This weeks Scriptures for the Fourth Week of Advent include Isaiah 7:10-16 & Matthew 1:18-25. I have really enjoyed these weekly readings from the Revised Common Lectionary and have decided to continue on with the readings this new church calendar year.(http://www.crivoice.org/lectionary/YearA/Aadventlist.html)
Isaiah proclaims, "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." In Matthew, an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and proclaims the fulfillment of this prophecy of Immanuel ("God with us"). He also tells Joseph to give him the name Jesus, which means "God saves." Yesterday I read a helpful homily on the significance of these two names for Jesus, Immanuel and Jesus. Here is an excerpt:
“This name, Jesus (the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Jeshua), means “God saves,” and the angel tells Joseph quite clearly what this infant will save the Jews from: “he will save his people from their sins.” God-is-with-us, therefore, for the purpose of saving-us-from-our sins. The Son of God didn’t become God-with-us merely to “hang with us,” as the teenage colloquialism goes, but to hang FOR us. He took upon our human nature so that He could give that nature as an expiation for our sins. But not only does the name Jesus interpret the name Emmanuel, but the name Jesus also makes possible Emmanuel, because Jesus saved us from our sins so that we could be much more fully WITH HIM who came to be WITH US. Our sins prevent communion with God, and hence Jesus, in coming to save us from them, was making possible the fulfillment of the prophetic name Emmanuel.”
(From a Homily for this Fourth Sunday of Advent by Father Roger J. Landry)
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