Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Okay, so we're doing a class on beholding Jesus. That's the topic of the equip class.
And the way that we're kind of approaching this subject is that we're looking at Jesus as a human person, in his personality. That's kind of what we're covering. That's what we're going over.
And so the topics. The way that I've organized this class is to kind of look at the emotional life of Jesus. There's a book that B.B. warfield wrote several hundred years ago called the Emotional Life of Our Lord. It's a complicated book, not the most riveting, but nevertheless, he's getting at the reality that Jesus in his complete humanity, also possessed emotions and that we shouldn't overlook those things. And so the hope of this class is that one, we would get to know Jesus as a person, and two, that we can imitate his posture towards the world and towards other people. Okay, so that's the hope that we take a long, abiding walk with Jesus, and in doing so, we get to know the elements of his personality. We get to know what his emotions are. So we're not necessarily looking at what he is, which is fully God, fully man. That's his nature, that's his substance. We're looking at who he is, what is he like, how does he live and react to certain situations and certain people.
So that's kind of the breakdown. That's why we've broken it up this way. And so last week, we started foundationally with the subject of sonship. We talked about sonship, and we saw that Jesus was completely secure in his identity before the Father, that he knew exactly who he was from childhood. He considered his Father the heavenly, like the Father. It wasn't just Joseph.
And so that's what we're looking at.
We saw that sonship is personified in this reality that we're adopted sons and daughters. So we talked about what it means to be adopted into God's family.
We also taught, like, if you remember that worksheet, we talked about how even knowing that we can still live our lives as if we're orphans, right? And so we talked through, we looked at those columns and said, okay, where am I living as a son? Where am I living as an orphan? That's where we kind of began. And today we're discussing a topic that has gained a little bit more traction in the church in recent years.
But it's the topic of lament. Okay? Lament.
This is the pain and sorrow of Christ and what we're going to do, as we're going to do with all of these classes is we're instead of looking at this particular subject and saying, okay, what is it? How do we define it? We will do that.
I first just want us to look at Jesus and his example and let that kind of define it for us. You know what I mean? So, like, what we're going to do is we're going to look at different episodes of lament in Christ's life. We're going to look, we're going to see those examples and we're going to draw out some lessons and some principles from it. And then from there we're going to say, okay, biblically, holistically, for us, what is lament? But we want to start with the person of Jesus. Does that make sense?
Okay, all right. So starting with Christ, I have a question for you.
When you think of the person of Jesus in your mind's eye, when you picture Christ, do you see someone?
Well, what do you think of, like, what do you think of his demeanor? Like, when you picture Jesus as you do every day, hopefully especially on Sundays, as you sing the song, look at Jesus, who are you picturing? What's. What is he like?
Humble. What'd you say? Humble? Humble, yeah. Someone meek, mild.
What else?
Like a strength of character. Strength of character. Someone very mature, seasoned, perhaps.
That's good.
Anything else you think of when you picture the person of Jesus?
Patient, Patient, good, long suffering.
What do you think, James? I see a person who was fully operating in the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Completely whole in who he is and who God is.
All good. Do you think of somebody sad? Do you like. Do you picture Jesus as being a sad person?
I admit I don't.
I picture someone who is warm and compassionate and like Matt said, somebody humble and meek and understanding all of those things.
When you consider The Messiah, Isaiah 53, 3 says that before. This is before Jesus is born. This is a well known verse, but it says he was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The word grief there in the Hebrew, interestingly enough, also means sickness.
Sickness. So the NASB will translate it like this. They'll say he was despised and abandoned by men.
A man of great pain and familiar with sickness.
Okay, so he's. However you want to translate that. What we know for sure about the Messiah who was to come is that this man was going to be somebody marked by hardship, adversity and trial. He's going to be well acquainted with sorrow.
And honestly, it makes sense, because as we approach the subject of lament, we can't really wrap our minds around it until we become acquainted with what, like something has to precede lament before we get to the lamenting, what has to happen first?
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Suffering.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Suffering, suffering.
Now, think about it. Do this thought exercise just for a second.
If you. Let's say you're seven years old again, okay? You're really, really young, and you're sitting in the park, and a wise old man approaches you and says, hey, I want to tell you something. And you say, okay, what? And he says, I've seen your life from the beginning to the end, and it's actually really sad. Your life is going to be one of pain, sorrow, death, grief and sickness. You're going to suffer beyond your wildest dreams.
You actually can't conceive how much you're going to suffer. You're going to lose your friends and your family. They're going to betray you.
You're going to agonize over your community.
You're going to watch one of your best friends die, and you're going to suffer one of the most painful asphyxiating deaths imaginable.
And then at the very height of your pain, you're going to call out to your father, and your father will hear you, and he'll even be able to do something about it, but he's going to leave you where you are.
And one of the last things that you'll ever say is you'll cry out and you'll ask, dad, why have you abandoned me? And then you're going to die.
But it will be the fullest and greatest life ever lived. And in doing so, you'll have saved the world.
Would you. Would you want to proceed? Would you want to live that life?
That's what the Son of God experienced.
And the Son knew from eternity past this was always the plan for his life, that this was the life he was going to live. Revelation 13:8 says that it was written before the foundation of the world, in the book of Life of the Lamb who was slain, that even before the foundation of the world, it was already written. Those who were in the book of life of the Lamb who was going to be slain, he is going to be a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief and. And sickness. And yet what we're going to see in the person of Jesus is not someone who is a pathetic person in the literal sense, like path, meaning, like sorrow, like who just walked around sad all the time, but someone who channeled his suffering and sorrow into an art of lament.
Because I really think. I really think when we think about lament is that there is a kind of art to it. There is sort of a dance, a waltz, if you will.
So how did he do this?
Like I said before, I want to look at four significant episodes of lament in Jesus's life. And I'll say this, if you study this topic further, there's actually more than this. There's even more examples of lament. These are the most famous ones that we're going to cover.
And so here's where I want to start.
The lament over the city of Jerusalem.
Lament over Jerusalem.
You know what I didn't know when looking at this, you guys are familiar. You guys know that he did this, right? Like Jesus lamented over Jerusalem.
Here's what I didn't know when studying this. This actually happened three times in his ministry. He actually lamented over the city of Jerusalem three times.
And it only. It really actually, it feels like two. Because Matthew and Luke at two points use very similar language. But if you look at it in context, they're in different places at different times when he actually makes these laments.
And I think that in and of itself is significant because often when we read the Gospels and we read the text, it can feel like just one thing is happening to the next. And Jesus then turns to Jerusalem and says, oh, Jerusalem. But it actually was over many, many months that Jesus was lamenting and thinking of and grieving over Jerusalem's rebellion. So to keep things simple, I want to just take them in the order in which they happened in Jesus life. Okay, so if you have a Bible, the first lament over Jerusalem takes place in Luke 13, Luke chapter 13. If you want to turn there, starting in verse 31, we'll say, I'll write this on the board. Luke 13.
So here's the context of this. So Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem. This is several months before he gets there, before Passion Week.
So he's in Judea, probably Perea. He's on his way for the Passover, and he's teaching about the kingdom of God. He just got done talking about the narrow door to enter the kingdom. The door is narrow. Few will find it. And then, so here's what happens. The Pharisees are upset with him and they threaten him. Verse 31. At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to him, get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you. And he said, to them. Go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons that perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I finished my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following. For it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Here's the. O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets in stones, those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you are not willing? Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So there's a lot going on in what he's saying there.
The first is that he's being threatened by the Pharisees. So you can imagine he's a little bit emotionally charged right here.
I would even go so far as to say he's righteously defensive of himself.
He calls Herod a fox, which would have been, you know, just a really upsetting thing to say about somebody in that kind of power. It's a very offensive thing to say.
But that's why I think that there's this impassioned defense going on in 32 and 33.
He's basically saying, you go tell him, I'm not done yet.
I'm going to continue my ministry. I'm going to continue casting out demons and performing cures tomorrow, today, and the third day, until I finish my course, until. And I'm the one who determines when my ministry is done, not Herod. So go tell the little cunning fox over there. You can kind of feel like, ooh, okay, all right, yeah, you tell him, you know, but then. Then there's this pivot in verse 34 that takes place. The anger turns to lament, and he begins just an impassioned plea and warning on behalf of Jerusalem. So what's he talking about there?
So first, Jesus spoke of Jerusalem as the city that kills and stones the prophet centaur. So, in other words, Jerusalem is the cultural, political, religious center of Judah, and it treated true prophets as if they were blasphemers and false prophets. Okay, so we're meant to think of prophets like Jeremiah here, who was persecuted.
Jeremiah also laments the presence of God leaving the temple and the city, rejecting its prophets during their exile. So you're meant to think of, like, him and Ezekiel and other major prophets like that. But then he says, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings? Yet you were not Willing. Okay, so this is where we really kind of have to have a good grasp of the overall message of the Old Testament, the Old Testament narrative, because Jesus is stringing together some metaphors here.
It's a metaphor that actually recalls the Exodus story and there's a whole set of allusions here. So there's this Old Testament language that speaks of God bringing Israel out of Egypt on eagle's wings. Okay, you've heard that Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 32:11, the trip to Sinai, to the mountain of Sinai also involved testing and trial. But over and over, Israel's God cared for her. And it uses the way that it describes God's care for Israel is like a nurturing mother gently caring for her, protecting her, providing her. And so you have the psalmists that frequently look back on the Exodus story and talk about Yahweh's motherly love and the trust and trusting in the shadow of, of Yahweh's wings, Right? And so here's what I think, here's what I think is really interesting about this. Jesus says, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.
I think like what's implicit here is actually an implicit reference to the divinity and eternality of Christ, right? Because as we talked about in the Trinity class last semester, any reference to a theophany or an appearance of God in the Old Testament was almost always a christophany, right? The angel of the Lord. And so any tangible appearance of Yahweh must be the pre incarnate Son. And the book of Jude even tells us this. I'll show you Jude. I believe it's 24.
No Jude, I didn't write this one down.
La la la la la. Where is this?
Oh, verse five. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, this is what is mentioned here. Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe, Right? So connecting that to what Jesus is talking about here when he says, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hint, under. Under its brood. Jesus was there when Jerusalem came out of Egypt. He was there when they rejected the prophets in exile. He saw all of these things. So even here you have an implicit reference to his own eternality. Like how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. Not God, not the Father. He does reference God that way all the time, but he's saying, how often I would have done that. So I think that that's just kind of a side note, but I think that's there in the text. It's really cool.
And what's significant about it, connecting it to Lament, is that Jesus sorrow for Jerusalem dates back not just to these several months, but even long before his incarnation. Right? He's saying over and over in Israel history. I've sent prophets to call Israel, to call you to repentance, and to return to the shadow of his loving wings. But Israel does not hear over and over and over again. And so this is the history of Jerusalem that Jesus, I believe, is alluding to. And then he ends his lament with verse 35. He says, Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Now, this is, again, this is prophecy happening here. Okay? So there's often, when you think about prophecy, Josh, you may have seen this before.
There's the kind of two mountain approach to prophecy. So like, if you're looking out at a mountain range, you can see ranges that are like hills and things that are before you that are immediate in your depth perception. And there's also in long, far, far away that you often can't detect with your own eye. There's another mountain out in the distance that's yet to be fulfilled. So you have this idea of immediate fulfillment and eschatological fulfillment, which is something that will be fulfilled at the return of Christ.
So when he says, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, that's going to happen in a few months when Jesus enters in on a colt and a donkey and they sing hosanna, Hosanna, blessed be the name of the Lord. Except it's only a partial fulfillment because it's not necessarily the citizens of Jerusalem that are singing his praises. It's the poor and his disciples and other followers of Jesus. Does that make sense? So it's going to be partially fulfilled in a few months, and then it's going to be actually fulfilled at the Second Coming. Okay, so again, that's another kind of theological side bit. So what is Jesus really lamenting here? He's showing his heart. It's the heart of God himself in the judgment of his people. God doesn't want to forsake his people. God doesn't want to destroy his people. He doesn't want to judge them. But he must because he's holy and righteous. Right? So it's not as if he delights in doing it, but he will do it if that's what it takes for them to return back to him. Okay, so Jesus is lamenting the sins of the city and this nation, because if only that they would accept him and not rebel against him. Could they have been brought together like a mother hen brings in the children under her wings? Jesus wants to treat Jerusalem that way. And he's. And he's upset because they're not getting it. They're threatening to kill him. And so this defensiveness turns to anger and frustration, and it's carried out as a lament. Okay, let's look at the second lament of Jerusalem. This is Luke 19, Luke chapter 19, starting in verse 41.
The context of this lament is actually, what's crazy is I'm going to pull it up here.
He's just entered. So fast forward several months from this first lament. He's just entered Jerusalem on a colt on a donkey. And they've said in verse 38, the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice of all his mighty works they had seen, saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said, teacher, rebuke your disciples, because that's heresy today. That's blasphemy.
And he answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. Okay, so he's just entering into Jerusalem now. Look at verse 41. And then he drew near and saw the city, and he wept over it, saying, would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that would make for peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.
Okay, so what's the. What's the first thing you notice about this lament? Like. Like what do you see in the text that Jesus is doing while he's lamenting?
Praying. Good. No, crying. Yes, yes. He's actually, he's weeping now over Jerusalem. Okay, we didn't see that before in Luke 13, but now he's crying. He's expressing sorrow over Jerusalem, and he's crying over their blindness. He's saying, if you even you, would know the things that make for peace. What are the things that make for peace?
How about the Prince of Peace?
How about the Messiah? The one who has been foretold? He longs that they know who he really was.
And here's the reason. Jesus is foretelling of an event that will take place after his ascension in the first century. Does anybody know what that event is?
The destruction of Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem.
He's making a prophecy about what's going to happen in the year A.D. 70. Look back at the text real quick.
He says, would you even you had known on this day the things that make for peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes, okay? So they're blind. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.
He's describing the way the Romans sieged Jerusalem in the year A.D. 70.
They. They did exactly that, right, Josh? Like they. They surrounded the city, they hemmed them in on both sides, and they didn't leave one stone unturned. The entire temple was destroyed in AD 70. Okay, so again, it's. It's helpful to know this. But, but the last line, this is the one that's most tragic. He says, because. Because you did not know the time of your visitation. What was the time of visitation then? Then, like that, like you didn't know when the Lord had actually visited you, which was now. Because judgment upon this city is going to come and the Romans are going to overturn this city. Jesus outlines it even more in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 24 and 25.
But they're refusing to see it because Jesus visited the house of Israel, bringing peace. But this peace can only be obtained through repentance, right through Israel, turning from what they believe is their covenantal works to the true God, which is him. Okay? So Jesus grieves over this sad reality, and he's weeping over it. He's crying. He's crying outside the temple. It's Sunday, Palm Sunday.
And he's again prophesying over the fact that you, even you had known on this day the things that would make for peace because you did not know the time of your visitation. Does that make sense? So he's really, really, really upset about that. So that's the second lament, okay, over Jerusalem. There's one more.
And again, the language is going to be very, very familiar here to the first one, the third lament, takes place on. On Tuesday of Holy week in Matthew 23.
So look at Matthew 23, starting in verse 37, context of this. Jesus is teaching inside the temple on Tuesday. He's giving woes to the scribes and Pharisees. These are, again, very, very emotionally charged woes.
When we talk about the anger of Jesus, in a month or so, we'll cover this a little bit.
But he's been calling them blind guides, hypocrites, whitewashed tombs.
This is a very, very emotionally charged sermon that he's delivering to the scribes and the Pharisees, and he's giving them woes. In other words, watch out, warning, like, be warned, those of you who do this.
It's very, very real and raw and angry.
And he ends in verse 37 with this lament. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and yet you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate. For I will tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now, this one's interesting, right, because it's the same language as 13, but the blessed in the name of the Lord has already happened here.
This is why I take this as more of an eschatological fulfillment that when he says, where I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
They're not going to see that. They're not going to see him again until it's Judgment Day and he's coming back on a white horse. And they say, oh, there he is, coming in the name of the Lord. Right. So again, I think that is just really, really fascinating.
Any questions here about the three laments over Jerusalem before we go to the next lament?
Yeah. Yes, Sir.
Is Luke 13 and Matthew 23 the same lament or different ones at different times? Different ones at different times, yeah. So how do we know that based on the context of where he was? Yeah. So Luke 13 is several months before. He's in Judea at the time, and he's traveling to Jerusalem. And Matthew 23, he's inside the temple at Jerusalem. It's Holy Week. So this is the week that he's going to be crucified here?
Good question.
I think it's interesting that Jesus is not afraid to repeat himself and use the same language that he's used previously.
Again, these are three different laments.
Good. Okay, let's keep going here, the next lament. And we'll see as we progress along here that with each lament episode, he's going to get more and more emotional.
It's going to just be more and again.
I don't know why that is, but I think that as he's getting closer and closer to the cross and tasting his own death.
Especially because all three of these next laments involve death.
That brings about pain and sorrow. Because death is a curse, right? Death, no matter how old you live to be, death is always a curse. We were not designed to die. We were designed to live and be with God forever.
So here's the next lament.
This is the story of Lazarus, the story of Lazarus. You can find this in John chapter 11.
John chapter 11.
We don't have time to do justice to this story, but here's kind of the context. So Lazarus is a close friend of Jesus' the text says that Jesus loved him.
He's also Mary and Martha's brother. And so Lazarus falls ill.
Jesus learns of this and he ends up staying two days longer in the town where he is.
Jesus knows that he's died before he gets there, but he goes anyways. That's significant. He knows that Lazarus is dead even though he isn't there to witness it.
And I'm going to pick it up here in John 11:32.
It says now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? And they said to him, lord, come and see.
And then verse 35, this is the shortest verse in the entire Bible. Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not. Could he not open the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying again? What's interesting about this is that Jesus knows from earlier in the story that Lazarus is going to die. He knows that he's dead, and he knows what he's about to do as well.
He knows he's going to raise him from the dead. But he's still impacted by the sting of death.
Even the one who has authority over all life and death is still stung by it. He still feels this searing pain of loss.
And I think what we can draw from this is that Jesus embraced this and allowed himself to go through the pain.
He forced himself to go through the pain. Even though he knows that he could fix it in an instant, he still grieved. He still felt this sting of death. Like, it's such a human moment to see Mary weeping and then causes him great pain and distress.
Like, yeah, like if somebody's crying over the loss of a loved one, like, I'm gonna cry, you know, like. Like you're gonna feel that. And Jesus feels that to the depths of his very core. He feels it. This is a very, very human moment, okay? And so then he goes to the place where he sees where he was dead. And then that's why verse 35 is the shortest verse in the Bible. I think the editors, you know, Bible verses didn't come till many thousands. You know, I think around.
I think it was around the time of the Protestant Reformation when verses were actually added. But I think the reason that this particular verse, Jesus Wept is the shortest verse is because we're not supposed to pass over it. We're supposed. The editors were like, I think this is a moment here that we should sit with for a second to. To see your Lord weeping, because we know how the story ends. But Jesus still resolves fully to live in the present, right? He weeps tears and tears of pain and sorrow for his close friend. And here's another thing, too, that we see in the weeping. He doesn't hide it. He doesn't go off to a place and cry by himself. He weeps in front of everybody. He lets his emotions.
There's witnesses around seeing this. He lets it all out. Because this is death. It's not a blessing. It's a curse.
And of course, we know what happens next. Jesus again is deeply moved, and he goes up to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus says, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? He's probably still speaking through tears there. So they took away the stone. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father, I thank you that you've heard me. I knew that you always hear, but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me. Okay? So we can see here in Jesus lament that there is thankfulness for his appeal. He's making an appeal to God through this Lament. And when he said these things, he. He cried out with a loud voice, cried out like, ugh. You could just feel the passion in this. Lazarus come out. And the man who had died came out. His feet, hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said, unbind him and let him go. There's so much, like, emotional force here that you can feel like even in his raising from the dead, he's like, please come out. Like, there's such an emotional impact, I feel like, to resurrection. Okay.
And I also. I want to go back for a second to verse 37, because I feel like this is us, you know, I feel like this is.
Any naysayer, any doubter could say this, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?
So in other words, they're missing the point.
The point is not that Jesus came to prevent death, it's that he came to overcome death.
Right. That's what he means when he says, I am the resurrection and the life.
Jesus came to defeat it.
He's bringing resurrection to this earth.
They're missing the point because, like, they're saying, like, could he have not just. Could he have not just prevented it? Could he have not just, like, you know, just kept it from happening? No, no, He's. He's doing it to show that he's the. He is the sole man. He's going to be the only man in human history who can overcome death itself. And he's going to give you a glimpse into how with Lazarus.
So that's what it is. But in doing so, he's allowing himself to lament and sorrow and grieve over Lazarus because he's showing us that death is still real. It's nothing to gloss over. Instead, it's deeply sad. It's hard, it's sorrowful to endure. Even if you're the Son of God, death is still hard.
Okay, so that's Lazarus again. It's getting.
Getting emotional in here, getting lamenting.
Last2. Last two places will highlight Jesus's laments. And then I have a. I have a worksheet for you guys, if we have time. I do want to honor our time. Oh, yes, go ahead.
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Verse 38. Then Jesus, deeply moved again came to the tomb.
In your studying, did you find that deeply moved again, did you find anything about what that was? The emotion in that statement in the original language being a little bit slightly different from the Jesus wept in verse 35?
[00:44:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Like it. And I think that it says before in this text that he was. That he was moved when Jesus had. They followed her.
Verse 33. Yeah. When Jesus saw her weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled, in my estimation. I'd have to look at the Greek, but I think that it's the same. That 33 and 38 are using kind of the same verbiage there.
The deeply moved again was probably the emotions that he's feeling being at the tomb where his friend was like, you know, kind of like if you've ever lost a loved one, you feel the emotions of the news, of hearing of the loss. And then when you get to the grave, like when you go to the service, like you're emotional again, you're moved again. Then when you do the graveside and you put the person in the ground, like, you're deeply moved again. So it's like the closer that you are in proximity, your spirit's going to still have this kind of grieving, sorrowful bond. So I. I think it's him just expressing, like, again, like, I read that verse 39, when the. Take away the stone and, you know, lord, by the time there'll be an odor, for he has been dead for four days. And he's like, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? And it's like. It's just.
I can just picture the passion in his voice, you know, and telling her that, you know, go ahead, Jane.
Sure. Yeah.
[00:46:30] Speaker B: There's a little footnote on those two verses for me, and it says or was indignant. So it can also be translated as he was indignant. Like, really strongly, passionately displeased.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: I remember Brad teaching on this a couple of years ago, and he had painted the word picture of a bull snorting with rage.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: And so my. I thought they were a different experience of being deeply moved. But I'm curious in the original language. And so you're saying it probably was the same.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, again, you have.
We're actually going to see that, too, when we get to the Garden of Gethsemane, of this idea of being so moved, so impassioned in your response, that there's, like, anger to it as well, you know.
So. Yeah, I would say that's certainly there in that. Indignant.
Yeah. This idea of snorting, you know, like a bull snorting if it's enraged, like, it's. There's heartbreak and sorrow to it, but there's also, like, anger being expressed there. I think that's there but, yeah, I'd have to go back and look at, though, like, what that's conveying. So I want to see that.
Let's go to the garden of Gethsemane.
This is recorded for us in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So this will be our third one garden.
And to keep you guys from turning, let's do the Matthew scene. So go to Matthew 27.
Matthew 27.
Nope, I'm ahead of myself here. It's not Matthew 27. That's the death of Jesus.
26:36. Is it 26.
Yes. Good. 26, 36. Then Jesus went to them, to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And talking with him, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter a temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. So we see Jesus at the Mount of Olives. He's got Peter and John with him.
He's feeling overwhelming grief and sorrow over what's about to come. He's about. He's tasting his own death right now. He's tasting the separation and judgment of God.
He's about to be arrested, tried, and killed. Also factor into this as well. Nobody else around him kind of understands what's going on. Like, the disciples are like, so what are we doing?
You're telling us to pray, like what? And, you know, you read the Gospels, and he's like, guys, he's told you, like, over and over again what he's coming to do. But just like us, we still. It takes us a long time to get it.
And Luke records it. Or I think that it's.
I think that it's in Luke's Gospel.
It says that he falls to the ground on his face and he cries out, abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.
That's either. Actually, I think that's in Mark's account.
But I wanted to highlight that because the Abba Father, as we talked about last week, is a deeply personal, deeply intense address. To the Father. That's a very, very personal way to say that. And he says, all things are possible for you. Lord, remove this cup from me yet not what I will, but what you will.
Talking about a definition of lament, I haven't given one yet. Tell up to this point, because I think this is a helpful place to put it.
Brad uses this all the time. It's by an author named Mark Vrogap. Vrogop wrote a book called Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy. He says lament is a prayer of pain that leads to trust in God. Lament is a prayer of pain that leads to trust in God. This is exactly, I think, what Jesus is doing in the garden.
Luke, even in his account, says that he's agonizing so much that he starts praying more earnestly after saying, father, let this cup pass from me. Luke says he starts praying more earnestly. And he doesn't even record what he says to the Father. And I'm just conjecturing here, but I bet that the prayer was so personal and so raw that Luke probably wanted to preserve the intimacy of the words and so that it's not even recorded for us what he said, but it says that he started praying more earnestly after. After praying to the Father to let the cup pass from him.
Then it says, in fact, we can just go there if you want to go.
It's Luke, Luke chapter 22.
Go down to verse 44.
And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.
There's that phrase. And his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.
So, like, it's not only that the prayers became more earnest. He actually starts dripping blood from his brow. Like. Like, it. It's. It's getting very, very, very, very emotional here.
And I think what we're seeing on display in this particular lament is a perfect combination of the two that preceded it. Because here the lament is more implicit, right? Jesus is weeping. He's deeply moved in his soul. He's crying. Here. His laments are words. They're, you know, pronouncements of prophecy and judgment over the people. Here you have a combination of both.
You have both elements playing out at the same time.
And what he's doing is that this is the lowest moment probably of his entire life up to this point. The only thing he wants to do is go to his Father.
So, like, you think about that, like, at our lowest moments, when we're at the bottom of the pit, when you're at the end of yourself, where are you going? Like, who do you Want to go to in those moments?
I think that one of the things Jesus is teaching us here is the art of lament.
There's an art to it because he's doing something. He's going to the Father, like when you read the words in this text, father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. What do you see there?
What is he demonstrating?
[00:55:52] Speaker B: Obedience.
[00:55:53] Speaker A: Obedience, yeah. You see trust, right? And you see submission.
That's where lament ultimately should take us. As at the end of our lamenting, at the end of our cries and our pain, we're ultimately trusting in God.
And so, again, I think it's just a really amazing example of the art of lament. The last lament, as you can probably guess, is what we'll call the cry of dereliction.
The cry of dereliction. This is Matthew 27.
Jesus is on the cross now. He's been tried, he's been arrested.
He's been handed over to the Jews. Pilate delivers him over to the Jews.
This is the crucifixion, and he's on the cross now.
Matthew records this as his final words.
I'll start in verse 45. Matthew 27:45.
From the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, eli, Eli, lema Sabekthani. That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
So that's Arabic or. Sorry, Aramaic, not Arabic. Aramaic of what? What is he saying there? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Anybody know what that is?
It's Psalm 22.
It's Psalm, chapter 22, verse 1. And what's funny is that if you read that psalm, it reads like a movie script of the crucifixion. It reads like Jesus lives out this psalm in amazing detail.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?
Then you go down to verse.
Let's see.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
When the Romans come and pierce his side, what comes out of him?
Water.
All my bones are out of joint.
His legs are broken. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. That literally happened. They literally divided his garments among them.
All of this is happening line for line, word for word. And it's because he knew this was going to happen. This is what he agreed to in eternity past. So here's the reality. On the cross, there is a forsakenness happening. The Father is forsaking the Son, and the Son is expressing the horror of abandonment. So this lament, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Is not a philosophical question. He's not asking God, where are you? He's saying, God, you're gone.
I don't. You're not here anymore. You've abandoned me. It's again, it's very, very, like, emotional.
This is like agony in its truest form.
And what's amazing, too, again, like, you look at the humanness of this moment. He knew the words so well. They were implanted. So it was implanted so much into the depths of his soul that when he's hanging on the cross and he's suffocating from asphyxiation, he's reflexively lamenting to the Father. These are. These are the last words that Matthew records. Is Jesus quoting scripture back to his Father. So it's really incredible.
These four episodes, I think, highlight the man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief.
And it highlights too, the way that he lamented. And I think that for us now, as we turn to. Okay, that's how Jesus practiced it. What. What are we to do?
I know we don't have much time, so there's. We won't have any discussion over this, but I want to hand out to you. I just kind of overview this handout here. This is a resource from a guy up at Western Seminary named Bill Klim, who's done a lot of work with pastors and on the topic of human flourishing.
And I just want to kind of go over.
When you think about, okay, what does lament look like for us?
Remember the definition that I had? I'll write it up here. Lament is a prayer of pain that leads to trust in God.
Another definition from another New Testament scholar puts it like this. He says, lament is an appeal to God based on confidence in.
Is character. Okay? It's based on confidence and character, meaning that biblical lament does not question the character of God.
That would be grumbling, as the New Testament use it. That would be complaining, Right? That's griping. Now, there's a difference because if you look at number two on your sheet, it says, lament presents a complaint to God. There's a difference between presenting a complaint and complaining.
Like if you were to present a complaint to your supervisor at work about a particular person or the way you do, like somebody's not doing what they're supposed to be doing, or you have a complaint, that's a perfectly valid thing to bring up sometimes. But to cross your arms and gripe and grumble and complain, that's complaining. That's grumbling. You're not presenting a complaint. You're just grumbling. Does that make sense? So there's a difference between the two of those things.
So the way I kind of summarize the four movements of levent of lament in this.
So you see in your sheet, he says he has four things. He says lament begins with an awareness of God's presence. Lament presents a complaint to God. Lament boldly presents requests to God, and Lament chooses to trust God.
If you want a helpful acronym here, call it tcat.
Okay, so turn.
This is not complain.
This is cry out.
This is appeal, and this is trust.
So turn to the presence of God, cry out your complaint, appeal to God to hear and respond, and then trust in the character of God. Does that make sense? There's more I want to say on that, but it is 1:20, so I want to value your time.
Any questions before we wrap up here?
I know that's a lot.
Take this sheet home with you.
Look at it. I thought it's just a helpful kind of one sheet of getting your mind thinking of. All right. What does lament look like? When is it appropriate to ask?
Bill says it's not about getting something off your chest so you feel better. Rather, lament is when something is so un. Kingdom like that you, as a Kingdom member, bring that issue to the king of the kingdom. Right. So it's not.
You're not dumping on God. You're appealing to him in your sorrow, in your pain, and you're fighting to trust in Him.
Make sense?
Okay.
