God’s distress over his people and the role of lament in Christian living.
Aw, there there. Look on the
bright side of things. It’s not so bad. How about a nice hot cup of tea to calm
the nerves? The last thing I want to hear when I’m in distress is how about a
nice cuppa tea. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone
those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather you as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings. But you are not willing. Look, your house is desolate.
How about a nice cuppa tea? That doesn’t make the suffer feel good at all. But
it does let the observer avoid an uncomfortable moment. Is that a good response
to anyone in distress? Of course not. Jesus isn’t just feeling bad about
himself, and the last thing he wants is a cuppa to calm him down. So what is
Jesus doing when he laments over Jerusalem?
Notice that Jesus’ words have
a direct link to those of the prophets (particularly Isaiah and Jeremiah) who
lamented Judah’s lack of faithfulness to their covenant with God, and since the
words of the prophets and those of Jesus himself are the words of God, the lament
is actually that of God’s distress over his people, and especially over Jerusalem,
the City of God, the seat of his presence with his people.
Jesus’ lament gives voice to
his desire for justice and the making of things right between man and God. God
has a covenant relationship with his people, not a simple transactional
relationship. A covenant relationship goes deep, and so it is out of the depths
of God’s heart, a heart filled with pain, that God laments.
Now what’s this about God’s
heart is filled with pain? Well there are innumerable places in the bible that
talk about God’s love for his world and his people, particularly in the
writings of John. For example in his first letter, John writes, how great is
the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called Children of
God. And in another place he writes that God is love. It’s God’s very
nature to be the divine one who loves. So when people turn away from him, that
one who loves is grieved, as the writer of Genesis put it, the Lord saw how
great man’s wickedness on the earth had become. And the Lord grieved and his
heart was filled with pain. That’s what Jesus, as God in person with us on
earth, is lamenting. To lament is to taste the tears of God.
Jesus’ love for the world is
deep, as we are reminded in the song, “how deep the Father’s love for us, how
vast beyond all measure. How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns
his face away, as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory”. We
also see Jesus’ grief and anguish for the world when he visits the garden of
Gethsemane the night before he died. Luke describes that experience being to
the point of sweating drops of blood. So intense is his love and therefore his
grief over what must be done. But notice that when all is said and done within
that experience, Jesus hands the situation over to his Father, not my will
be done but yours. In other words, Jesus is able to relinquish his
circumstances and his grief over the world only after the struggle of lament
and petition is done.
And I think it is the same for
us when we are in the midst of a lament of affliction. That is to say, we are
crying out to God in times of need, be that for ourselves or others. When we
have given voice to our feelings and desires for justice, help, or relief for
whatever situation we are in, when we have struggled with that, when we have
turned to God with that, then we find ourselves free and able to relinquish it
all to him and find that peace with him that passes all understanding.
Lament is a very powerful
expression of empathy. Empathy being the way one comes alongside another in
times of trouble. And it’s not to say, there there have a nice cuppa tea.
Empathy of course is part and parcel of one’s emotional intelligence. It is
sensitivity to another’s feelings and concerns. It is taking the perspective of
where the other is at. But with lament for another, you are going further. You
are coming alongside another person in a deeper way, wanting to share their
feelings and concerns to the point where they cause you distress on behalf of
that other.
Lament is also a very powerful
form of intercessory prayer, because it brings before God the suffering and
afflictions of others for whom you are greatly concerned. It allows the
language of affliction to be expressed. It enables us to stand in the breach,
as it were, lamenting for them and with them. The psalms are replete with
examples of this, a treasure trove. They are the Hebrew prayer book.
Lament is a legitimate part of
our Christian faith. It gives proper expression of anguish and desire for
restoration of relationship. That’s why our expression of remorse for sin
brings sorrow. We are expressing our desire for restoration of relationship
with our heavenly Father, are we not? And that’s why confession has such an
important place in our spiritual lives. To confess is to seek restoration. A
soul that cannot express itself in lament and confession is a soul in exile.
And I can’t imagine anything so awful as a soul in anguish because it is not
reconciled with its creator, the Father in heaven.
Now we, in our western church,
have a problem with lament. In our church lives, lament has almost disappeared
in favour of praise worship, although we do have confession in the lead up to
the Eucharist. But we forget that there is a time to weep and time to laugh; a time
to mourn and a time to dance. And just as we are called to confess sins, so we
can be called to lament. It is a cry for deliverance, a cry of empathy, a cry
for justice, and an acknowledgment that we have been damaged by the sins of
others.
Lament has a very valid place
in worship, and we would do well to factor it in to our Sunday times, and
indeed in to our daily quiet times. The psalms of lament are a wonderful trove
and expression of prayer in response to suffering. That’s why there are
provided for us. They teach us to pray; they enable us to give voice to our
difficulties before the Lord. That’s one reason why the Benedictines use them
extensively in the daily office. It is the “work of God” as St Benedict put it.
The monks and nuns are praying for the world; they are lamenting its situation
and bringing it before God.
So, suppose we have an altar
call where any of us can approach the Lord’s table and lament for some
situation or someone? Suppose we cry out and raise our hands and voices? Or throw
dust in the air? What do you think Ash Wednesday is about when we are marked
with the sign of a cross in ash on our foreheads? Or will it be an
uncomfortable moment where we just want to say a quiet prayer and leave it at
that?
We need to see God’s faithfulness
afresh, but we won’t if we bottle up our hurts, anguish and concerns, or
pretend they don’t exist. They do. We need to lay our inner trials and concerns
for others before the one who can change both them and us. And in doing so, we
will be taken into a deeper, growing trust in God.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
Just one other point before I
finish. Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem is not only sorrow for the lost people of
Israel, it’s also a prophetic cry for justice. Remember, God is holy and you
cannot turn away from him and expect all will be well. It doesn’t work like
that. Jesus knew that all too well because he knew what closed hearts mankind
has, and the house of Israel was no exception. That’s why he said look your
house is desolate, and you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord.
That’s why we Christians need
to engage in lament for a lost world. Its house is desolate, and it won’t see
God until it says blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And it won’t
say that unless we show it what the name of the Lord is. Hence our empathic
entering into the lost world for its sake, and because God is love and his
heart is filled with pain, and because Jesus grieved in Gethsemane, and because
he went to the cross for that lost world so that one day it will say blessed is
he who comes.
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