God with us

Immanuel. This is one of the names of Jesus. Messiah, Rabbi, he used those names too, but he was also called Immanuel. God with us. This simple name, three simple English words, sum up one of the most important things about him. They tell us exactly who he is, and where he is. God is with us. He came down from heaven and put himself in a human body.
In heaven there is no pain, no need, no suffering. These are aspects of humanity, of living in a fallen world. When Jesus came, he didn't just take on a body, he took on all of those things. He felt pain, he felt hunger and fatigue. He got tired and had to go to the bathroom, maybe he even wet the bed as a kid. Jesus lived with us, and he lived like us.
And he died like us. He didn't spare himself from the worst things about human life, but at the same time he showed us the best things. How to care for each other, how to give, how to live free from rules and restrictions that weigh us down. He put himself into the prison of a human body so that he could show us how to break our own bonds.
That is why I love him and follow him. Because he took the hardest road. He came to get to know us completely by being one of us. By being with us.
Now he still wants to be with us, but it is our turn to reach up for him. We need to walk the hard path he walked. In America where we live in peace and plenty, we need to learn to see the suffering around us. We need to go into the dark places, the dirty place that society tells us to avoid, because that's what Jesus did. Because that's the only way to really make a difference.
We shouldn't avoid 'bad' neighborhoods or dangerous situations. We can't stay comfortable in our air-conditioned suburbia while the world outside suffers. We need to get up off our butts and leave our comfortable lives behind, just like Jesus did. If we want to walk with Jesus, we cannot do it in peace and plenty. Jesus isn't there. He's out in the world, in the middle of wars and famines and plagues, with the poor and the sick. That's where he's doing his work. We cannot find him anywhere else. We cannot find heaven anywhere else.
It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. The only way to get there is to leave everything behind. Just like Jesus did.
The sacrifice didn't just start at the cross, when Jesus died. It didn't start when he was flogged, or put on trial, or arrested. It started when he took on flesh. It continued as he preached, taught, healed and forgave. His sacrifice was the life he lived and the death he died. Our sacrifice must be the same. Every day you make the choice.
Who are you living for?