Emmanuel—God is still with us!

by Joel V. Kuhl

Oh, what joy it is to see a brightly wrapped gift under the Christmas tree with your name on it! It’s special. It’s yours! It’s not hard to see why children love to sneak a peek. They want to know what it is! So, they pick them up, give them a gentle shake, trying to discern what might be inside. And, yes, we adults aren’t immune to that desire either.

It is exciting to see a present, wrapped up so carefully, just for you. It means someone is thinking about you, cares for you, loves you! The joy of these simple gifts can mean the world to us.

Some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, God sent us the most wondrous gift for all time: His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ! “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). This baby was born for you! And He wasn’t any ordinary baby; this was Christ the Lord! God’s own Son, begotten from all eternity, come to earth in order to dwell among His people in flesh and blood just like ours. However, this child did not come to earth only to be with us. Jesus came to be our Saviour! What an incredible gift that baby was and still is to this day!

St. John explains it this way in the Gospel reading for Christmas Day: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).

Now, the word St. John uses for “dwelling” among us is very unique. Literally, it should be translated as Jesus “tabernacling” or “tenting” among us. Why would he use that word? Well, St. John wanted us to make a connection between Jesus’ dwelling among us and the Lord’s presence in the Old Testament, when He dwelt among His people by means of the tabernacle.

When we look back into the book of Exodus, we see the Lord’s presence clearly dwelling among His people. God showed His very present and mighty arm through the plagues of Egypt when He came to save His people. Then, in the wilderness, the Lord manifested Himself in that pillar of fire by night and cloud by day. In that very awesome and visible way, the Lord protected His people from Pharaoh’s army and guided them through their wilderness wanderings for 40 years.

But that pillar of fire was a bit disarming and scary. So, at Mount Sinai, the Lord instructed Moses to build a tabernacle, a house for the glory of the Lord to dwell in among His people. Highly portable, it was constructed of poles and beautifully ornamented fabric. The Lord desired to be among His people their whole journey to the promised land. Every time they set up camp, the tabernacle was the first tent constructed, right in the very centre of all the tribes. God literally tabernacled among His people!

Now, its also important to remember that the tabernacle served another function. Standing in front of the tabernacle was the altar of sacrifice. This house of the Lord was not just God’s place of residence among His people; it was also the place where God would make atonement for Israel’s ever-present sinfulness!

Every morning and every evening a lamb would be offered on that altar, its blood shed to cover over the sins of the people. You can read about these and many other sacrifices given by God to the children of Israel in the book of Leviticus, every one of them given to be a blessing for the people: sin and guilt offerings, whole burnt offerings, thank offerings, and, of course, the great Day of Atonement offering.

God was not only among His people, but His presence was also there to provide the way of salvation for them! Yet these blessings had their limitations.

As the writer to the Hebrews notes, the blood of animals could never fully pay for sin (Hebrews 10:4). Even with thousands of sacrifices (see 1 Kings 8:62-66), they could never fully cleanse the people’s sins. And even though God was close to His people during their wandering years in the desert, as soon as the people entered their promised land, the people no longer always lived in close proximity to Him. Greater distance made it harder for God’s people to be near Him, to be blest by Him and make use of those sacrifices.

Yet God did not fail in His design. The Old Testament tabernacle was all part of God’s design to be fulfilled by His Son, Jesus. God sent His only begotten Son to tabernacle among us in a far better and more perfect way! Jesus came to dwell among men, tabernacling in flesh and blood just like ours, to be near to us, to be known by us, to be loved by us.

And the plan did not end there! Jesus did not come simply to live among us. His earthly ministry was but a mere three and a half years long! Just like the tabernacle of old, Jesus’ ministry had a point: Jesus had come to save us from our sins finally and completely!

John the Baptist declared: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus accomplished that eternal victory for us on Calvary. No more animal blood need be shed; Jesus’ body and blood offered up on that cross paid for all our sins. In Christ, we have been saved eternally!

So, Jesus Christ Himself is the new and better tabernacle, the place where God dwells bodily among us. And Jesus Christ Himself is also the one who offered up His life-blood on that cross to pay for all our sins. And what is more, even 2,000 years after our Lord’s earthly ministry, Jesus Christ is still with us in His Church today, so that we may worship God aright and receive the forgiveness of sins won through His sacrifice day by day!

Every Divine Service is filled with God’s real tabernacling presence among us. At the invocation of God’s holy name—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—our God is truly with us, just as Jesus promised (Matthew 28:20). When we confess our sins, Christ’s Word of forgiveness is pronounced upon us by His called minister just as Jesus charged them to do (John 20:22-23). The Gospel is proclaimed and expounded for us in the readings and sermon each week, and when we pray to our Father in heaven, we always pray in Jesus’ name and as He Himself taught us to pray (Matthew 5:9-13, Luke 11:2-4).

Most wondrous of all is the blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Jesus is truly present with us in this meal, tabernacling with us, and bringing every benefit of His sacrifice to us in this meal. For Jesus’ own words are recited by the pastor and we believe them: “Take eat; take drink; this is My body… this is My blood… given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sins.” In this meal, Jesus touches us! We receive our Lord Jesus into our bodies, and He forgives us, making us His holy people again and again and again!

Our greatest gift during this pilgrimage of life on earth is that bundle of Bethlehem—the Son of God made man for us, tabernacling among us! Living for us, dying for our sins, and rising for our justification, Jesus has made us coheirs with Him of His heavenly Father’s kingdom! Best of all, Jesus still tabernacles with us today in His Church—all according to His gracious promise to never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

In Christ Jesus, God is still and always will be with us!

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Rev. Joel V. Kuhl is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Waterloo, Ontario. Rev. Kuhl also serves as Chairman of Lutheran Church–Canada’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations.

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