Lament in the New Testament and its Significance
CONTENT
The paradoxes and anomalies of existence are something that humans must constantly struggle with. The same is true with God's people on this earth. One of the biggest issues facing the religious community is the reality of evil and suffering. People frequently strive to hold onto hope in the face of hopeless circumstances as they constantly live in the shadow of death. In such a situation, lamenting is one of the ways God's people dealt with their encounters with evil and suffering by voicing their sorrows and uncertainties to God. The biblical texts of lament offer a glimpse into the shaky but sincere faith of God's people amid their worries, anxieties, and disappointments. Unfortunately, lamenting is not seen as being part of the New Testament in mainstream Christian culture. The main goal of this essay is to examine the fundamental objections to the study of lament in the New Testament, followed by an analysis of the relevant lament texts for understanding the meaning of lament in the context of the Gospel.
Beginning with Jesus prompting his disciples to rejoice in their persecutions on his account (Matt. 5:10–12) to the Revelation’s vision of the end of mourning, crying, and pain (Rev. 21:4), the New Testament is filled with texts about joy and rejoicing. Almost every writer of the New Testament has something to contribute to the Christian conception of joy.[1] It is even stated that the “New Testament is the most joyful book in the world.”[2]
Basically, among Christian communities, faith and feelings, reason and emotion, are treated as though they are competent toward one another. On the one hand, many people believe that emotions are opposed to reason and thus are untrustworthy and that they have nothing to do with faith. On the other hand, some uphold emotional responses above reason.[3] However, reason and emotion are not alternatives; they are complementary and interdependent. Emotions are dependent on beliefs, standards, judgements, evaluations and rational conclusions, and are capable of motivating the behaviour.[4] On the other hand, the reasoning is shaped by the emotional state of a person. Thus, "emotion and cognition are constantly interacting."[5]
Even when emotional responses are welcomed in Christian communities, they are not immune to criticism and discrimination. Faith communities are conditioned not only by the notions of orthodoxy and orthopraxy but also by orthopathy[6] in which certain emotional responses are permitted while others are denied or substituted.[7] In the face of inexplainable pain and suffering caused by various sources, it seems that the only right emotion to be expressed is joy as it is firmly based on hopeful confidence in the eschatological triumph of God's Kingdom. The natural emotional responses to suffering such as fear, doubt, and grief are treated as inferior and carnal. The language of grief, anger and doubt in the personal and communal prayers are not so welcomed as they are treated as irrational and irrelevant in the light of the good news of the New Testament. It seems that lamenting is muted altogether in favour of endurance in suffering while hoping for resurrection.[8] Andrew Hassler rightly states, “With the prominence of theological language of resurrection, hope, and new life in the NT, themes of suffering, darkness, and lament are easily neglected.”[9] Thus, the lament, with all of its emotional expressions, is significantly neglected in the popular readings and expositions of the New Testament.
Understanding the meaning, form, and content of a lament is necessary before tracing its presence in the New Testament. The term ‘lament’ is broadly, perhaps loosely, associated with any expression of grief, sorrow, disappointment, deep pain, and even remorseful passions. However, one has to carefully distinguish between lament in the general vocabulary and lament in the Bible. A biblical lament is not merely characterised by the passionate expressions of distress, despair, grief, and repentance but also by its expression of grief and pain in the form of prayer.[10] It is a “sorrow poured out to God.”[11] It can range from a cry of need in times of crisis, where the speaker is in desperate need of God's help, to the voices of complaint and protest, where the fidelity of God is under question and God is accused of betrayal and abandonment.[12]
The situations of distress that are expressed in laments may have different causes. In some of the laments, the cause of distress is identified as the enemy, either within the speaker's own community or a foreigner (e.g., Ps. 3; 60). In some other laments, the cause is sin (e.g., Ps. 51; Lamentations). But in the laments that include complaint and protest, the cause of the situation of distress is God Himself where God's (e.g., Ps. 44).[13]
The laments do not reduce the gravity of painful situations in any way. As harsh as they seem to be, they are desperate yet honest voicing of pain, directed to God, calling Him into the experiences of the speaker. They are “radical acts of faith and hope because they refuse, even in the midst of suffering, to give up on God.”[14] Most of the laments are characterized by the doxology. Many of the laments in the Old Testament begin with the statements of trust and move towards praise.
In summary, a lament is a persistent cry of anguish, complaint, and/or protest addressed to the God of justice and compassion, pleading with Him to take note of and participate in the despairing realities of the petitioner and prompting Him to act urgently in accordance with His faithfulness. The nihilistic words of a lamenter are animated by honest trust and hope in the Sovereign Lord.
Considering the above statement as a working definition of a lament, the presence of lament can be traced throughout the New Testament writings. The lament in the New Testament can appear in the form of references, fragments/petitions, or allusions to the Old Testament laments.[15]
The very first mention of lament in the New Testament appears in Matthew 2:17-18 in the context of Herod's massacre of infants in and around Bethlehem. Throughout the Gospel narratives, the persistent cries/pleading for help, deliverance, healing and salvation which are typically directed to YHWH in the lament Psalms, are addressed to Jesus (Matt. 9:27; 15:22; 17:15; 20:30-31; Mark 5:19; 10:47-48; Luke 17:13; 18:38-39). The episode of a Syrophoenician mother crying out to Jesus for the deliverance of her daughter who was being tormented by a demon dramatizes a lamenter's absolute and honest trust in God despite feeling unheard and uncared.[16] In the Fourth Gospel, the deep anguish of Lazarus’ sisters at his death is expressed before Jesus, emphasizing His absence when they needed Him the most (John 11:1-33 cf. Ps. 88). It was this bereavement that troubled Jesus’ heart and made Him weep (John 11:34-35).
The practice of lament can be seen in the life of Jesus. On one occasion, when a deaf and partially mute man was brought to Jesus for healing, Jesus takes him aside from the crowd, and looked up to heaven with a deep sigh before healing him (Mark 7:34). This act of looking up to heaven with a deep sigh is possibly an act of lament, participating in the suffering of the person needing God's healing.
Nevertheless, significant laments in Jesus' life appear in the passion narratives. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus mentions before His disciples that He is deeply distressed to the point of death – terrible and unbearable grief – and then He throws Himself on the ground and prays to the Father to take away the cup from Him if it is the will of the Father. Prayer of Jesus was too desperate yet with ample trust. He repeated the same thrice (Matt. 26:36-46; Mark 14:36). Lukan narrative emphasizes Jesus' depth of anguish by drawing readers' attention to Jesus' sweating blood (Luke 22:44). Jesus' words and acts of anguish are undeniably the dramatic enactments of lament (cf. Ps. 6). On the cross, according to the accounts of Matthew and Mark, Jesus laments as the one tormented by the taunts of those who handed Him to the crucifixion and experiencing God-forsakenness. Jesus cries out, as the one from whom God is absent at the very moment He is needed (Matt. 27:32-46; Mark 15:21-34; cf. Ps. 22; Job 9:24). According to Lukan account, Jesus intercedes for the forgiveness of His enemies, a form of lament for others (Luke 23:34).
Jesus’ teachings offer glimpses of lament. In His beatitudes, Jesus blesses those who mourn saying they will be comforted (Matt. 5:4; Luke 6:21). In Luke, at least, three of Jesus’ parables hint at prayers of lament: the parable of the friend in the midnight who is persistent in seeking for help despite being ignored (Luke 11:5-8 cf. Ps. 44:23); the parable of a widow persistently pursued the unjust judge to take up her cause (Luke 18:1-8 cf. Ps. 43:1-2); and the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector where the tax-collector prayed beating his chest, acknowledging his sin and begging God for mercy (Luke 18:9-14 cf. Ps. 51; Lam. 4-5). Furthermore, in John, Jesus notifies His disciples that they would weep and mourn while the world rejoices (John 16:20). In Lukan account, again, on the way to His crucifixion, Jesus asks the women, who were mourning for Him, to weep for themselves and their children (Luke 23:23).
The prayer that Jesus taught (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4) also has a lamenting dimension. Although it cannot be categorized as a prayer of lament, it contains a pattern of lament. Rebekah Eklund sees it as an ‘eschatological lament’, longing for the actual realization of the Reign of God.[17] Any petition mentioned in this prayer can turn into a desperate cry to God, depending on the circumstances.[18]
In the life of the early church described in the Book of Acts, lamenting was practised. The believers in Jerusalem joined their prayers to God when they learned that the Sanhedrin had become hostile toward them, endangering their lives and mission. Their prayer emphasises the rise of hostile forces against God and His people (cf. Ps. 2). God is urged to pay attention to the dangers they were experiencing. While this prayer closely resembles the Old Testament laments in many ways, it also differs noticeably from them in that it substitutes a prayer for missionary strength for a request for divine retribution (Acts 4:23-30).
Nobody typically looks in Pauline writings for a lament. While it is true that Pauline texts are decisively overcome by viewing the present suffering in the context of the glorious eschatological hope, leading to the joyful endurance of afflictions, it is incorrect to claim that the pattern of lament is completely missing. Romans and 2 Corinthians are chosen as the primary texts for the analysis of lament in Pauline writings.
In Romans 8, Paul speaks of the groaning creation. The suffering that is intrinsic to the whole creation is also the suffering of Christians. In this context, Paul speaks of groaning for liberation from decay. It is not only that the creation laments, longing for its redemption, but Christians also groan for the redemption of their bodies. Paul makes it clear that Christians are neither free from suffering nor restricted to expressing it in the form of groans/laments.[19] With the groaning of the believers, the Spirit also participates by interceding on our behalf through groaning. Towards the end of Romans 8, Paul makes a list of challenges faced by Christians saying that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. However, he quotes a statement from the lament Psalm (Rom. 8:36 cf. Ps. 44:22). This is to say, for Paul, neither faith in God's character nor hope in the eschatological glory will nullify the practice of lament. Indeed, the hope for redemption is the basis for groaning and lamenting.
In his second letter to Corinthians, Paul refers to the afflictions, distress, persecution and struggles that he had to endure as an apostle of Christ. In 1:8-11, Paul speaks of the suffering that he had faced in Asia Minor which was so intense that it resulted in Paul being despaired even of life. Although the text does not speak of any lament, it implies that Paul's intense distress led him to turn to God. The text ends with thanksgiving as do many lament psalms. In 5:1-5 Paul mentions groaning in the earthly tent, i.e., the body, which refers to an expression of being burdened under an undesirable circumstance. The groaning in the earthly body is a longing for its redemption. Finally, in 12:7-10, Paul's reference to his unnamed affliction as a 'thorn in the flesh' and as a 'messenger of Satan' shows that the suffering was not so bearable. Paul also specifies that he had prayed thrice for its removal. Although the content of the prayer is not told, the lament is implicitly present. Through his lament, Paul learns that God's grace is sufficient for him.[20]
The epistle of James calls for a lamentation, mourning and weeping, and even turning the comfort into mourning (James 4:9). For James, lament is not merely for crying to God in distress but also an expression of humility and self-denial. It is turning away from being indulged in self-interests. It is a way to purification of one's heart before God and for becoming near to God. Here, lament also refers to an acknowledgement of one's own wretchedness before God (cf. Ps. 51). Thus, for James, lament is a way of humbling one's self.[21]
The Book of Revelation also contains the texts of lament. In Revelation 5:4, John weeps bitterly when he found no one worthy to open the seals of the scroll in the hand of the One who is seated on the throne. John laments because unless the scroll is opened, “the ‘why’ behind the suffering of God’s people will not be heard or answered.”[22] In the next episode of the narrative, when the fifth seal of the scroll is opened, John sees the souls of the martyrs crying out to God for justice (Rev. 6:9-11). Their question of ‘how long?’ is very similar to the lament prayers in the Hebrew Bible (cf. Ps. 13). This cry for divine retribution is a call for God to vindicate His own justice and righteousness. They desire for God’s truth to be the ultimate determinant of their faith rather than human judgement. That is to say unless the tyranny and wickedness they had experienced meet divine justice, their faith will be an illusion and the living would not have hope to be righteous in the face of ceaseless oppression.[23] Towards the end of Revelation’s drama, there is an eager expectation for the coming of Christ, which can also be a lament rising out of distress (Rev. 22:17, 20).
In summary, after looking into various texts in the New Testament, we can understand that “lament is by no means repudiated or invalidated in the New Testament. It remains a valid form of speech with God, one which grows out of experiences of suffering and mourning.”[24] Most of the New Testament laments either conclude with an answer from God or a promise of hope despite hardship. But even if God ultimately triumphs over evil, lamentation is still necessary here and now because lamentation is a burning desire for God to show His righteousness and carry out His purposes for His creation.
The reality of the good news of Jesus Christ still has room for lament. Since the good news is that God has become the King of the cosmos in and through Jesus Christ and since this Kingdom will ultimately be brought to consummation in the return of Jesus, the lamenting in the light of the Gospel has a stronger foundation. As Eklund states, "Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom and his death and resurrection signify the proleptic end of lament: Jesus prays lament, provides God's answer to Israel's long prayed cries of lament, and guarantees the ultimate cessation of lament in the eschaton."[25]
Since lament is ‘ultimately placed before the cosmic King for his ultimate justice,’[26] the Gospel gives assurance that the cosmic King has come in the person of Jesus Christ and would come again in the eschaton (Matt. 4:17; 28:18-20; Mk. 16:19-20; Phil. 2:9-11; Col. 1:15; Rev. 5:9-14). While the Kingdom of God ultimately triumphs over all the kingdoms of this world, the church lives in the liminal state of already and not yet. Thus, the lament in New Testament looks back to the historical event of Christ and engages in persistent prayer for God to speed up His eschatological promise. Therefore, “In the New Testament, lament is a practice for the now. It is a practice that makes sense not only because there is a God who hears and who redeems but also because there is a not yet.”[27]
The protest in our lament may be less rigorous, compared to that of the laments in the Old Testament, because, in the light of the gospel, we do not see our covenantal partner as distant from our suffering but rather as the One who has experienced suffering, forsakenness, evil and neglect, not only for us but also with us. Our comprehension of God is shaped by the vision of Jesus, a broken servant and the crucified God. Although this does not mean that our complaints cease, it shows that we complain with God. While there is still room for cries and protests in the new covenant, the lament of the church is based on God’s response to the suffering in the ministry of Christ and the church longs for the final consummation of what God has begun in Christ Jesus.[28] The lament in the New Testament is not only a dialogue with a hidden God, but with God who has revealed Himself in and through His Son Jesus Christ, and who is still accompanying the Church as the Spirit. We can boldly approach God's throne of grace through Christ, our eternal High Priest, in order to obtain mercy and grace when we are in need (Heb. 4:14-16). We can voice our worries to God through prayer, supplication, and lament because we know that He is attentive to us (Phil. 4:6-7).
For the church, Jesus is the prime model for lament. As Markus Ohler states, “In the Markan and Matthean passion narratives, Jesus is the lamenter par excellence, who with his ‘Why?’ provides Christians with a prime example of lament as a legitimate expression of despair.”[29] The church can discover that neither God nor the lament is opposed to one another. Since Christians are urged to imitate Jesus, this involves engaging in times of mourning. Christians can participate in the pathos of the Triune Godhead by lamenting. By lamenting, the church fulfils a priestly function by communicating to God the necessity of God's activity to put an end to evil. The church can identify with the pain of others by making the lament a public practice. Christ-followers are obligated to both rejoice and mourn with the grieving (Rom. 12:15).
God's Spirit not only strengthens us during difficult times, but he also sighs beside us as we grieve with all of creation. The Spirit shares in our mourning and brings our sorrow before God, and assures us that our cries will be heard. Our eschatological cries for the consummation of God's Kingdom are joined by the Spirit (Rom. 8:26; Rev. 22:17). Furthermore, because God will wipe away all of our tears, our grieving is not a state of wretchedness but rather of blessing (Rev. 7:17). Jesus, the Slaughtered Lamb, shares in our pain and is worthy to respond to all of our petitions and cries (Rev. 5:8; 8:3). Indeed, our grief in Lord is not vain.
Although a casual reading of the New Testament can give the impression that it has an optimistic outlook, a careful study of its passages reveals that the lament is not alien to the New Testament theology of suffering. Lament is not an absurd and irrelevant method of responding to the outrageous evil in the world, even though rejoicing in the face of suffering is based on a strong hope of the eschatological cessation of all suffering and evil. The church is not called to become masochistic or numb as a result of its suffering and pain. The followers of Jesus Christ ought to be disturbed and uncomfortable by the harsh realities of the whole world and beseech God to act in accordance with His compassion and justice. The church can weep alongside Jesus, the Crucified God, and participate with the Spirit in His groaning for the final redemption of all creation from decay and destruction in the context of the rapid rise in the political and religious atrocities done against the faithful followers of Jesus Christ.
[1] William Morrice, Joy in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1984), 152. [2] Morrice, Joy in the New Testament, 154. [3] Brian S. Borgman, Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life (Illinois: Crossway Books, 2009), 21. [4] Borgman, Feelings and Faith, 23. [5] Matthew A. Elliott, “Emotion and the New Testament: A Critique of the Interpretation of Emotion in New Testament Studies and an Interpretation of the Use of Emotion in the New Testament” (Ph. D. Dissertation, Aberdeen, University of Aberdeen, 2002), 71. [6] Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series 1 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd, 1993), 41-42. [7] William M. Kondrath, Facing Feelings in Faith Communities (Virginia: Alban, 2013), 2. [8] Rebekah Ann Eklund, “Lord, Teach Us How to Grieve: Jesus’ Laments and Christian Hope” (D. Th. Dissertation, Durham, Duke University, 2012), 1. [9] Andrew Hassler, “Glimpses of Lament: 2 Corinthians and the Presence of Lament in the New Testament,” Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care 9, no. 2 (2016): 164. [10] Hassler, “Glimpses of Lament,” 166. [11] Claus Westermann, The Psalms: Structure, Content and Message, trans. Ralph D. Gehrke (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1980), 25. [12] Walter Brueggemann, An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009), 13. [13] Gerald W. Peterman and Andrew J. Schmutzer, Between Pain and Grace: A Biblical Theology of Suffering (Hyderabad: Good Shepherd Books, 2019), 117-19. [14] J. Richard Middleton, Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), 30. [15] Hassler, “Glimpses of Lament,” 167. [16] Eklund, “Lord, Teach Us How to Grieve,” 19-20. [17] Eklund, Eklund, “Lord, Teach Us How to Grieve,” 238. [18] For instance, the movie ‘Paul: Apostle of Christ’ (2018), directed by Andrew Hyatt, depicts the church praying the Lord’s prayer in despair on the night before the day when many Christians in the prison would be led to execution. [19] Markus Ohler, “To Mourn, Weep, Lament and Groan: On the Heterogeneity of the New Testament’s Statements on Lament,” in Evoking Lament: A Theological Discussion, ed. Eva Harasta and Brian Brock (London: T&T Clark International, 2009), 163. [20] Hassler, “Glimpses of Lament,” 167-75. [21] Markus Ohler, “To Mourn, Weep, Lament and Groan,” 153. [22] Allan A. Boesak, Comfort and Protest: The Apocalypse of John from a South African Perspective (Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1987), 56. [23] G. B. Caird, A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John the Divine, ed. Henry Chadwick, Harper New Testament Commentaries (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1966), 85. [24] Markus Ohler, “To Mourn, Weep, Lament and Groan,” 165. [25] Eklund, “Lord, Teach Us How to Grieve,” 17. [26] Peterman and Schmutzer, Between Pain and Grace, 121. [27] Eklund, “Lord, Teach Us How to Grieve,” 244. [28] Narelle Jane Melton, “Lessons of Lament: Reflections on the Correspondence between the Lament Psalms and Early Australian Pentecostal Prayer,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 20 (2011): 74-75. [29] Markus Ohler, “To Mourn, Weep, Lament and Groan,” 152.
Comments