Consider the Sorrow of Jesus

I invite you to turn in the Word of God to Lamentations 1. Lamentations 1, you’ll find Jeremiah. Move from there, you’ll find Lamentations. I know some of you, I saw some of you at the Handel’s Messiah performance at Bob Jones on Thursday evening. Perhaps some of you were there also on Friday. Having seen performances in the Waterfront in Belfast and the Philharmonic in New York, I was very encouraged by the performance at Bob Jones, and it was very much a treat to be there and to think upon the great truths that are echoed through that oratorio.

I know that some don’t maybe have the history of listening to classical music, and I don’t, I didn’t at all, and I don’t, I’m far from being someone who has a huge interest in classical music or great knowledge of it, but I do appreciate Messiah. I know over the last number of years we’ve been looking at the texts, and we’ve come as far as where we are here, so I made the observation last Lord’s Day that I’d be surprised if you can remember what’s going on when Psalm 69:20 is being recited, and I think only one, there was a few of you that made it, I couldn’t call it to mind, and one said that they could, but it’s very difficult, and I think the reason for that, as I mentioned last week, is intentional, that Handel’s endeavoring to make the text of Psalm 69:20 reflect the forgotten experience of our Savior.

While going from that, we go to Lamentations 1, and we’re going to read from the opening verse in this often overlooked but very profound record given to us. The text, of course, is verse 12, but we’ll read the entirety of the chapter. Lamentations chapter 1, verse 1:

How doth a city sit solitary, that was full of people? How is she become as a widow? She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary? She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They are become her enemies.

Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction and because of great servitude. She dwelleth among the heathen. She findeth no rest. All her persecutors overtook her between the streets. The ways of Zion do mourn because none come to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper, for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty has departed. Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy and none did help her. The adversary saw her and did mock at her Sabbaths.

Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore she is removed. All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yea, she sigheth and turneth backward. Her filthiness is in her skirts. She remembereth not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully. She had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself.

The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things, for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. All our people sigh, they seek bread, they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. See, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against him. He hath spread a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come up upon my neck.

He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. The Lord hath trodden underfoot all my mighty men. In the midst of me, he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. These things I weep. Mine eye runneth down with water because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed.

Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her. The Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him. Jerusalem is as a minstrel’s woman among them. The Lord is righteous. For I have rebelled against his commandment. Here I pray you all people, and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.

I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress. My bowels are troubled. My heart is turned within me. For I have grievously rebelled, abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. They have heard that I sigh. There is none to comfort me. All mine enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that thou hast done it.

Thou will bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. That all their wickedness come before thee, and do unto them as thou hast done unto me, for all my transgressions, for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

I end the reading of God’s Word there. This, as ever, is the word of the eternal God, and you are to receive it, and you are to believe it, and the people of God said, Amen. Let’s pray. Lord, help us as we give consideration to what Thou hast given for us. I pray that every heart, young and old, would be just helped by the Holy Spirit. O Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us. Come, take handle of that which is Thine, and elevate it in our view.

Take what belongs to Thee, what Thou hast given, and raise it. We pray that the scales of our eyes may be removed. The darkness of our souls may be illuminated and that your presence would come and be real because God speaks through this word. May we not ignore it, may we not miss it, but may we pray as Samuel of old, speak Lord, for thy servant heareth. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The historical context of Lamentations, as no doubt you have picked up in our reading this morning, is devastating. Jerusalem lies in ruins, defeated by the Babylonian armies. The temple is destroyed, the walls are torn down, and the people have been ravaged. Many are killed, taken into exile. Others, especially among the more poverty-stricken of the time, are left to remain and try to do the best with what is left over. And the prophet Jeremiah portrays the city under inspiration as a bereaved widow.

That’s one that’s lamenting, having been a princess, is now a slave, her streets empty, her festivals unattended. In verse 12 of this chapter, we have this broken city speaking, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.” It is a summons not just to glance, it is a summons not just to be aware, but to strongly or felt, in a felt way consider really what has happened.

Now in Handel’s Messiah, he continues with the lone voice of the tenor. Repeating the line, behold and see, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow. I made mention of this before, but when Handel presents the text as it’s presented when it is reflecting upon our Lord Jesus Christ, the singer is not drawing attention to himself by saying, my sorrow, but turns it so that our eyes are upon the one that’s really all about.

He then repeats the line twice, and the third time, as Handel ends the final sorrow, if you go and listen to it carefully, you may pick up on what I seem to at least understand from the language, communicating a sense of resignation. There’s a feeling in that last utterance of sorrow, a fading hope of an unfulfilled appeal. No one is paying attention. No one understands.

The text then before us is the language of Lamentations 1-12. And it’s powerful. And it takes us to that scene of Calvary to consider the one who was not just born in Bethlehem in such lowly state as we have been singing about and considering, but one in the greatest expression of his humility. It’s not just suffering for sinners, but left to suffer alone.

Let’s look at this under the title, “Will You Consider the Sorrow of Jesus?” Will You Consider the Sorrow of Jesus? I have three heads: the deep affliction, the divine appointment, and the direct appeal.

The Deep Affliction

Will you consider the sorrow of Jesus? Note first that it cannot be compared. It cannot be compared. “If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.” The original setting, you know, the city of Jerusalem is crying out. Is there any sorrow like the sorrow I am enduring? Has any city undergone such an experience as this? And there’s a lot involved in that because it’s not just the horror of the ravaging effect of the armies and what they accomplished and what they did to Jerusalem.

It’s all with the backdrop of her history. The elevated status that she held, the wisdom she was known for, the power she possessed, her kings and royalty, her victories in impossible scenarios where it was clear to those watching on that God is with this people. It is in that backdrop these words are uttered as Jerusalem stands as a city now humiliated. Its temple defiled, its leaders killed, its families shattered.

And in this sorrow, as immense as it was, we have only a little insight into what is true about the Lord Jesus Christ. Because again, when you think about Him on Calvary, Him dealing with sin upon the cross, it is in the backdrop of who He is. Who He is before He takes on flesh, the God of glory, the one who occupies heaven and the praise of those who are there.

He condescends, made flesh, takes upon Him the form of sinful flesh. He takes on this limited frame, yet without sin, made like unto us, a little lower than the angels. And you would imagine then that He would be elevated, received, praised, honored, and certainly in the opening incarnation passages we have some of that. We have the shepherds. We have the note and declaration of heaven through the angels. We have others who come from afar to worship and give their gifts, showing their respect and honor with an unusual, indeed an impossible insight, as they come with all their wisdom and all their understanding.

To fall before an infant child with their gifts, recognizing His Lordship, even though there’s been little expression of it. Oh, they saw, they understood. Again, like Simeon and Anna, likewise understanding something unique about this one. But the sorrow now that envelops the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, Him. Yes, divested of his visible glory, his life with an intensification of suffering, despite the holiness of his character, he endures misunderstanding, rejection, and hatred.

But it culminates at Golgotha, where again, despite his innocence, he is crucified between criminals. Have you ever known the feeling? Have been spoken about like a sinner in a way that was not true of you. Any man who’s ever had any taste of that is nothing. It’s not even the tip of the iceberg of the experience of our Lord Jesus.

We’ve often reflected on the language of Spurgeon, where he comments on, and I’m paraphrasing here, but he comments on the experience of people saying things about you that are awful, or how bad you are, and so on. And his turning about, well, you can just be glad and rejoice, because if they really knew how black your spots were, then they would have reason to say the things that they say. But they don’t know the half of it.

They make up things that may not be true, but there’s plenty that is true. The darkness of our own hearts, but it was not true of Christ. Everything said about Him as a person was a lie. There was no hint of truth in any of it. There was nothing. Even if it may have been applied to certain scenarios, like certain things where someone might say, you lied here, you might say, well, I didn’t lie there, but it doesn’t mean to say I’ve never lied.

When it came to our Lord Jesus Christ, we’re dealing with the only impeccable man who ever lived. So if Lamentation portrays the incomparable sorrow of Jerusalem, how much more the sorrow of Christ, the sinless lamb. Jerusalem had her sins. They’re accounted here in this passage. She understands that she is worthy of all that she is going through. She has not been without guilt.

But with Christ, there is no guilt. He’s enduring the full weight of sin’s penalty, and so his sorrow cannot be compared. The Son of God is greater than the city of God. The lion of the tribe of Judah is greater than the greatest city of Judah. And the destruction of the temple of Christ’s body is more heinous than the destruction of the temple of stone. It cannot be compared, the sorrow of Jerusalem and the sorrow of Jesus.

“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me?”

Not only can it not be compared, or rather compared, but it cannot be consoled. There are times when we want to say something to someone who is suffering, and we try to maybe even put a positive spin on it. It will be okay. Things will work out. And so we try to console them with words, but really there’s nothing that can be said.

Maybe you know that feeling. You know that to even ask someone, even your closest friend or companion, to try to console you is to place upon them a responsibility they cannot meet. So sometimes even our experience of affliction cannot find any meaningful comfort in friends or family. But for Christ, it’s not even an option.

In his darkest hour, his disciples flee. They forsake him. He’s left alone. No human sympathy. The crowds mock, the religious leaders scorn, the Roman soldiers spit on him as if he is nothing. And then he endures the withdrawal of the favorable sense of the Father’s presence, crying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

You think of it in that light? All the forsaking of everyone around them, then my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Thou as well? The loneliness of the suffering, the depth of betrayal, the mockery of his mission, the pain of his torture, the weight of divine wrath, the innocence of his frame, the grief of a substitution. And it can’t be consoled. It cannot be compared. It cannot be consoled.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Compare it. Look upon it. It cannot be compared. It cannot be consoled.

But also, the divine appointment. Not only the deep affliction, but the divine appointment. And a few things we can see here. First, it’s appointed by the Almighty. Look at the text. “Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”

Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me. Jerusalem knows. As the prophet portrays this under inspiration, the city knows this is God. God has done this. They’re suffering under the Lord’s righteous judgment. So that their experience, the devastation, was not mere political misfortune, it’s God’s response to persistent covenant breaking. They persisted in their rebellion. They persisted to ignore the prophets. They persisted in their sin.

But it parallels our Lord Jesus. Christ’s suffering was no accident. It was not the genius of the Jewish leaders or Pilate or anyone else. Ultimately, Isaiah 53:10, “It pleased the Lord.” And there’s no ambiguity about this. Right out of the gate, never mind the prophetic statements like Isaiah 53, right out of the gate, he is being set apart to save his people from their sins.

The call of John the Baptist is to behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. So the cross then is not a tragic miscalculation. It’s a plan formed in eternity. From eternity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit agreeing, this is the redemptive plan. This is what must be appointed. The wrath of God must be poured out upon sin. It needs to be satisfied that way and only that way.

And so the Son is the mediator, appointed. He’s to be the one who steps in as the federal head of his people, giving them an Adam they can depend upon, an Adam who doesn’t break the law, and an Adam who willingly not only obeyed in terms of positive righteousness, but in his passive obedience, offers himself without spot unto God, and does so, we’re told, through the eternal Spirit, so that the triune God is involved in all that happens, is appointed by the Almighty.

The Lord hath afflicted me. The Lord hath afflicted me. There is a sorrow. It’s a hellish experience for Jesus Christ on the cross. Again, not limited to the physical wounds, not limited to the torture of the crucifixion, not limited to all the beating He endured beforehand, not limited to what the physical frame could feel and experience.

But multiplying His sorrows is this fact that He was made a curse for us. Our sins are laid on Him so that by this work, this redemptive plan, by His stripes, we are healed. By His suffering, we find redemption. This is not just a man dying. This is a cosmic event. God is dealing with the sins of men. And there’s only one mediator between God and men. God is making payment for sin. Jesus stands as the propitiation for sin. He is prophetically the Lamb of God.

He is God’s Passover Lamb. This is the wonder. But it was not easy, it was not cheap. Now some struggle with or deny the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, but it is clear. They look at the Father laying our sins upon His son and say, they can’t reconcile it. They think it makes God evil.

But this is the plan of redemption. This is the story from Isaac going up Mount Moriah. God will provide Himself a lamb. To the Day of Atonement and the Levitical priests and all of their execution of that, seeing sin transferred, guilt transferred to another. He is the Lamb of God. He is the one, Romans 3:25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. Romans 5:8, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Galatians 3:13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us.

1 Peter 2:24, who his own self bear our sins and his own body on the tree. As they sing in Revelation 5:9, “Thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, by thy sacrifice, by thy death we are redeemed.” It’s penal. It’s dealing with penalty. It’s substitutionary. He is in our place and atones. It brings reconciliation. It’s an awful thing, that I do not deny.

The cross is the tragedy of all tragedies in one sense. But there is a wonder in its glory too, because this is the divinely appointed way to make atonement. It’s appointed by the Almighty, it’s appointed to make atonement, to obtain assurance. Why? Why should he suffer? Why should it be that the Lord hath afflicted him in the day of His fierce anger? Why? To obtain assurance.

That by His stripes we are truly healed. How else can the prophecy be fulfilled of Isaiah 53? The crucifixion was divinely ordained and that gives us an understanding of the assurance of what we have in Christ. This is God’s appointed way of salvation. He himself planned this act of redemption, and so who can frustrate it? Can anyone?

Can anyone frustrate what God intends to accomplish through what He has appointed? And so when He sends His Son, when He takes on flesh, when He’s persecuted even in His infancy, and yet He’s protected the entire time. When at the commencement of His ministry, He’s exposed to the horrendous experience of Satan’s temptation in the wilderness, without food, without water, there, suffering.

The whole redemptive plan hangs in the balance. Will the Son of God resist the devil? And He does. And He immediately leaves there and you would imagine that the difficulty would alleviate that then having commenced His ministry, men would freely embrace Him, hearing the words that He speaks, hearing the message of redeeming love, seeing the purpose of His coming, and they would just take Him into their arms and love Him. Instead, He goes to the place where He was raised.

He goes into the synagogue like any normal Jewish Sabbath, and there the scriptures are read. They apply strictly to Him. Here’s the one that’s been anointed, given the Holy Spirit. “This day is fulfilled in your ears,” and again you imagine that they would receive him. Instead, what do they do? They try to terminate him. End it right there before the ministry ever begins.

And so His ministry continues, despised and rejected of men, truly a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. All the way to the cross and everything that ensues and Gethsemane and the arduous experience of His arrest and everything involved in that. And there on the cross He continues to endure, holding fast. Until the appointed moment when every last, the tiniest sin ever committed by one of His people, is paid for. The moment when He declares, “It is finished.” This was the appointed time for redemption. It was divinely planned, a plan that was set before the foundation of the world, a plan that would culminate in this very moment, when Jesus, the Lamb of God, would offer Himself as the sacrifice for sin.

This divine appointment is not just the fulfillment of prophecy, but it is also the assurance that we can have peace with God. The cross becomes the bridge between sinful man and a holy God. It is there that our sins are transferred to Christ, and His righteousness is credited to us. The blood of Christ speaks louder than any accusation, louder than our guilt, louder than our shame.

Because of this divine appointment, we can have assurance of salvation. We can know that we are redeemed, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us. His suffering and death on the cross were not in vain. They were not a tragedy without purpose. No, they were the means by which God reconciled the world to Himself.

And so, through this divine appointment, we are offered peace, forgiveness, and a relationship with God that can never be taken away. The cross is the ultimate declaration of God’s love for His people, and it is through this act of atonement that we can have full assurance that we are His.

Lastly, we see the direct appeal that comes from this passage: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” This is a question that rings out not only in Lamentations but also from the cross. Jesus Himself, in His final moments, cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” There is a direct appeal to the onlookers, to those who pass by without a second thought.

Jesus’ suffering on the cross, His agony, His abandonment, His cries, all of it is not for the sake of mere spectacle, but for the sake of souls. For those who pass by, for those who ignore, for those who are oblivious to the magnitude of what is taking place. The direct appeal is to you, to me, to all who are here and listening: “Is it nothing to you?”

We are confronted with the reality of what Jesus has done. His sorrow, His suffering, His sacrifice, all of it was for us. And yet, many still pass by without giving it a second thought. Many still live as though it has no bearing on their lives. The world continues to turn, people continue with their daily routines, and the suffering of Christ is left unacknowledged.

But the direct appeal of the cross demands a response. “Is it nothing to you?” This is not a question meant to make us feel guilty, though it should. It is an invitation. It is an invitation to stop, to reflect, to consider what has been done for us. It is an invitation to see the depth of Christ’s love and sacrifice and to respond in faith.

The question is not just rhetorical. It is one that each of us must answer. Is the suffering of Christ nothing to you? Is the death of the Son of God nothing to you? The cross calls for a response. It calls for repentance, for faith, for surrender to the One who died in our place.

When we understand the full weight of what Jesus has done, how can we walk away unaffected? How can we continue on with our lives as though nothing has changed? The cross has changed everything. It has made a way for us to be reconciled to God, to have our sins forgiven, and to live in the freedom that Christ has purchased for us.

And so, the direct appeal continues to echo today: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” Will you stop and consider what Christ has done for you? Will you respond to the invitation of grace, or will you walk on by, unmoved, unaffected?

May the answer to that question be one of faith, one of love, and one of surrender to the One who gave His life for you.

As we consider the deep affliction of Christ, the divine appointment of His sacrifice, and the direct appeal that continues to be made, let us not pass by without responding. The sorrow of Christ is beyond measure, and the love that He showed on the cross is unfathomable. It is the most significant event in human history, and it demands a response from all who hear it.

Let us take a moment to reflect on the cross, to consider the price that was paid for our redemption. Let us not take it lightly, but rather let us be moved by the love of God that was demonstrated through the suffering and death of His Son. And as we respond, may we live lives that reflect the glory of the One who died for us and rose again, conquering death and securing our salvation.

Let us pray.

Lord, we come before You with hearts full of gratitude and awe. We cannot fully comprehend the depth of Your suffering, but we thank You for it. We thank You for the sacrifice that You made on the cross. We thank You for the salvation that is available to us because of what You have done.

We pray that You would help us to never take this sacrifice for granted. Help us to live in response to Your great love and to share that love with those around us. May our lives be a reflection of the grace and mercy that You have shown to us.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.