The end of Matthew’s opening chapter has always been a bit curious to me. 

On the one hand the angel tells Joseph in a dream that Mary was telling the truth about the origin of the child within her womb. Surely it struck Joseph as absurd when Mary tried to explain the situation. In any event, he wasn’t buying it. Until he had no choice but to buy it. He is then further instructed to name the child “Jesus” because that name pointed to the saving work he would do.

No sooner do we read this then Matthew throws in one of his many Hebrew Scripture quotes and references that this fulfilled what Isaiah foretold. We are told this child would be known as “Immanuel.”  So which is it?  Jesus or Immanuel?  Well it’s both of course.

Matthew deemed this “God with us” idea important enough that he made it an inclusio or bookend for his whole gospel. Matthew introduces us to the with-us God in chapter 1 and then concludes in chapter 28 with Jesus’s telling the disciples “Surely I am with you even to the end of the age.”  Immanuel up front in Matthew and Immanuel again at the conclusion. 

In short, “Immanuel” is pretty much the whole point of the gospel.

What’s more, Matthew’s other two inclusios point to the global scope of the with-us God. The four non-Israelite women in Jesus’s genealogy that opens Matthew corresponds to also the end of Matthew 28 when Jesus makes it clear the mission of the disciples would go beyond just Israel and extend to Samaria and the ends of the earth.  Then in Matthew 2 we see the foreign Magi from the East identifying Jesus as a divine king and this corresponds to the second-to-last chapter in Matthew 27 when another foreigner—this time a Roman soldier—exclaims upon Jesus’s death “Surely, this was the Son of God.” (Matthew had some serious literary style.)

Our with-us God is with all people. Everywhere. He came to be God-with-us in every place and among every people you could name. He came to be with us in every circumstance you could name. Jesus is with us and among us on the locked memory care unit. Jesus is with us as we stand next to the hospice bed watching a loved one approach eternity. Jesus is with us at the side of a cemetery grave, a hole slit like a wound on the skin of the earth matching the hole slit into our grieving hearts.

Jesus is God-with-us when a grim-faced doctor reveals the lab results and it’s not good. Jesus is with us when the pink slip comes and a cherished career vanishes before our unbelieving eyes. Jesus is with us in all those moments when, were it not for his promise to be with us always, there would be little reason to believe God was anywhere in the vicinity of our disorientation and grief.

Of course, Jesus is the with-us God in all of life’s bright and joyous moments too. Jesus is God with us when the OB/GYN says, “It’s a girl!” and when the nurse lays the newborn onto the mother’s chest. Jesus is God with us when we beam over a child or grandchild’s graduation from college. Jesus is the with-us God when a sunset over Lake Michigan is so splendid it steals our breath from us.  

Matthew wanted to make clear God is with us at all times and in all places and among all people without exception. He framed up his whole gospel to make this clear. Only two gospel writers mentioned anything about the birth of Jesus. Mark concluded you could have a complete gospel without any origin story for the Jesus he introduces as the Son of God right off the bat. John hinted at it by telling us “the Word was made flesh” but that’s about it. Luke goes all in on what we now call Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Matthew’s brief birth account pales by comparison.

And yet despite that, Matthew packs as much wallop as anything you can find in Luke’s richly embroidered birth story. Immanuel. God with us. The with-us God. The night sky does not need to explode with angelic glory over some trembling shepherds for the punch of Immanuel to light up our hearts and souls with divine glory.

Jesus is with us. Jesus is with you, dear reader, whoever you are and even if your circumstances near the end of a trying and troubling year are sad and fraught.  He’s with you.  

This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Immanuel. Thanks be to God.