Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A

Why Is Jesus Called Immanuel?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, December 21, 2025

One of the most beautiful names given to Jesus in Sacred Scripture is Immanuel. It appears in the Bible three times, twice in the Old Testament book of Isaiah and once in the Gospel of Matthew. In the Book of Isaiah, which is our first reading for today (Isaiah 7:10-14), we hear, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” Seven hundred years after Isaiah's prophecy, a virgin from Nazareth named Mary was engaged to Joseph. Before they were married, an angel visited Joseph to confirm that Mary had conceived a child through the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20-21). When the child was born, they named Him Jesus. The birth of this child, Matthew’s Gospel says, is the fulfillment of what God said through the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). Now, this title is not merely a poetic or comforting phrase; it is the very heart of our faith. But why is Jesus called Emmanuel? Asking that question is really asking, “Who is our God, and how does He relate to us?”

First, Jesus is called Immanuel because He is God who dwells among us in His incarnation. Jesus is God in the flesh. In Him, God truly enters human history. In the Old Testament, God was often seen and experienced as distant—only appearing in fire, cloud, or thunder. But in Jesus, God comes close. He makes His home among us so that He can reveal God to us. He is conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, born in a manger, and raised in an ordinary family. In Jesus, God speaks to us with a human voice as He did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He does not shout to us from heaven. He talks like us. He walks our roads, knows our joys and sorrows, and shares fully in our human condition—except for sin. 

Second, Jesus is Immanuel because God is with us in our suffering. The world often asks, “Where is God when we are in pain?” The answer in Christianity is not just a theory but a person. God is with us on the cross. Jesus understands betrayal, rejection, poverty, tears, and death. When we suffer, we are never alone. The God who is with us is a God who has suffered for us. Immanuel means that no hospital room, no graveside, no moment of despair is ever godless. Jesus was not just a sign of God with us. He was not just God’s representative. Jesus is God with us in Person. 

Third, Jesus is Immanuel because God remains with us always. Before ascending into heaven, Jesus promises, “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). He fulfills this promise in a powerful way through the Eucharist. In the Blessed Sacrament, Immanuel is not just a memory of the past but a living presence among us. Every time we come to Mass, God is with us—feeding us, strengthening us, and dwelling within us.

What is the implication of God being with us? We are to become signs of God’s presence to others. We are now his visible and physical hands in the world. If God is with us, then He wants to be with others through us. When we forgive, when we show compassion, when we stand with the lonely and the forgotten, we make Immanuel visible in the world. The name Immanuel is not only something we believe; it is something we are called to live.

Sisters and brothers, Jesus is called Immanuel because in Him God is not far away, not indifferent, not absent. He is with us in our joys and struggles, in our sin and redemption, in our lives, and even in our death. Although Joseph and Mary did not name Jesus Immanuel, his nature makes Him truly Immanuel. 

As we prepare to celebrate His historic entrance into human history, may we trust deeply in this truth: God is with us—always. Amen.

God bless you!