By Ryne Brewer
I gripped my plate tightly and surveyed the lunchroom for a place to sit. I wasn’t my usual self; I was filled with shame because of a few terrible choices I had made that really hurt someone else. Though I was surrounded by friends, I felt completely alone. So I sat at a table by myself, isolated in my guilt and shame. After a few bites of cafeteria pizza, I looked up to see an upperclassman sitting across from me. He said, “I know what you did. And I can imagine how alone you feel. But I want you to know, I’ve been there too.” In that moment, the shame didn’t go away, but I didn’t feel alone anymore. Someone else had been there, too, and he was present with me.
What I felt in the cafeteria that day is just one of many moments that reminds me of the fall in Genesis 3. The pain of sin and the reality that we are all both the victim and villain because of the fall leaves us in shame, isolated and alone. It seems to be the main narrative of human history. And yet, at the very same time, another narrative is being written, one that will outshine the dark story of the fall in Genesis 3.
And this is why the announcement of Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23) lands with such power. As the story of Scripture unfolds, there are constant signs of God’s desire to be with His people, even in the midst of the fall. I think about the tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 25:8–9; Exodus 40:34–35), the temple (1Kings 8:10–13; 2Chronicles 7:1–3), and the promises from the prophets (Isaiah 7:14). All of these were threads of hope for God’s people, pointing forward until the coming of Jesus.
The tabernacle was only a shadow of the Word made flesh, who tabernacled among us (John 1:14–18). The temple built by human hands pointed to the true temple, Jesus, who would be destroyed and rise again (John 2:19). The Messiah who promised to restore the kingdom wasn’t merely sent by God; He was God Himself, made like us in every way so He could redeem us (Hebrews 2:9,14–18).
Athanasius of Alexandria summed up the wonder of God with us in Jesus so beautifully: “…He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality.”
When I looked across that cafeteria table years ago and saw someone willing to sit with me in my sin, his presence made me feel a little less alone. But he couldn’t redeem what I had done. That moment was just a small taste of the greater reality. When you and I look up from the table of this life and see Jesus sitting there, He says, “I can redeem you.” No longer does God have to feel far off in the midst of our sin and fallen world, He entered in to forgive our sin and redeem us. That is what it means for God to be with us.
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