How can it be that so many people were not able to recognize Jesus as the Messiah when he came? This is one of the great mysteries of God’s plan of salvation. He spent thousands of years preparing his chosen people to be ready for the coming of the Messiah. Yet, when at last he came, many people missed it. Jesus was not the type of Messiah they were looking for. They expected someone who would come and overthrow the Romans and reestablish a new king on the thrown of David. In short, they expected the Messiah to come and “fix” everything.
Today’s readings give us a special title that more appropriately describes the Messiah; he is to be “Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” Jesus didn’t come to “fix” everything. He didn’t come to take away all the pain and suffering in the world. Rather than take it away or fix it, instead he said, “I am with you.” The great hope we have now is not that the world will be perfect or that our lives will be perfect. Rather, we have the sure knowledge that we don’t go through this alone. God is with us.
One of the most important things to us then as Christians is to know the presence of God in our lives. Especially when things seem to be going wrong and we need help, we need to call out for God. We can even ask for a sign, like we see promised in our first reading. God always answers our prayers, even if the answer isn’t what we were expecting. God may not fix our problems, but we can have peace and joy nonetheless, because we know that God is with us.