O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (ELW 257, st. 5)
Devotion
5 O come, O Key of David, come,
and open wide our heav'nly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.
Refrain
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.
Text: Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, Köln, 1710; tr. composite
For certain, Joseph was miserable as he fretted about what to do about Mary. Mary, too, must
have been miserable, especially as she rode that donkey into Bethlehem at eight or nine months pregnant! The nasty King Ahaz was probably miserable, knowing his people would be destroyed, and Israel was clearly miserable when they cried out to the Lord to save them from the Assyrians. We all experience misery. Life is miserable sometimes — more often than not, perhaps — and often it is due to things out of our control.
Jesus Christ does not protect us from the misery of life. Christ does not make us immune to the pain and heartbreak that live with us in our time here on this earth. But he does make sure that we are not abandoned to it. Through Jesus Christ, the path into the ultimate misery of separation from God is closed off forever.
Prayer
Jesus, Emmanuel, you are with us in our misery. You are with us when our worlds come crashing down. Your presence alone is the presence of heaven in our lives. Thank you. Amen.