Even in the Midst of Despair, I Will Have Hope :: Lamentations 3:22-33

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[Introduction]

If you have ever felt like YOUR world is falling apart, you know that honest lament, the passionate expression of deep sorrow or regret, is often the only prayer we have left. 

We live in a world where we desperately try to build stable lives, but then it all crumbles around us ... torn down by sin, iniquity, and transgression. This leads to lament. We look at the brokenness of our bodies, our relationships, and our world, and we lament the crushing weight of it all. In our darkest moments, we might even feel that God has forgotten us ... that God has abandoned us ... that God doesn’t care about us ... or worse, that God is against us (Lam 5:20).

4.

That was the reality for the prophet Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations. The Weeping Prophet, as he is known, had warned the people for forty years that they would lament the Day of the Lord. But they didn’t listen. They ignored God’s Word of judgment, condemnation, and curses. They ignored their own sin. 

Sometimes they simply refused to repent. Sometimes they simply paid lip service to repentance. As we all do, all too often ... they embraced the idols of the world. They openly bowed down to other gods ... like we do with money. They assassinated each other’s character ... like we do with gossip. They promoted legal murder and child sacrifice ... like we do with abortion and euthanasia. They chalked most ... if not all ... of their sin to simple mistakes. They ignored the lack of justice around them, prioritizing their personal happiness, their desires, their way of life first ... nevermind what God was calling them to receive. They ignored God’s covenant ... his promise to care for them through his means of grace. They wanted peace, but they fought with God. They wanted sentimental things, but they ignored God’s counsel.

So in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah ... some 350 years after Israel split into two kingdoms and some 500 years after the Exodus and the Sinai covenant ... the Lord poured out his wrath ... as promised ... upon Israel. And the result was death and destruction. The Kingdom of Babylon crushed Jerusalem. They plucked out the eyes of Zedekiah, a son of David, and sentenced him to death in prison. They destroyed the temple of Solomon and burnt the city of Jerusalem to the ground. The elders and priests and women and children faced wholesale slaughter. Starving mothers were reduced to cannibalism of their own children. Sin had left everyone feeling filthy and despised. 

And it should do the same with you!

3.

We should not blame the Babylonians for this lot in the life of the Jews. We should not blame their government that permitted sin. Nor should we look for someone else to blame. We are the problem! We are sinners. And all too often, we pay lip service to what we have left undone ... saying at the start of every Divine Service that I, a poor, miserable sinner confess unto all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended you and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment ... admitting that we have not loved the Lord with our whole heart and our neighbors as ourselves. But how often have you given more than a second of thought to what you’ve been saying?

Instead, listen to the prophets, and ask yourself ... Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered! ... only to go on doing all these abominations? (Jer 7:8-10).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I implore you, in the name of Jesus, to repent ... every one of you ... that is, mourn your sin and rest in the promises! Don’t say to yourselves that God will forgive you JUST BECAUSE you say you have faith ... JUST BECAUSE you say you’re baptized ... JUST BECAUSE you say, you’re confirmed. 

You are forgiven on account of Christ ... by the life he lived ... by his death he gave ... and the new life that has arisen out of his empty tomb. With the shedding of his blood, there is forgiveness of your sins! Thus, we have hope. He has not abandoned you ... He is good to those who wait for him (v 25). HThus, we have hope He has not forgotten you ... He will see you again. Thus, we have hope. He was born for this day and wept for this day. He lived and died for this day. He is not against us. Thus, we have hope. 

Do you now see the love the Father has for us (1 Jn 3:1)? Jesus has fulfilled the Law for you, even resting from his work of redemption on the Sabbath. And now ... Hallelujah! He is risen! ... And he has returned to you. He is in your midst in his Divine Service, this Divine Service.

2.

Thus Jeremiah writes, with great joy, The [steadfast, covenantal, loving action] of YHWH never ceases. His compassion never comes to an end. It is new every morning. Great is [his] faithfulness. YHWH is my portion. ... Thus, I will have hope (vv 22-24).

This is some of the most glorious Gospel in the Bible ... and we find it in the midst of Lamentations. Even after seeing the consequence of our sin, we are able to speak this in faith. 

It is no wonder this passage was chosen for the Sunday of Jubilation ... aka the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Whereas the book of Lamentations is incredibly challenging to read ... whereas it can be crushing and its despair overwhelming ... here, in the midst of despair, we find hope. The Gospel breaks forth in glorious fashion and we see the light breaking through the darkness. 

Though our passage was written in the context of the Babylonian destruction of the Jews, it provides a striking prophetic portrait of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus ... who is the fulfillment of God’s (chesed) ... his mercy ... or better yet, his steadfast, covenantal loving action of forgiveness that never ends. Jeremiah writes, YHWH is good to those waiting for him, to the soul seeking him. It is good to wait silently for the salvation of YHWH. It is good for the man when he bears the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence, when it is laid on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust. There may yet be hope. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him. For the Lord will not reject (him) forever. (vv 25-31). 

Jesus, who knew no sin, is the one who waited silently to lift up the yoke of the cross upon himself. Jesus faithfully bore our sin on his body on the tree so that all sin ... your sin and mine ... would bear the Father’s wrath and save us from ourselves. He reconciled himself to us. And knowing this, we have peace.

As we heard last week from 1 Peter 2, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he was accused, he stayed silent. When he suffered, he did not threaten. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Pt 2:23-24). He faithfully gave himself into the dust of the earth: that is, death. 

And now ... because he is faithful ... Hallelujah! He is risen! 

THUS, I WILL HAVE HOPE

1.

Though you may suffer, you have been declared right with God on account of Christ. All of the goodness he showed in healing the sick, having compassion on the multitudes ... is credited to you. His steadfast covenantal love never ends. He has poured out the Holy Spirit upon you so that you too can confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and God, and believe the resurrection. You can now live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil. But living as servants of God, honor everyone, loving the brotherhood, fearing God, and honoring the king (1 Pt 2:16-17). And share the peace with one another. 

[Conclusion]

There will undoubtedly come another time when all you have left is lament. But like Jeremiah, rest assured that God won’t forget you. He has washed us in Holy Baptism. He feeds us the Lord’s Supper. He absolves us. This cycle of daily renewal and the turning from darkness to light illuminates the triumph of the resurrection, where life brings a fresh beginning. For if he causes grief, then he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast covenantal loving action (v 32).

In Jesus’ name.

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