Easter 4 2020 Jubilate

Lamentations 3:22-33

Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy

May 3, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

First Sunday back after the COVID Quarantine

The year was 586 BC.  Jerusalem had just been destroyed.  The temple flattened. God’s people displaced and evil Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar reigning over them.  Israel had wandered away from God and turned their hearts and lives away from Him. God had turned His back on them as they had turned their back on Him.  Their sin resulted in horrible disaster and suffering.  The consequences of sin had left people slaughtered and the remaining people exiled to Babylon. 

The first two chapters of Lamentations are Jeremiah’s lament over such destruction. Jeremiah had been sent by God to tell His people to repent, to turn their hearts and ways back to Him, but they refused.  The whole book of Laminations shows the consequence of ignoring the confession of sins and daily repentance, of the arrogance and pride that leads to great sorrow.   You can hear the sorrow from Jeremiah, even though the wicked were getting what they deserved, there is no joy in the death of sinners, nor the exile of God’s people. And so Jeremiah calls out to God, “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down with me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases… (Lam 3:19-22a). 

There was another time, about 600 years later when the temple was destroyed as well.  This time, God’s people had not only rejected the prophets that He had sent, but God own Son.  As people shouted out to crucify the Christ, in order to save the sinner, God turned His back on His Son, so that Jesus would call out from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  This left the disciples with great sorrow, much like Jeremiah during the Babylonian exile.  The hope they had placed in the Savior had been pierced with nails and buried in the tomb. And Jesus had told them they would be sorrowful.  But He also told them that it would only be for a little while and that He Himself would turn their sorrow into joy. 

And it was! The temple was rebuilt, the temple of Christ, the dwelling place of God with man in God who became man.  For in three days Christ was raised from the dead.  The temple of Jesus body was not subject to decay nor death, but bore the sins of the whole world so that we would be reconciled to God.  The sorrow over Jesus’ death was turned in joy in light of the resurrection. 

And so it is with us.  We walk in sorrow over the events and situations of our day. We have feelings of being exiled: from meeting in church, of grandparents seeing grandchildren, life regulated to our homes, and the fear or limited freedoms.  Has God been punishing us today?  I don’t know Though the Lord casts men aside, that’s not the intention of His heart, for “though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men”  (Lam 3:32-33). We are gathered back together by the grace of God to receive His compassion and His steadfast love.  His desire is that we be in fellowship with Him and one another. 

When disaster hits, Christians turn in repentance and faith to the ever-present Christ. “God stands hidden among the sufferings which would separate us from Him like a wall, indeed, like a wall of a fortress. And yet He looks upon me and does not forsake me. He stands there and is ready to help in grace, and through the window of dim faith He permits Himself to be seen” (Luther AE 44:28). But joy comes with the risen Christ. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning, great is Your faithfulness.”

Trials, whether sent by God or allowed by Him are for a wholesome purpose and should be borne with patient submission. To wait on the Lord. So Jeremiah proclaims, “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 check to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. ” (Lam 3:28-30). For Jeremiah, there is no excuse for sin, nor any denial of wrong, but pointing us to God’s great compassion in the midst of our own unfaithfulness and wavering, in our trials and hardships. 

Reflect on repentance, without complaint over what God has sent or allowed. Where do you need to repent? What idols have you set up that God is tearing down? In what, and who, do you put your trust and hope and expectation?  Don’t mourn over the suffering that comes upon your, but rather over your sins. And rejoice in Christ. No matter how bad things get, no matter what this week or month or year brings, hope in the Lord because He loves you in Christ and never abandons His people. 

This is a joy that became that their to such a degree that one one could ever deprive them of it, least of all the world.  With Christ, life here is bearing the cross after Him, but beyond is unending joy. The Christian is a believe in the world, but not of it.  We are to be aware of this little while that we walk on earth as we travel to our eternal home.  This may be out of harmony with the rest of the world, we may be falsely accused as foolish or uncaring just for meeting together today, but we shall always act good toward others. Subject even to the human institutions, established by God, for the Lord’s sake, trusting and believing in His steadfast love.