All right, well, beautiful singing. So I’ve not met you. My name is Aaron and I’m the preacher pastor here today. And I’m glad that you’re with us. So if you have a Bible with you, if you’d open up to the book of Lamentations today, we are in Lamentations Chapter 5.
If you don’t have a Bible with you, at least some of the words are going to be on screen to my sides. But there are pew Bibles scattered throughout, and it’s on page 403.
So Lamentations 5. So for this time here, I’m just Gonna read verses 21 through 22, which are the last two verses of this chapter. And then after I read the sacred text, I’m gonna pray, and then we will get to work. So please hear the words of our Lord, as mentioned starting in verse 21 of chapter 5. Bible says this Restore to us.
Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored. Renew our days as of old, unless you have utterly rejected us and you remain exceedingly angry with us. Okay, so that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?
Lord, thank you for your holy word and Lord, for your holy Spirit, who opens up your holy word that we might hear and that we might see and that we might believe and trust in Jesus and Lord, that’s the hope this morning, that you would speak to us through your Word in ways that we see Jesus, in ways that we trust in him more and more deeply. So, God, please help me to be a good communicator of your word. Please help the congregation to be good listeners of your word. We pray that your spirit be very active in this time. Pray so in Jesus name, amen.
So there’s a famous scene in the C.S. lewis book Priscas, which is part of the Narnia series. The Pevenzi kids were back in Narnia on their next adventure. But things are really not going the way they hoped. And as things were not going the way they hoped, they were becoming more and more frustrated, dejected, hopeless, only for Aslan to show up on their time of need.
Where as Aslan shows up, he had a conversation with Lucy, the most faithful and dedicated of the kids. So let me just read from that conversation. Says this. Aslan. Aslan, dear Aslan, sobbed Lucy.
At last the great beast rolled over on his sides. Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all around her. She gazed up into the large, wise face.
Welcome, child, he said. Aslan said, lucy, you’re bigger. That is because you are older, little one. He answered, not because you are. I am not.
But every year you grow. You will find me bigger. So which, in this conversation between Aslan and Lucy, CS Lewis is making a real powerful point that the more we grow, meaning the more we grow in our faith, which, by the way, often comes through seasons and situations that do not go our way. But the more we grow, the better we see who God is, how central, how important he is. And the better we see God, the bigger and bigger he becomes to us.
I tell you this story this morning to set us up for our final sermon in our study of the Book of Lamentations, which is a sermon that comes from the fifth of five poems that make up this book. Where this fifth poem, in short, ends the book where we see the poet who is in the midst of a real difficulty, it was leaving him more and more frustrated, ejected, hopeless. Yet through this difficult situation, God was at work to grow his faith, to give the poet a bigger and bigger view of himself. Now, just a few things before we work through this fifth and final poem. So first, just a reminder of the context of the Book of Lamentations, which is important for us to best understand why the poet, most likely the prophet Jeremiah, why he was frustrated, dejected, feeling hopeless.
And the reason behind all of these emotions was brought on because of the destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem, which included the destruction of the massive temple that Solomon had built, which was like the crown jewel of the city, the center of worship for God’s people, as a temple was a place where God would dwell with his people. And in the historical context of Jerusalem falling, the temple being destroyed, this came by the hands of the evil nation of Babylon. But ultimately, as we have learned in these poems, the destruction ultimately came because of the just judgment of God, because of the sins of his people. And as Jerusalem fell, as the temple fell, every aspect of the lives of those who lived were negatively affected. For those who survived the fall now lived on the other side of this great, great, painful, life changing event, where they did so with a lot of hurt, a lot of uncertainty.
We will see in our poem today that even some of the most basic needs of life were becoming hard to come by. So as we come to this last poem, as the poet seemingly has a bigger and bigger view of who God is for us, let’s just be mindful that this view came through a lot of hurt, a lot of Pain, a lot of disappointment, a lot of heartache. Not that any of us wants to go through these types of things or they’re going through difficult, painful things are easy for us. As I finish out the study of lamentations today, I hope that actually gives us hope that as we go through difficulty in our own lives, that God is not like aimless or purposeless with all the difficulty. Rather, God is using these things to grow our faith so we have a bigger and bigger view of Him.
Second, let me mention that this fifth and final poem is different than the other four poems that we already looked at. It’s different in terms of how it is structured and how it is laid out. As I mentioned some previous sermons, that the first four poems were structured through an acrostic, which each line in the poem starts out with like the next letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, making these first four poems like really organized. Everything is very connected. In fact, scholars make various points on how organized these first four poems are and how things flow so neatly where there’s like similar meters in each of the lines.
But today, as we come to the final poem in this book, this is not an acrostic. It’s not acrostic, even though if you look, there’s 22 verses, which is the number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet, but the poem is not structured in that way. And this poem does not flow as neatly as the other poems. It’s much less organized in how it’s laid out. So scholars I read this week agree that this poem has much more of like a staccato feel to it, which is staccato.
This is like a musical term used to describe music where like notes are like short, maybe abrupt, disconnected. Maybe it feels a little disjointed. And the poem definitely has that feel to it. So one scholar wrote or read concerning this poem, he said the poet is assuming, like, giving like, almost like a rapid fire summary of all different grief that he was working through. So in this poem, things come out like very quickly at times in like abrupt ways, making this more of like a summary nature of the poem.
So not sure why the change in the fifth poem, you know, was a poet fatigued, didn’t have enough energy, as he did in the first four poems, to lay out things more thoroughly. Perhaps. Maybe the poet was like kind of like emotionally done with everything, so he just wanted to give up one last rapid fire lament. Maybe that’s a change. Perhaps.
This week I kind of wondered if maybe the poet went rapid fire in this fifth Poem because he kind of wanted to get to his concluding thoughts, which revolve around how big God has become to him. So perhaps he wanted to fly by all the other things just to get the conclusion. I mean, really not sure. Perhaps just a change in the style. Poem is actually nothing and the poet just wanted to use a different style to communicate his lament this week.
If you’re looking for something to chew on, maybe this might be something worthwhile to you. By the way, let me mention, because this is coming like a staccato type feel in this poem. So my desire for this sermon is actually to try to capture that. So I’m going to try to capture the essence of this poem and move kind of quickly from one thing to the next. Third, before we get back to the text, let me mention one of the hopes that I’ve had for us as it worked through this book.
Book which. Which is not an easy book for us to work through. If I can be a little vulnerable with you here. So this has actually been one of the harder books for me to preach on simply because all week, you know, as I prepare for sermons, I’m sitting in some of the despair of the poet. I’m sure for you, this is also not an easy book for you to go through.
You know, each week can be challenging itself as you go through the various grind of life. So, like, coming to church, we hope, is like an encouragement before we start another long, hard week of work, a hard week of school. So to have like heavier, harder passages to work through on Sunday, I’m sure is not easy. It’s not easy for you as listeners to receive sermons, I’m sure, from this book. But these hardships, these challenges of life is actually one of the reasons why I wanted to go through this book together, as I’ve continued to hope that through this book it would help us to know how to, like, emotionally process all the various hardships, all the various challenges that can come our way, where we’re taking all the emotions that are attached to, to hardship, to challenges, to use those to lament, to lament ways.
We’re like channeling our emotions in ways that we’re taking them to the Lord to seek after him more and more, so that in the end we would see the Lord in bigger and bigger ways. Now, I know I’ve continued to share this hope with you, so I don’t want to be overly redundant here, but I do want to emphasize how important this is for. For your good, for my good, for. For the glory of God, like we lament. Okay, so with that is the introduction of today’s sermon.
Please look back with you one last time into the book of Lamentations for the series to verse one. We see in this fifth final poem. We see. This poem starts out with a prayer, a prayer that cries out, remember, O Lord, what has befallen us. Look and see our disgrace.
We’re in our disgrace. In verse two of the poem. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We’re in this degree in our disgrace. In verse three, we become orphans, fatherless, our mothers are like widows, and we must pay for the water we drink.
And the wood we get must be brought, must be bought, as our pursuers are at our necks. So, as mentioned in the intro, a lot of this poem is like rapid fire, like a summary of the current state of affairs, where in the current state of affairs, the poet is praying to the Lord, he is pleading with the Lord to see. To see that basically, is that nothing is good right now for God’s people. As Babylonians ravage the city, seemingly everything was taken from the people of God. Which meant not only did those who survived the attack have to live the struggle of losing their inheritance and homes, not only did they have to try to live with the difficulty of trying to find, like, simple necessities of life, like water to drink and wood to use to cook or to stay warm, but as this attack happened, as the city fell, this also meant the people of Jerusalem and had to live with, like, a great deal of shame, a huge disgrace.
This all happened on their watch as everything came tumbling down. And especially in a culture like this, where shame and honor were so central to a way of life, the shame, the disgrace that the poet that Jerusalem felt, this would have been incredibly difficult to deal with, maybe even the hardest thing for them to deal with. So much shame, so much guilt. The start of the fifth poem, as the poet wrestled with his disgrace, the hope, the prayer, the plea that he had was that the Lord would look from his heavenly throne, that he would see their state of misery and shame that his people were living with, and that the Lord responds to his people with compassion, with mercy. And for us, this already, you know, this is the poet just helping us see, like, how big problems are.
But not only that, but at the start of this fifth poem, this is a poet helping us see that God actually was bigger than the problems. In this prayer, he believed that God was so big he could actually deal with the problems. Keep going. The end of verse five as the poet prayed to the Lord by recounting all the hard things they were enduring, he further testified, all the big heavy things were making God’s people weary. Where he wrote that they found no rest.
And I’m sure this is speaking of like physical, emotional, spiritual weariness, where in every aspect of their life, like they’re riding on fumes. And one of the many reasons why God’s people were weary without rest was because in verse six of the poem, they had given the hand to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread, which here, this is a poet further testifying, further lamenting that even the most basic simple necessity of life, now they’re not able to provide that for themselves. They’re dependent upon outside nations to find bread to eat, which can imagine the physical praying that brought on with it, right? They’re scavenging for food. But this here is not just physical pain of going to outside nations to find bread.
This also is like a shame, a disgrace that God’s people were carrying. They had to look to like pagan nations. Egypt, Assyria didn’t even find the most basic simple necessities of life. Bread. The poem read, the poet recognized and accepted that this shame in God’s people was all brought on in verse seven because our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their iniquities.
Just a few quick thoughts on this. So first, one of the more interesting things, at least to me in the study of lamentations, something I have not considered before going through the study, is how many times like the poet like, recognizes and accepts how sin is what ultimately brought all this on. So even though he laments all that happened, he does recognize, he does accept all that happened was just God’s people brought this on themselves. And really this understanding of sin, God’s justice, this actually does come when we see God in bigger, in bigger ways, where we become more like sober minded about the consequences of our sin as well as the justice of God that punishes sins. You know, it’s a series of lamentations, all different takeaways that I hope that we have.
I actually think this is an important one for us to have right here. No, obviously not. Every time some tragedy hits is because of some type of specific sin. But sometimes, sometimes when tragedy hits, it very well could be a painful consequences of. Of consequence of sin, which is certainly true of the fall of Jerusalem.
Second, here’s your second here. Verse 7 also reminds that our sin not only negatively affects us, but our sin has a way of negatively affecting others. As well, in the passage in the poem, Our Father’s sin, over and over and over again, they rejected the Lord, which brought the justice of God to fall on Jerusalem and their sin. This generational sin that kept being passed down had a negative effect on the current people of Jerusalem, who in the poem were bearing the iniquities of their fathers. So when we sin, often sin does not just end with us, but often it can affect others around us as well, perhaps even become like generational that we pass down.
And maybe just some simple illustrations point this out from our context. Like maybe think of like a delinquent parent who’s like sinfully absent from their children. The children have to bear the iniquity and they can struggle with things like deep insecurities and deep anxieties. A boss who is awful has a terrible sinful attitude who can explode at a moment’s notice. Employees often bare that iniquity as they go to work each day filled with fear.
The person who has no control over their tongue just says a lot of harsh things. Those on the receiving end of the harsh words bear the iniquity that comes from being torn down. Someone who is abusive, whether it’s physically, emotionally, whatever type of abuse, those who are on the receiving of the abuse, right, they carry a lot of weighty pain as they bear the iniquity of someone who was sinning against them. I could give more examples here, but we get the point. Our sin often doesn’t just like affect us.
And like us alone. Sin has a way affecting others, where others have to bear iniquities and try to live the consequences that come with our sin. In the grand scale, in the context of the poem, the fall of Jerusalem came because the generational sins of the Father were according to God’s good timing and wisdom. He brought justice as those living in Jerusalem had to bear the consequences. Third, this point of the generational sin that caused Jerusalem to live with such disgrace from those who the past sinned.
So not only was a shame disgrace for those who under like their watch Jerusalem fell, but this also probably a much greater shame, a much greater disgrace to the previous generations who came before them. Friends, sin is a big deal. It causes so much pain, so much havoc, so much destruction. More than just what it causes destruction and havoc in our own lives. Keep going.
Verse 8. Refer the details consequences that came with the fall of Jerusalem and the judgment of sin. The poet lamented that now slaves were ruling over them. And not only that, the poet lamented, there’s like none to deliver them from their hand, which is something the poet mentioned last week in the fourth poem as well. Where God’s people were like looking and looking and looking to the horizon for someone, some nation to come help them, yet none came.
Here’s the poet continues to lament that painful, lonely reality. Verse 9 further lamenting how difficult it was to find basic necessities of life where God’s people had to get bread at the peril of their lives, which I think is referring to the long dangerous journey that they might have to go on to go to Egypt or Assyria, where they would go there to try to buy bread to bring back home, meaning to be able to live having like enough food to physically survive, they had to put themselves in perilous places where they easily could die, which is the death in verse nine of the poem by the sword in the wilderness, which is what they had to go through to get to Egypt or Assyria, which in biblical times, the wilderness. This is a very dangerous place where robbers and thieves would hide out looking to attack any who tried to make their way through the wilderness. Keep going. Verses 10 through 13 if you want to take Isaiah more rapid fire report on the condition of the city describes like the financial and the political and the moral collapse that took place as the city fell.
Verse 10 on the financial collapse Our skin is as hot as an oven with the burning of heat of famine. This relates to not being able to find water to drink, bread to eat like their bodies are burning up as the basic necessities of life are lacking, their bodies being ravaged by hunger malnutrition. Verse 11 on the moral collapse Read the painful words Women are raped in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah. By the way, I think one of the great indicators of a complete moral collapse of any society is how they treat their women and here rather showing like honor and respect to the women of the city, which any moral society ought to do. They were abusing their women in the most awful of ways, which would have also been a great shame to the city.
Verse 12 in the Political collapse we read the princes are hung up by the hands. No respect is shown to the elders. Those who once were politically in charge now were completely dismissed. And as they’re dismissed there’s almost like this growing dog eat dog attitude of the city, where everyone seemed to be doing right in their own eyes as they’re living in this like survival mode with no real authority over them, no semblance of order. Verse 13 Back to the financial collapse we read how young men are compelled to grind at the mill, young boys stagger under loads of wood.
Meaning rather than working in more honorable skilled work, young men had resorted to doing hard menial work. And the kids rather just being kids, doing kids like activities. As things fell financially apart, even like young boys now had hard labor forced upon them. They’re trying to find ways to make ends meet, which also would have added to the shame of the city. It is a shame that this is what he had to resort to do.
His younger generations had to do all these hard things. Verse 14. At the fall of Jerusalem, this brought such shame, such disgrace, that the poet lamented it caused the old men to leave the city gate, which is seemingly the place where they once hung out and discussed life. Maybe like what older men do today, like classic diners. You know, you go to any classic diner and like the old men are sitting around talking about news and politics or a cup of coffee.
So they used to do back in the day. And the poem, young men stopped making their music as their creativity, their excitement, probably their time for music was all sucked away because now they just live with hard labor. By the way, Sorokins do point out that as societies collapse, you can often see the collapse reflected in their arts. Societies that flourish often have like the most creative art and music. The cities or societies collapse, like Jerusalem here, like art in all its forms become more and more void.
These verses here, you can just hear the poet lamenting. He’s lamenting really, from old to young, every aspect of life, everyone was affected, affecting ways. In verse 15, if you want to take your eyes there, that the joy of hearts, they ceased dancing, you know, the enjoyment of life quickly, painfully replaced with mourning. Nothing to celebrate, no energy to laugh, no time to do anything of enjoyment. All of life sucked out.
Verse 16. One of the many reasons they were mourning. The poet lamented that the crown fell from our heads, which is the poet lamenting that no longer were they living with some type of privilege and stature that came from being God’s covenant people, with the temple of God dwelling in their midst, the life they now are living. There’s nothing privilege, there’s no status here. As judgment came, however, the poet continued to give his rapid fire lament on all the things that happened and all the pain, the heartache that they’re going through versus the end of verse 16 to 18.
If you take your Isaiah, you see the poet go back yet again. Do you understand? All this happened because God’s good justice rightly fell on them. The end of verse 16, woe to us, for we have sinned, for our heart has become sick for these things. Our eyes have grown dim.
Meaning, like the sorrow and the tears and the shame were like welling up in their eyes, made it hard to even see all the things that took place. The poet wrote from Mount Zion, which is Jerusalem. Mount Zion lies desolate, as jackals now prowl over it, looking to scavenge through its remains. For us, even though this is like a rapid fire type of poem that’s set up in Skato here, it’s a little bit disjointed even for us. Like, we can still feel the pain, we can feel the anguish of the poet.
We can feel how bleak, how dark things were in the city. We can understand how everything was affected. Every aspect of every life of every person was touched. Even though this is a short, rapid fire, we can still feel the emotions of the poet as he brings his lament to the Lord. Even though this is short, disjointed, a rapid fire summary of all the pain that was present.
We see the poem ends, which ends the book. The poet now going back to where he starts out the fifth poem by appealing to the Lord for help with one last prayer, one last plea as he closes things out. So verse 19, figure is there where the poet prays. But you, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations.
By the way, for me this week, as I studied this poem for this sermon, this is such an incredible truth for me, for the poet to profess here, here at the end of the poem I just mentioned, every aspect of life had just fell apart. Even the most simple, basic things in life. Water, bread, super hard, difficult to come by, where it seemed like the enemy was victorious, like there’s like no help on the horizon for any relief to come. Nothing joyful, just pain, just hurt, just disappointment, just frustration, just feelings of hopelessness. Yet with all those painful realities, all these things the PO’s lamenting about here at the end, he professes the incredible truth that even though all these painful realities are present, Lord, you are still the one who reigns forever.
Lord, you are still the one who is on the throne. And you will continue to be there from generation to generation without end. My friends, professing a truth like this, we know this is easy to do when everything is coming up roses, where everything is going exactly the way we hoped, or even better, where we’re standing on some type of like, exhilarating mountaintop. But to profess this truth when we’re in the valley, when nothing in life is going the way we want for that to happen. That takes a bigger and bigger view of the Lord to make that type of profession.
Verse 20 because the poet still believe this truth that the Lord reigns, that the Lord is on the throne. He continued to pray, appealing to the Lord for mercy and compassion and grace to fall on his people. Praying, pleading, appealing. Why do you forget us forever? Why do youo forsake us for so many days?
Verse 29 O Lord, restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored. Lord, we pray, we plead, we appeal to youo, we lament that yout will renew our days as of old, that yout would prove that not only are youe God of justice, but a God of mercy and grace, who restores, who renews, who redeems your people to Himself. Verse 22 and Lord, would you do this? That is, unless you have utterly rejected us and you remain exceedingly angry at us. Which is here.
Verse 22 that ends the poem. I don’t think we should be. This is like maybe the poet is like now wallowing in self pity where maybe he’s like pouting with some type of like victim mentality, you know, some type of woe is me sinful attitude. Rather. Verse 22 I think this is the poet continue to see how big the Lord is and how it’s just and how it’s right for the Lord to do whatever he chooses to do or not do when it comes to the just punishment of sin.
As mentioned, this ends the fifth of the five poems of Lamentations, where for the poet, for the people of Jerusalem, it ends without some type of like resolution.
It ends still in pain. Still a lot of questions, not many answers. I read somewhere this week, can’t remember where it says like Lamentations doesn’t end with like a Hollywood ending where after the tragedy hits, you know, the movie ends with a resolution and then they all live happily ever after. Rather, this book ends with the poet praying, pleading, appealing to the Lord. We’d have to continue to wait on the Lord to see how the Lord would respond.
No real resolution here, just waiting. Which by the way, in this life, I think this is often true with many of our pains and our heartaches and the questions that are tied to them. We’re in this life, we might not have our pain and our questions fully resolved. We’re in this life, things often do not end with some type of like Hollywood ending.
Rather, in this life, things might end for us by simply bringing our prayers of lamentation to the Lord. As we wait for our Lord to return to set up his kingdom where resolution will finally come and the life that is to come. Okay, so let me just give you a few final thoughts here before we close out this sermon in this series. I think I have three of them here. So as we close this out, first, let lamenting help you process lamentations.
Life’s big and pain filled challenges. So what I’m driving at here one last time in the series is let lamenting help you process your emotions when life is not going the way you hoped, where you’re increasing, becoming frustrated, discouraged, disappointed, where you’re feeling more and more hopeless. So lamenting, this is one of God given outlets the Lord has given to us to help us to process all the hard things that we might go through in life. So as you close yourselves, friends by faith, use this God given outlet. It’s a gift from God meant to help us to come to God.
Now at times when we lament, our lamenting might be a little more organized, maybe a little more structured, maybe a little more thorough. But there are times when we lament, our lamenting may be more like our poem today, where it’s a little less structured, where maybe it’s hard to get our thoughts organized, where things feel a little more abrupt, maybe a little more disjointed, where all we can give is maybe more of a flyby summary on why we feel so weak, where our lamenting is more like inward groaning. Whatever type of lament you might use by faith, use it. Use it in ways to process your emotions, in ways that your heart is being lifted to the Lord. That’s the model we see yet again in this fifth poem where the poet is honest, he’s raw, he’s vulnerable with his emotions and he’s using those emotions, his big pain filled emotions that came through awful challenges to lead him to the Lord.
Second, let lamenting help you see how sin is big and devastating and it always leads to problems. Now as mentioned earlier in the sermon, when it comes to the devastation of sin, sometimes it’s not because of like a specific sin that we’ve done that has brought it on. Sometimes maybe it’s even like the sin of others that is causing iniquity that now you have to bear. But when it comes to all devastation, all of life’s big devastating realities, in the end of the day, however they come to us, they are a result of sin. This is what happens in living in a world that’s broken with sin.
Sin has actually broken each of our Hearts, sin has actually broken all of our relationships with God. Where when left our own, we actually all are under his just judgment because of our sin in the garden, in creation, right? There’s no sin. And because there’s no sin, there’s no devastation, plus no lamenting. And eternal life is to come when our Lord returns for us, when sin will be once again removed, once again, no devastation from the effects of sin, no more lamenting.
But for us, between the garden, between the eternal life that’s to come, the world we live in, that is filled with sin, right? We should use our lamenting just to see how big of a deal, how nasty our sin is. First. I think the danger is always there when like we sin or when we see sin is we almost become like callous to it.
So it’s kind of like, you know, move on, no big deal sin, whatever it is just harmless. But friends, those thoughts are not true. Sin always has consequences. Sin always leads to pain, hurt, devastation. Understood Limitations we continue to stick out.
To me is how many times the poet just speaks about the reality of sin and the justice of God that judges sin and the devastation that sin brings with it. So for us friends, as you lament, lament in ways, it helps you just see how devastating sin is. This is, this is one of the more bigger personal takeaways, I think for me, something as mentioned kind of earlier, I haven’t previously considered. Friends, when we lament, it should help us see how devastating sin is. Whether specific sin in our own life, where we’re reaping and sowing, that we need to like repent and turn from.
Or just like sin in general, like sin is a big deal. And the last thing lamenting help you see just how big our God is. Which I do think is the reality that we see here in the fifth poem where the poet lamented in ways, he continued to see how big his God is, how he’s big with his justice, where he rightly and just or justly judged Jerusalem because of sin. In the poem, the poet could see how big God is, as he is the one who sits on the throne and he reigns forever and ever.
And in the poem, as the poem ends, the poet could see how big God is, how he is the one who restores and resteems a people back to himself. And for us, this is why lamenting is so important. Because these truths that we see in this poem, these lead us to Jesus, the One who came for us. This helps us to know that God actually did see us in our disgrace. Because Jesus, God’s eternal came, the One who came and willingly, joyfully laid down his heavenly crown in order to pick up a cross.
We’re on the cross. We see the justice of God. We see how big of a deal sin is. As on the cross, Jesus had to die in our place to take on the punishment of our sin. As Jesus bore the punishment of our iniquities on the cross, he took on all of our shame, all of our disgrace, all upon Himself.
It was also on the cross we see how good and merciful our God is because it’s through the cross. That’s how God restores and redeems us back to Himself. Where through the power of the cross, by grace, through faith, we are made new. Because through the cross Christ dying for his people, his people, his people of faith, including all who have faith today for us, because we’re made new friends. We don’t have to wonder if God has utterly rejected us or if he remains exceedingly angry at us.
Because on the cross, where God pours out his love and mercy, the justice of God has been satisfied.
The punishment that Jesus paid for us was accepted, paid in full. So we are no longer under God’s justice. Rather we are under his exceeding love, such love that there will never be any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And for us, the reason why we know justice has been satisfied on the cross, the mercy of God, the love of God, grabbed root in our hearts. We know this because on the third day, Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. He rose again from the dead and ascended back to his heavenly throne, where he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, where He’ll rule and reign from generation to generation without end. Where he promises to one day come again to bring us to Himself fully into his eternal life. Which eternal life that is mentioned, we will never lament again.
Which is an eternal life where our mourning will be turned into dancing. Where in our hearts all we will know is joy, because it is there in eternal life, we will finally be able to see how big and glorious and loving and merciful our God is to his people through His Son, Jesus Christ.
So, church in this life, yes, when life’s big and devastating challenges come our way. Lament.
Lament to help you process your emotions. Lament to help you better understand how big and devastating sin is. But ultimately, lament to help you to grow and grow, to better see how big your God is and how big his glorious love is for you through His Son, Jesus Christ. Let’s pray, Lord, thank youk for the book of lamentations.
Thank youk for the poet. Thank youk for his honesty and how real and how raw he is.
Thank youk for this, that model for us.
And Lord, I do pray youy would help us to, by faith, lament when the situation calls for it.
And Lord, life is. It’s often really hard.
It can be really painful.
And so, Lord, please give us hope this morning.
And oh, Lord, I do pray you help us to see you in bigger and bigger ways. Pray this all in Jesus name, amen.