God comforts us, in this passage, so that we can comfort others. “To comfort” doesn’t mean to speak empty words; sometimes it doesn’t mean speaking at all. It almost certainly means listening.
There’s a profundity to simply being present for someone in a time of sorrow or fear. A friend sits with her neighbor in a hospital waiting room during the neighbor’s husband’s surgery. A young woman fails a college exam and her dad drops everything and drives two hours to take her to dinner. It’s not difficult to sit in a waiting room or to take an unscheduled road trip. But it’s important.
The word “comfort” comes from the Latin “confortare.” Its roots are “con” (“with”) and “fortitudo”(“strength”). From that point of view, then, to comfort is to combine your strength with the sufferer’s. It’s odd to think of sitting in a hospital chair or picking up the tab at an Applebee’s as a show of strength, but those acts are essential. Jesus provided “comfort food” to strengthen his followers just as we do for our ill and bereaved.
So who comforts the comforter? God. God sends us comfort in our tribulations and we use that strength to then comfort others. We are the lightning rods to conduct that strength into the world. Just as in the Lord’s Prayer we ask Him to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” we ask Him to comfort us as we comfort those who need it.
By the same token, perhaps we can’t fairly ask God to comfort us if we don’t offer that same comfort to others.
“Emmanuel” means “God with us.” Jesus is here, lending his strength, comforting, so that we may comfort others.
Written by David Parker
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