How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
The Old Testament book of Lamentations invites us to pay attention to the grief of others, to open our hearts to those who suffer. It also summons us to attend to our own sorrows and to express them freely in prayer. God wants to hear what is real in our lives, including our struggles and disappointments. The book of Lamentations deepens our experience of Lent by encouraging us to grow in the freedom to share all that we are with God.
How do you respond when you see someone grieving? How do you react when you hear someone crying out to God in pain?
The biblical book of Lamentations invites us to eavesdrop on the grief of others. This book is filled with more pain and sorrow per chapter than any other book of the Bible. Many of the laments express the sorrow of a nation and a city. They are the corporate response of God’s people to the conquering of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 587 BC. Lamentations 3 features the sorrow of an unknown individual, as this person takes personally what happened to the nation. (Authorship of Lamentations has sometimes been attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, though the book is actually anonymous, with little indication of the actual author.)
The word “lamentation,” by the way, means “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow, weeping” (Oxford Dictionary of English, 2010). It comes from the Latin word lamenta, which has this same meaning. The Latin Bible called this biblical book lamenta for reasons that will soon become obvious. It is filled with laments, that is, with cries of pain and anguish, with sorrow and weeping, all directed at God.
The fact that Lamentations appears in the canon of Holy Scripture means that God wants us to take it seriously. This is not a time to turn our heads away from those who mourn. Rather, we are to pay close attention to their experiences, words, and feelings. We are to enter into their distress and join them in wrestling with the theological implications of suffering. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we’re to join them in wrestling with the God who allows and, according to Lamentations, who sometimes causes suffering.
Lamentations invite us to attend and join in the grieving of others. In a day when so many people in our world are suffering, whether as victims of war or oppression, of racial injustice or disease, or hunger or loneliness, we need to learn how to lament with and for them.
Yet, Lamentations aren’t only a summons to share in the grief of others. It is also an invitation for us to get in touch with the pains and uncertainties in our own lives. Lamentations is not a book of comfort. It doesn’t offer “chicken soup for the soul.” If anything, it stirs up difficult feelings and challenging thoughts. Yet, these are feelings and thoughts God wants us to embrace. The example of Lamentations teaches us to experience new freedom as we share with God everything in our lives, including the sorrows that can feel unutterable.
A study of Lamentations is particularly fitting for Lent for several reasons. The poetic prayers of this book illustrate graphically the reality that we are from the dust, and to dust, we will return, a fundamental Ash Wednesday and Lenten theme. Lamentations helps us grapple with the brokenness of the world as well as our own personal brokenness. It encourages us to bring our whole selves before God, the good, the bad, and the ugly (not that God sees us as ugly, mind you, but that’s how we can feel about ourselves). Lamentations also gives us words to pray as we come to Holy Week, including a verse that is often used in worship services on Good Friday.
Because our Lord is one who was acquainted with grief, because he knew what it was like to cry out to God in pain, “Why?”, because he had compassion for those who suffer, a Lenten study of Lamentations helps us draw near to Jesus. It weakens our pretense of self-sufficiency and reminds us of just how much we need a Savior, one whose steadfast love for us never ceases.
Perhaps you’ll be able to exercise new empathy for those who suffer. Perhaps you’ll find new freedom to talk with God about the pain in your own life. Perhaps you’ll feel a new closeness with Jesus as he approaches the cross. No matter what God has in store for you, let me encourage you to be open and willing.
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