GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LAMENTATIONS 3:52-54
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52 They have surely hunted me like a bird–
they are my enemies for no reason.
53 They ended my life in the pit and threw stones at me.
54 Water flowed over my head, and I said, “I am cut off.”
To be persecuted by people who have no cause is a complaint we also hear about in Psalm 119. “Men persecute me without cause. Help me!” (Psalm 119:86), “Princes persecute me without cause” (119:161), and other places (see 119:78). The Jews bearing the first cross of the Babylonian exile were often mocked and jeered by people who did so without any reason. Although this has been done to many people throughout the world and throughout history, it might make readers think of antisemitism. However, the earliest examples of people hating the Jews simply because they were Jewish did not begin yet in Babylon. It wasn’t until the 3rd century BC that such things began to appear. Greek and Roman authors recorded outbreaks of oppression against the Jews in Alexandria, Egypt, when the Jewish temple on the island of Elephantine was destroyed by Egyptian priests of the pagan god Khnum in 410 BC. Our prophet adds to his prayer: they are killing him; ending his life. They are stoning him to death; they are drowning him. His hope is gone. The prayer is at its lowest point in this verse; from here the prophet will ask for help. Part of the complaint is surely that attacks were coming from many different directions all at once.
On the second cross, the cross of Jesus on Golgotha, there was every reason to say “they are my enemies for no reason.” At his arrest, Jesus asked, “Am I leading a rebellion that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me” (Mark 14:48-49). We’re not told whether anyone threw rocks at Jesus as he walked through the streets of Jerusalem with his cross, but the Jews did pick up stones to stone him when he visited the temple for the Feast of Tabernacles (John 8:59). Hunting him “like a bird” could express the way that torturing Jesus was nothing more than a game to the Romans.
The variety of attacks show that, in a sense, Christ could have died any death to atone for our sin. He could have been stoned to death (John 10:31), shot with arrows (Psalm 11:2), thrown down a cliff (Luke 4:29), run through with a sword (Matthew 26:47), bludgeoned with clubs (Matthew 26:55), stabbed, pierced with a spear (Jeremiah 6:23), or he could even have been strangled (Job 7:15) or drowned (“water flowed over my head… I am cut off”). But the cross brought a special shame along with it; a cruel and burning pain. He suffered everything for us. “Christ suffered for you” (1 Peter 2:21), tasting death “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9). He suffered, in this sense, every death, because he could have suffered any death. But the will of God was to overcome Satan on the tree of the cross, because it was on the tree that he also bore the curse: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (Galatians 3:13).
Under the third cross, the crosses we carry as we follow him, to serve him and worship him, we exchange the prophet’s negative terms for positive ones. He was hated without cause, but this gives was to our love for him for every cause and every reason. He loves us, he gave himself for us, he teaches us, he prays to our heavenly Father on our behalf. He rose as the firstfruits of the resurrection, showing us proof that we will rise, too– and so we love him and bear up under burdens out of love and thanks.
He was laid in the pit; that is, he suffered hell and death for us (in that order), in order to release us from the sentence of hell’s pit, and to make death nothing more than a sleep from which we will awake and arise to everlasting life. “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14).
The frightening image of water flowing overhead is surely frightening to a lot of people, since many people have a fear of water, a fear of drowning, and never learned to swim. But learn this: the Greek word for “save” is sozo (σῴζω), which means to save or rescue someone from certain death such as drowning or being killed in the fire and brimstone that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:17). He has saved us from a doom that we could never escape on our own. He lifted us up and he set us in a safe place, and we are in no danger while we are in Christ.
We serve him today while we bear our crosses, living in his shadow instead of the burning and oppressive heat, living in his light instead of the unbearable darkness. We live and serve him in righteousness instead of in wicked folly, stupid sin, and the filth of worldliness. We live as saved and cleansed children of God, and so we heft our daily crosses and follow him, content, rescued, happy, and saved.
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 3:52-54 σῴζω