Lamentations 3 Sermon Reflection
When faced with suffering and hardship in life we often face the temptation to respond with a sort of denial about things. We’re tempted to push things beneath the surface, and avoid the reality of the pain we face. This Sunday, Matt preached on Lamentations 3, which offers a different approach to dealing with affliction.
The Biblical response to pain is one not of denial, but of honesty. Lamentations 3 is brutally honest about pain. We see Jeremiah in lament, saying, “I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, ‘My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” Jeremiah is honest about his circumstances and the way he feels.
This kind of honesty is hard to come by in our culture, even in the Church. One might read these words and wonder if they’re allowed to pray something similar. Are we allowed to pray and tell God that we can’t even remember what happiness feels like? Are we allowed to express the deepest pain of our souls?
The Bible would answer these questions with a resounding “Yes.” Any amount of time reading the Psalms of Lament or prayers of pain in the Bible will show that the response to pain begins with honesty about the way things are.
Honest cries of pain, however, are not the end of the story. There is another kind of honesty which continually finds itself in close proximity to the pain of God’s people. Honest pain turns to honest trust in Scripture. Jeremiah continues in chapter 3, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
After God’s people take the time to be honest about their suffering, they take the time to remember the faithfulness of God himself. These two sides of a response to pain are to be held together. The tendency is to grab onto one and let go of the others, but the Bible gives instruction to hold onto both.
We see Jesus doing this in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the dark night of his soul, we see him confess that he is sorrowful even to death. When Jesus is faced with pain, he’s honest about how he feels. His response, however, does not end here. Jesus continues with a declaration of trust to the Father: “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”
As we continue to face disappointments both great and small, we follow the example of Lamentations 3 and of Jesus himself: We take time to be honest about our pain, and meet that honesty with trust in God’s faithfulness to his people. The Christian life is one of holding these two things together in tension. May God give us the grace to do this well.
Jack Voigt is a Christian Studies major at Anderson University. He grew up in Greenville, SC. His favorite ways to spend time are music, sports, and reading the Bible.