from an angel who revealed that Moses’ son would be one who would liberate the Jews from Egypt. We hear in today’s gospel Matthew report that Joseph had a similar dream of who Jesus is to be: he would liberate us from our sins. Let’s look at other parallels. Pharaoh orders the Egyptians to slaughter the Hebrew children, but Moses is spared. Herod orders the slaughter of the children after the visitation of the Magi but Jesus is spared. Moses crosses the Red Sea into forty years of testing in the wilderness. Jesus crosses the River Jordan after his baptism and begins forty nights of temptation in the wilderness. Moses received the Ten Commandments, the Law of Israel, on the mountain. Jesus preached the Beatitudes, the Law of the Kingdom, on a mountain. To say Jesus is like Moses is to proclaim that he is a liberator, and he has come to release us from our bondage. These parallels were not lost on the people in those days who first heard the Good News of Christ proclaimed. They understood by those parallels who he was and what He had come to do.
But his name is Joshua, not Moses. As I noted a moment ago, Moses began the exodus – Joshua finished it. Moses died an old man, short of going into the Promised Land. It was Joshua who finally led his people into the life that was long awaited, most expected, incessantly prayed for – the fulfillment of their lives. So, when the angel says, “His name shall be called Jesus,” (meaning Joshua) the name reveals what he will do. The name assures us that “God saves.” The tradition of the name means He will save us from whatever holds us in bondage, and will lead us to the fulfillment of our lives.
As we prepare for Christmas just one week away, and buy and wrap our last-minute gifts, let us recall that the greatest gift isn’t the one we will find under the tree. The greatest gift of Christmas would be wrapped in swaddling clothes not ribbons, and he would one day be found on the tree of the cross – born to die that we might live. With him at our side, we have nothing to fear and heaven to hope for! He is Emmanuel – God with us – and Jesus – God who saves. Let us continue to live in hope and prepare ourselves daily for the coming of God’s kingdom. In fact, let us, as hope filled followers of Jesus, make his kingdom known among us by following his way, putting our trust in him – God with us who saves us.