I imagine that for most of you there has been a time when you haven’t felt very close to God. In fact sometimes He can seem rather far away and distant. Ironically, for many God seems most out of reach at Christmas, when the joy and peace that everyone else seems to be experiencing eludes us. How do we overcome that distance? How do we experience all that this season was meant to be? Well, the fact of the matter is that we can’t get ourselves closer to God. After all, we’re the ones who created the canyon of sin which separates us from Him in the first place. But God has moved closer to us–all the way, in fact. Joy comes at Christmastime when we are brought to understand that God completely bridged the gap between us and Him in the birth of Jesus. 100% of the distance was covered. God didn’t leave us to perish eternally on the other side of the chasm. He humbled Himself to come right down to where we’re at, being born as one just like us, to rescue us. That’s the point of the name Jesus was given by the prophet: “Emmanuel, which means, God With Us.” God is on our side! He is with us! He is for us! He is among us to show us the way and in fact to be the way across to the other side. In a world that wars and rebels against God, Jesus Himself is God’s gift of “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” In Christ God and sinners are reconciled, brought together–as close as could possibly be. There once was a psychiatrist at a mental ward who wanted to try out a new way of helping his patients. His idea was to live for a while among those mental patients in the hospital where he served, to be with them day and night for an extended period of time. And so he moved in behind the locked door, set up his bed in the ward, and lived the routine of the mental patients day after day. Their schedule became his schedule. Their environment became his environment. He experienced the food and the noise and the smells and everything else that they experienced all the time. He was there to help them with their medicine. He would always be around in the midst of their confusion to give a reassuring smile, to place an arm on the shoulder of even the most unattractive and repulsive person in the ward. And in many cases he literally loved those mental patients back into reality and helped them to find meaning for their life. Down on their level, he was able to raise them up to wholeness and give them a new start. Isn’t that exactly what our “Emmanuel” God did for us? He “moved in with us” so to speak at Christmas and lived with us day in and day out. Our corrupted existence became His corrupted existence. Our fallen environment became His environment. He experienced many of the ups and downs of life that we go through, including the pain and the troubles. He knows what it’s like, because He’s been there. He finally went so far as to die just like we do, and in so doing to love us back into a right relationship with our heavenly Father, giving meaning to our existence again. Down on our level, He was able to raise us up to wholeness and give us new life. Emmanuel–God is with us. In the midst of all of the holiday festivities, we dare not gloss over the reality of what happened at Christmas. God became a man, a real human baby–no glowing face, no neat and tidy birth–but a full-fledged baby boy, umbilical cord and all, held by a disheveled mother, all tired from the long, first-time labor. We must cling with all our heart to the real humanity of Jesus. For if He weren’t true man, then He wouldn’t be our substitute and our Savior. Think of it this way. If you were on death row, about to be executed in the electric chair, but there was a law on the books which said that a willing substitute could die in your place, only another human being, of course, could take your punishment, not some animal for instance. Well, the same thing is true in an eternal sense. Only another true human being can take our place in the receiving the punishment for our sins. That eternal death penalty was carried out on the man Jesus Christ instead of us. He was our willing substitute, one just like us. Of course, He is also true God, without sin. And therefore, His sacrifice is unlimited, sufficient to save not just one other person, but all people. His resurrection Easter morning assures us of that. So on this Christmas day we’re not just celebrating the birthday of Jesus, as if that would be necessary. What we’re celebrating is that fact that, amazingly enough, true God and true man came together in one person, Jesus. There is no longer any distance between God and man because Jesus is both at the same time for our sake. If, then, God seems far away from you, perhaps you’re looking in the wrong place. Look again to the One in the manger. Look again to the One on the cross. For as you are joined to the man Jesus by faith, you are also joined to God, with a bond that is closer than any other. He came to be with you till the close of the age in your baptism. And He continues to come to be with you in His body and blood in Holy Communion. More than any other place, the name “Emmanuel” is fulfilled for us in the Sacrament of the Altar. There “God is with us,” God is with you. He is closer to you in Christ than you’ll ever completely know. -Pastor Koch