GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 3:49-51
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49 My eyes run without stopping. They will not stop
50 until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.
51 My eyes afflict my heart
because of all the young women in my city.
The prophet talks like a man of our century, the typical father who has never cried in front of his family because they will turn on him if he does. Then one day it cames just come flooding out of him and he’s had no practice at it. He doesn’t know what to do. He tries to shove the tears back up into his eyes rather than wipe them away as if he’s dealing with a broken hose or faucet. “It won’t stop,” he says, “it just won’t stop.” And the prophet knows that his grief won’t stop at all until God sees him and acknowledges him. Having said that, the prophet knows, as men do, that he will have to account for himself for having called on the God’s name. “What is it you ask for, my son?” the Almighty God of Armies will say. So he thinks about his grief and what he is crying for, and the first, most obvious thing is the girls and the young women. He can’t protect them. He can’t save them. They are the ones who bring such tears to his eyes. His whole body is afflicted by this grief. He grasps the folly of his sin at last. He has been removed on account of his sin, and the Lord had been using him, he himself, as a bulwark against many enemies for those little girls. Now what strong arms will be raised for them? Now what strong legs will stand firmly in place to protect them? “My sin has put them in danger,” he realizes. “I had responsibilities in God’s kingdom, and I myself have failed. I failed my Lord, and failed the people I was supposed to protect. Vulnerable people. People who may not have even known that he was watching out for them. This is the first cross of this stanza (the ayin-stanza of this third chapter, although we have not been paying so close attention here as we did in the 119th Psalm at the structure of the poem).
Under the second cross, we see Jesus looking out for and even grieving about the women of his city. He warns them to repent even as he is being led out of the city to be crucified (Luke 23:28-31). Then, from the cross, he speaks to his mother Mary and takes care of her future. Then, in the glory of his resurrection, it is Mary Magdalene who first sees the risen Jesus (John 20:16-18).
But this was not all. We can divide the stanza into its two parts and see that first of all, his suffering is in the weeping of the text, and his suffering would not end until his Father would finally look down and see what had happened to his Son; when the suffering finally ended in Jesus’ death, and there in the darkness the earth shook violently, the graves of many saints opened and gave up their dead for a time, the temple curtain was ripped in two, and rocks split apart (Matthew 27:51-53). It was then, at last, at “the death of the Son,” that the Father looked down with love and compassion, for the price of sin had been paid. He saw how the Son’s enemies had persecuted him (Psalm 9:13a) and he remembered to have mercy and to lift up his beloved Son from the gates of death (Psalm 9:13b). He had shown with this act that he, the Lord, “has never forsaken those who seek him” (Psalm 9:10). He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted (Psalm 9:12). The payment for sin was over.
The second part of the stanza, the part about concern for the young women of the city, showed the ancient world what we hardly notice today. In ancient times, men– males– were the concern of the pagans and their pagan gods. Even in the Old Testament, the covenant of circumcision was not for women, but for men. But in the New Testament church, God shows his concern for all. Baptism is not only for men, but for women, too (Acts 16:14-15). Women with faith in Christ receive the inheritance of heaven. In ancient times, women usually did not receive any inheritance (Acts 20:32).
This stanza brings us to that part of carrying the third cross, the cross of our troubles in this lifetime, that especially includes grief. Whether grief comes on account of loss, or dashed hopes, or terrible news, or the poison of hatred, it is hard to bear; harder than most other kinds of pain. Peter comforts us about this, assuring us that “for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” But he goes on: “These have come so that your faith may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Consider the strange cross of Jacob, in love with Rachel. He has been promised her by Laban in exchange for seven years of work. He does it. He is happy to do it, out of love for the girl. Then their wedding day and night come along, and her veil covers her face. But after the vows are spoken and the contract is sealed, she turns out to be the older sister, instead. Laban is a double-crossing scoundrel. He gives a pitiful excuse and offers Jacob the real deal for just a mere seven more years of labor (the paradox of multiple wives among the Patriarchs and God’s plan for a man and his one wife to be married does not enter into Jacob’s mind, at least in the text– it may have been part of the cross he bore). Jacob agrees (this is in Genesis 29). He never once complains about being married to sisters. But the Lord blesses his fist wife with more sons than Rachel, who then dies giving birth to her second child (Genesis 35:18). Jacob bore up under all of this and did not blame or accuse God of doing anything wrong. It never even enters into his mind. On his deathbed he blesses all of the sons, all the while praising God and giving him glory and credit for every good thing. He gave God new names, almost private names, as he praised the Lord on his deathbed: “The Mighty One of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel” (Genesis 49:24). May we be so bold as to give God names that include his blessing for us– notice that besides Jacob using “Jacob,” he also said “Israel” (which was also his own personal name, given by God), and “Shepherd”– which was his work. The Mighty One of Timothy, the Pastor of All, the Rock of Smith– they may not resound so much for you as for me. But remember this: it’s a heap of help to carry your cross when the God who helps you is the God who loves you, yourself, and who gave his life, his breath, and his blood, to cover your sins. And he is that God.
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 3:49-51 until the LORD looks down