GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 1:15-16
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15 The Lord has tossed aside all the warriors who were with me.
He called an assembly against me to crush my best young men.
The Lord has trampled the virgin daughter of Judah
in a winepress.
The first phrase ends with “in my midst” in Hebrew; a reminder that we’re really still hearing Jerusalem personified speaking. The city, formerly God’s own city, is now rejected on account of her sins, and sees God himself assembling an army “to crush my best young men.” And after the young men are cut down, “the virgin daughter of Judah” is also crushed like grapes in a winepress, with blood spilling out like the juice of grapes, but there is no one left even to see: The city is desolate. There is nothing left.
Christ looks down from the cross and beholds the Roman soldiers who have been ordered to torture him and to kill him. There is no escape. He also sees the Pharisees, the high priest Caiaphas, the other chief priests, and the scribes and elders of God’s people who have come to watch him die. It did not matter to them how he would perish, but if it could happen that they at least appeared to be innocent, then all the better. But Jesus did not blame them for his death. He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). He knew that it was the sin of mankind that brought on this death; he was being crushed by God the Father. He was there in place of “my best young men” (tossed aside as if thrown around by a tireless champion wrestler ) and in place of “the virgin daughter of Judah” and in place of me and you.
This brings us to the third cross, the crosses we bear on account of our faith. Sometimes these crosses or troubles come from the unbelief and spite of other people. Sometimes they come because the devil hates us and wants to shipwreck our faith. Sometimes they come because our Lord wants to toughen us up for more challenging trials to come; such crosses are training, like doing spiritual pushups or sit-ups. We bear all of these things out of love for Jesus our Lord, and in many cases because carrying these crosses is a way of showing love to the people in our lives.
16 Because of these things, I weep.
My eye! My eye flows with water,
because the comforter, the one who restores my soul,
has forsaken me.
My children have become desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.
The prophet is in his own world of thought when he says, “My eye, my eye!” We would probably say, “My eyes!” in the plural, or “My eyes– both of the them,” or “This eye, and this one, too”– but those aren’t the way of this poet. The ancient Hebrew scribes even inserted a special mark (paseq) which tells the reader, “This word that is doubled is not a mistake.”
Another reason, perhaps, for the duplication is that this stanza is the letter ayin in the acrostic poem, and while he already began the verse with ‘al, “Because,” he adds the two “eyes,” which is eyni, eyni, “my eye, my eye.” The singer here would almost naturally rub a tear from each eye as he sings the line.
“The comforter has forsaken me.” This is the first cross of the poem; the suffering of the exiled Jews in Babylon. How can we help but be led at once to “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, which in the Gospels is not “Eyni, Eyni” by “Eli, Eli.” But still: “So far away from me.” “Why have you forsaken me?” This is the center of the seven words Jesus spoke on the cross. How could the comforter be any farther away than in Christ’s suffering hell in the crucifixion? So the comparison of the tormented Jew in Babylon, which was a genuine cross and an agony that is not to be downplayed or dismissed, is now made with the suffering of Jesus, which is not possible for us to describe to its fullest extent. It was the separation of the inseparable: The Son rejected by the Father; God turning his face from God.
That rejection ended with the Savior’s death; his atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sakes. This vicarious atonement begins at the moment of his conception in Mary’s womb and terminates with his death. His whole life and ministry, every act, was substitutionary. He endured all of the poverty, humiliation, cold, thirst, homelessness, hunger, misery, etc., for our sakes, and in our place. As Professor Quenstedt said, “Christ is not merely the means whereby we are saved; he is the source of our salvation; not merely the minister but also the Author and Lord of our salvation.” Not only did Jesus merit our salvation by his suffering, obedience, and blood, but he also imparts it, offers it freely, and gives it to us.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Lamentations 1:15-16 My eye my eye