Immanuel God Made Small

By Rev. Aaron T. Fenker

Our greatest joy isn’t a big and awesome God. I mean, He is those things. He’s almighty (omnipotent). He “created the heavens and earth, the sea, and all that is in them” (Exodus 20:11). He’s everywhere, too (omnipresent). “Where can I go from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7ff.) Yet, He’s also nowhere. “Heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you” (1 Kings 8:27). All that means is that you can’t run from God and you can’t hide from Him. It means He doesn’t just know what you’re doing (omniscient), but He’s actually there when you do it (omnipresent)! He’s even in your thoughts! At the same time, you can’t get at Him, either. Yes, He’s as near as your very soul, but you can grasp Him about as easily as you can grab hold of the morning fog.

Our joy isn’t that sort of big God in the sky. Our joy is Immanuel—God with us (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23). But what does “God with us” mean? It’s not just God who’s everywhere, watching our thoughts and words and actions. Such a God is near and yet far, unknowable, unholdable. Can such a God even save you—being so far better, greater, holier than you? No, our joy, our eternal joy, our Christmas joy, is in God made man, God made small. That’s what Immanuel, “God with us,” means. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

You don’t just need a big, powerful God. When your thoughts, words, and actions don’t measure up, when you’ve got sins and sinful desires, you don’t need the thought police or an almighty judge or lawyer. You need a Savior— someone who will save you from your thoughts, your words, your actions. And what you most need, Jesus is.

Jesus is God made man. “In Him the fullness of God dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). When you see Jesus, you see God. But this isn’t just a nice doctrinal point you’ve got to get right, and when you do, you get to check a box on your divine report card. Jesus is just God shown up, but God shown up to save you. When you see Jesus forgiving sinners and raising the dead, that’s God forgiving sinners, that’s God raising the dead. When you see Jesus dying on the cross, that’s God dying on the cross. And “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3) and “was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25), which is our being right with God, our forgiveness and eternal life. God’s being made man, Immanuel, God with us, means that God takes our sins and dies on the cross for them in our place.

To die, to become man, Immanuel didn’t just pop into our world. “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law, that we would receive sonship” (Galatians 4:4- 5). Immanuel doesn’t just mean God made man, but God made small. Zygote. Embryo. Infant. Baby. That was God for you. “In her womb this truth was shown, God was there upon His throne” (LSB 332:3). He was also holdable—in His mother’s arms. God has a mom! Jesus is Mary’s Son and Mary’s Lord. As Elizabeth rejoiced: “Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43) “Oh, that birth forever blessed when the virgin, full of grace, By the Holy Ghost conceiving, Bore the Savior of our race, And the babe, the world’s Redeemer, First revealed His sacred face” (LSB 384:2).

Jesus, Immanuel, is still holdable, graspable, somewhere for you. He’s right where He’s promised to be. He may be everywhere and nowhere, but He is also somewhere: in His Word and His Sacraments. You’ve received sonship in Holy Baptism. Now, Jesus is your Brother, His Father your Father, His Holy Spirit your Holy Spirit. Still hearable through Absolution, preaching, Word. Still holdable through bread and wine, His Body and Blood for you to eat and to drink. The flesh and blood He took up in Mary’s womb, the flesh and blood that was crucified and raised, is given to you, here and now—a specific somewhere. It’s small and simple, yes, but that’s what Immanuel means! God made man. God made small. For you. Your Savior.

Our Christmas joy, our eternal joy isn’t Almighty, Everywhere, All-Knowing God, but Immanuel, God with us. That’s Jesus. That Word that became flesh and dwelt among us is exactly what we need Him to be: our Savior. He is God. God made man. Flesh and blood God. God seeable, hearable, holdable. God in the womb of a woman. God in a manger. God on a cross. God raised from the dead. All Immanuel, God made small, for you. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Rev. Aaron T. Fenker is the pastor of Bethlehem and Immanuel Lutheran Churches in Bremen, Kansas. He also is the Dean of Theology for Higher Things.