Week 3—Lamentations 3
God’s Role in Suffering
We began by reading together “Sisters on the Other Side of the River” by Fong Lee– a heartbreaking story of the painful choices the author made when escaping war-torn Laos in 1978. The anguish and guilt he bears with him, 40 years letter was poignant and resonated deeply. His somber story led well into our discussion of biblical lament.
As we look at Lam. 3 in particular, we see a disturbing pattern. It seems to place the blame on God—for causing their suffering as a punishment for sin.
He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
Against me alone he turns his hand, again and again, all day long.
He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
—Lam. 3:2–3, 5
Again we see in these words the theme fully embraced byprosperity gospel: that blessings are a reward for obedience, and suffering is a punishment for sin. It's an appealing answer—a way of understanding suffering that can seem out of control and unpredictable. It suggests we can control the future by doing or believing the right things. In a time of chaos and torment, that's very appealing—until it doesn't work.
Prosperity gospel usually ends up blaming victims– that they caused their pain by their sin, they are being punished. It reassures those who prosper from the status quo that their riches are deserved.
But this is only one view expressed in Scripture. Many of the lament psalms point out that life doesn’t really work that way. That often the unrighteous ones prosper while the faithful suffer:
For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people.
—Psalm 73: 3–5
We see prosperity gospel refuted in the story of Job– whose three friends insist there must be some hidden sin to explain his deep suffering. One wonders if they offer these explanations to comfort Job, or to reassure themselves that they are safe. But the text is clear: Job is righteous, and has done nothing to cause his pain. In the end God affirms that Job is righteous and has done nothing to deserve punishment.
This is made clearer in John 9:2-3, when Jesus addresses the question directly:
His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
Yet as we read on in Lam. 3 we see some disturbing verses that don’t reflect the character of God as revealed in the character of Jesus:
We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity.
—Lam. 3:42–43
That’s not my view of God. I don’t think God ever withholds forgiveness, or kills without pity. I don’t think God’s default view toward us is anger. Even when we sin, I believe God is more heartbroken then angry.
But perhaps what’s true in this moment, is that’s what the experience of lamentful confession feels like. The lament passages are like that—they are crying out. They aren’t so much theological treatises, but much more emotive, heart-rending anguish.
We often see these sorts of paradoxes in Scripture—which is why we need to be careful to read the whole of Scripture and look for patterns. To see Scripture as a dialogue open to nuance rather than rigid, one-size-fits-all dictates. Here we can see that sin, including communal sin, has consequence. But it’s not the whole answer.
I want to be clear about that because it’s so easy—and common—to use the prosperity gospel verses to comfort those who prosper, and to pile guilt and more pain on people already suffering. But that’s too easy an answer. It causes us to question God’s nature as good and loving. We’re going to talk more about that next week. But for now, let’s just remember to hold it in tension.
The other side of the story (Lam. 3:21–39)
It’s important to note this tension because we have a twist coming in vs. 21:
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
—Lam. 3:21–23
While Lam. 3 is leading up to a focus on confession, it is framed here by a focus on God’s character, God’s steadfast love and mercy. Repetition in the Bible is a way of underlining, of drawing attention to something of great importance. The verses that follow stress God’s goodness.
Lam. 3 pulls us back again and again to God’s character, God’s goodness and mercy, even in the midst of suffering. And in fact, some verses contradict the prosperity gospel motif by assuring that God is not the cause of suffering.
Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.
—Lam. 3:32–33
Corporate confession
With this framing that defies easy answers, we can turn now to confession. The focus in Lam. 3 is on corporate—communal—confession as opposed to individual. The narrator/Jeremiah uses “us” (first person plural), placing himself alongside the people in their culpability for their sins. Emphasizing that even when we haven’t personally committed sins of racism, xenophobia, transphobia, or homophobia we are responsible as part of the system that profits off excluding some parts of the community.
The corporate nature of confession in Lam. 3 is a challenge to our Western understanding of sin, which tends to focus entirely on individual sins. This is especially true with racial sins. We are uncomfortable looking too closely at our racial past, preferring instead to focus on individual sins, to absolve us of responsibility. But Rah will not let us off the hook:
“In the same way personal prejudice can lead to structural racism, personal actions have corporate implications... When an individual receives privileges and benefits from an unjust system, or contributes (even if it is unwittingly) to perpetuate an unjust system, then there is individual responsibility for corporate injustice.”
“Lamentations 3 reminds us that confession should be offered not only on an individual level but also on a corporate level... As the nation of Israel sinned collectively before God, they must now offer a collective confession... Recognition of corporate sin should lead to corporate confession” —Rah, (pp. 123-124, 131-132).
I believe we will all have to contend with the impact of our corporate sins, the injustices being committed in our name and with our tax dollars. It’s a “moral injury” we will face for many generations.
The ugly side of lament (Lam. 3:59-66)
The final verses of Lam. 3 contain a disturbing thirst for vengeance:
You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.
You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.
Pay them back for their deeds, O LORD, according to the work of their hands!
Give them anguish of heart; your curse be on them!
Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the Lord’s heavens.
—Lam. 3:59–66
It is helpful to remember this is appropriated language—a model for how we speak to God, not God’s words to us. So we’re not looking for nice, neat, polite theology in lament literature. We are hearing instead the howl of a wounded animal, and that’s often ugly. We see that as well in the lament psalms, including an even uglier example in Psalm 137:
O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
—Psalm 137:8–9
The point obviously is not to lean into this sort of vengeance and bitterness, but rather to see lament as a place to lay out all the deepest emotions of the heart—even the really ugly ones that we would never show to anyone else. Lament literature is ruthlessly honest before God.
God’s “with-ness” (Lam. 3:55–58)
The beauty of lament literature is that we can be ruthlessly, painfully honest, even when it’s ugly. And we can do that because we trust in God’s goodness—not the tyrant we heard earlier, but the gentle loving kindness of God. Just before the revenge fantasy, we have these beautiful verses that remind us of God’s “with-ness”:
I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit;
you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear to my cry for help, but give me relief!”
You came near when I called on you; you said, “Do not fear!”
You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.
—Lam. 3:55–58
This is our hope–in the God who suffers with us.
Next week we will explore Lamentations 4 and Rah ch. 11 and 12.
Our closing prayer is adapted from “A Liturgy of Longing” by Rev. Sandra Maria Van Opstal, in Sarah Bessey, A Rhythm of Prayer.
How long, Lord? How long must we cry out? How long must the vulnerable sit silent as bombs, guns, cages, natural disasters threaten lives? How long must we hear the agonizing silence of so many in the church?
When we feel overwhelmed by darkness in the world—the violence, injustice, poverty, oppression, abuse, give us hope not to be overcome. Give us eyes to see your goodness for our world.
Give us strength to hold the pain of injustice in our world and faith that it will end. Not loving beyond our differences but loving because of our differences, recognizing that differences can inform and transform us. Where violence does not define us and death does not have the last word.
Jesus, we repent and return to you…. Confessing our complicity in evil systems. Our apathy towards pain…. Our inability to forgive just as Christ has forgiven us….
Empower us to let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amen.