Immanuel

Scripture Reading — Hebrews 2:10-18

“They will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
— Matthew 1:23

After the First World War, British soldiers returned from the front lines devastated. Many were shell-shocked, disfigured, wounded, and scarred.

Among the pastors who ministered to those hurting veterans was Edward Shillito. He wrote a poem, in 1919, in which he speaks as a soldier, seeking God. The poem expresses dismay and doubt: “The heavens frighten us; they are too calm. . . . Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?”

Yet it shows that in seeing the scars of Jesus, Immanuel, hope and faith can be restored: “To our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.”

For any of us who is suffering, we need to see Jesus, the one true God who came to be “with us” and who offered his life as the ultimate sacrifice for our sake. “By his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Scripture proclaims this holy mystery: God is not distant from us, sealed off, light years away. He is “with us.” Wounded, abused, with his flesh ripped open, “like one from whom people hide their faces” (53:3)—that’s Immanuel.

What a holy mystery it is that the risen Jesus bears eternal scars on his eternal flesh (John 20:19-29). “He had to be made . . . fully human in every way . . . [to] make atonement for the sins of” us all.

See the scars. Scars of pain. Scars of victory. Scars of Immanuel. “Oh, love, how deep, how broad, how high”! Thank you, Jesus, for becoming “God with us.” Amen.

Written by: Lora Copley