Learn to Lament
“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.” Lamentations 3:1
Holy Week is upon Christians in the Western Church, one of the most distinctive weeks of the Christian year. The Scripture readings center around the prophecies and events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. It is the culmination of the season of Lent, which focuses on the 40-days of temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness, which ends with the celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter.
Oh how we want to get to the resurrection! The celebration of Jesus’ defeat of sin, death, and the grave is a joyful way to mark the beginning of new life. Creation often aids our celebration by yielding a few green shoots and a blossom or two, and the festive atmosphere in liturgy is a tremendous delight. But the lead-up can feel like a drag.
We know life does not go from one victory to another. Not even Jesus’ life was like that. While we admit that He did not die so we could be healthy and wealth, Americans are exceptionally blessed and protected from the dangers many face throughout the world. And yet, no amount of medicine, technology, or finance keeps us from facing sorrows. Whether sickness, loss, or death, we have all, like Jeremiah says, “seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.”
This is where walking through the trials of Jesus during Holy Week can help us. Spending time in these stories teaches us the art of lament. Yes, I say “art” on purpose. It is not a set of rules we follow to gradually lessen our grief. Lament is something we learn by walking through it, often blindly, trusting that God is with us.
There is more recorded about the final week of Jesus’ life than any other concentrated period of His ministry. We see Him correcting, grieving, praying, and going aside to be with His Father, leading up to Thursday evening in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He agonizes over what is coming and would later be arrested. After His trial We see Him on the cross, praying Psalm 22 as He faces the darkness of separation. To some His words can sound like one who has given up, but that misunderstands what He is doing. His words are not those of resignation but submission. He submitted Himself to the will of the Father, which was for Him to undergo an excruciating death on our behalf.
When we walk through the events of Jesus’ last week on earth, the cloud grows darker and darker until the final moment. Yet even in His death our Lord teaches us how to lament in the face of great suffering. Reading His story during that week, we become acquainted with Jesus’ grief and how He expressed it. He wept over Jerusalem. He agonized in the garden. He cried out to God the Father on the cross. He prayed, oh how He prayed. His words echo the Psalmist and the prophets, but they are His own. When we go through suffering that lays us low, those words can be ours too.
To lament simply means to mourn or bewail, usually something (health, strength, a job, etc.) or someone (family member, friend, or yourself) who is lost. It is something we do aloud, not only inwardly. It involves expressing to God and (at times to) others what we are facing and how heavy a burden it is. But biblical lament is not apart from God. It is something we offer to God. It is the unburdening of ourselves before a Father who loves us, even though that love seems distant. This is where a healthy dose of the Psalms, Lamentations, Job, and other prophets is helpful. They bring us back to God, rather than the endless loop of self-pity. Even when we have cried all the words in us, tears no longer come, and we are still before the Lord, St. Paul assures us that the Holy Spirit within us continues to pray with groanings/lamentation that is unspeakable. Our silence before our Creator is itself an offering to Him.
Take something as simple as Psalm 23, the famous “Shepherd Psalm.” As tender as the words are, they take on new meaning when you hear “He restores my soul” not as a contented thought after a full meal but as a prayer from a saddened heart feeling the pain of a departed loved one, or the scald of a severed relationship. The Bible is full of such words, words that lift us up to the only One who can heal our sadness and truly restore our hope.
Rather than brushing past the heaviness of Holy Week, let us come to it will open hearts, learning to lament as our Savior did. For we trust His promise that, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Ps. 126:5).
The Lord be with you all this coming week,
Matt